Toni Collette

News, Reviews & Features

Review: I'm Thinking Of Ending Things is Kaufman at his most alienating

Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 3rd October 2020

It's both a blessing and a curse being plugged into Twitter 24/7. When a highly-anticipated new film comes out from a figure such as Charlie Kaufman and the discourse turns divisive, you can't help taking a peek to see what the fuss is about. But then as soon as you do that it starts to cloud your own judgement - takes from all across the heat spectrum making your timeline resemble a Nando's PERI-ometer. What makes it worse is when a movie comes loaded with references and semiotics, enabling the cultural gatekeepers and aggressive fanboy apologists. Not saying that's what has happened with the auteur Charlie Kaufman's genius new film I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, which I definitely understood and will cut you if you suggest otherwise, but it's a distinct possibility.

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Review: Knives Out is a modern-age murder mystery that absolutely kills it

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 4th December 2019

Traditional murder mysteries must be the hardest stories to write, because audiences are always second-guessing everything, desperate to work out the twist before the genius detective. Writers have to seed important details among their pool of suspects without giving the game away, whilst also offering red herrings that have to feel like they could still be relevant. Meanwhile their audience is constantly reading too much into everything, determined not to be outsmarted. So a film like this one is already at make-or-break point for each viewer. If they don’t guess the killer and the motive, and the reveal still makes sense, then they can be satisfied with the thrill of being outplayed. But if they solve the mystery before the end, it’s "Nah, that’s rubbish, mate. I saw it coming a mile off". And audiences are actively rooting for the latter. They’re the ones with the knives out.

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Review: Velvet Buzzsaw paints a dark canvas but is worse than the sum of its p-arts

Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 8th February 2019

A few years ago I had a bit of an epiphany regarding my personal relationship with art (such as it is that the purpose and understanding of art as a human endeavour is the result of a complex mish-mash of evolutionary need and life experience resulting in a unique perspective held only to oneself imho). It was around the time of political unrest in a country - not going to say which one but it was one of those problematic countries you see on the news often, don't like the gays much - where a group of artists had collaborated to send a satirical message to their government which was more than likely going to see them turn up in a ditch. It was an act that made me question my complete self: would I, a comically stereotypical white man, ever do anything so profoundly brave with my creative output? I mean besides calling Nigel Farage a cock on Twitter? Probably not. I'll probably just carry on ascending to middle class via osmosis, stopping to tut whenever Netflix raise their prices by 20p so they can continue making mediocre originals.

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Today's top story in unconvincing prop newspaper typesetting

Movie News | Ali Gray | 28th January 2014

Dear 'A Long Way Down': NEWSPAPERS DO NOT LOOK THAT WAY. (Larger version here, full trailer here)

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#LFF2013: Enough Said

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 16th October 2013

It's hard to watch a recently deceased actor in one of his final films with your opinion of his performance uncoloured. See The Dark Knight and try not to wonder a little how much the Joker's intensity fed into Heath Ledger's state of mind. But James Gandolfini is a different case: I was five seasons into rewatching The Sopranos when he passed away in June, and the fact of his death barely occurred to me as I watched him in the subsequent episodes. I got to wondering why, and didn't fully figure it out until I saw Enough Said. It was because he didn't actually do all that much. But he did nothing a lot better than plenty of other actors do something.

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Hitchcock

Movie Review | Matt | 9th February 2013

No one can deny that Psycho is one of the most groundbreaking, evocative horror movies ever made, so just think of the exciting story behind the business decisions involved in filming it. All that dramatic paperwork, all those engrossing lighting set-ups, the thrilling process of rewriting script drafts. And imagine that incredible, never-saw-it-coming twist ending when the movie definitely gets made.

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Fright Night

Movie Review | Ali | 29th August 2011

We all had a wry chuckle (is there any other kind?) when I mocked Fright Night's draconian embargo policy, but there's nothing funny about Fright Night itself. It's a remake hamstrung by its own total lack of ambition, overshadowed by its own legacy and crippled by needless, awful 3D. Sorry to go for the jugular straight away, but I've been waiting months to get this out of my system. THE INTERNET MUST KNOW MY OPINION.

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Colin Farrell week continues with Fright Night trailer

Movie Trailer | Ali | 13th May 2011

Earlier this week he was bald and fat, now he's a vampire - that Farrell is just so waffly versatile!

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