Film Review: Demon Slayer: Mugen Train
With its immediately captivating and brilliantly paced storyline, bolstered by established, fleshed-out characters and exceptional voice-acting, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is an absolute dream for fans of anime and the Demon Slayer series, while remaining accessible and wildly entertaining for newcomers to the series or genre.
Film Review: Wrong Turn (2021)
Wrong Turn stars Charlotte Vega, Matthew Modine, and Bill Sage in a bloody, brutal, and primal societal slugfest, proving over its 109-minute runtime that there’s still fresh horror in a familiar, forgotten franchise.
Film Review: Penguin Bloom Dir: Glendyn Ivin
Starring Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln, Jacki Weaver, Rachel House Warning! This Australian film has all the trappings of a disease/movie of the week…a paralyzed mum, three young children, a benign dad and a bird. Fortunately the mum is played by Naomi Watts and that magpie can really act!
Film Review: Dawn Raid Director: Oscar Kightley
Featuring the music of: Adeaze, Aaradhna, Savage, Mareko, Deceptikonz The documentary of Dawn Raid Entertainment is at its heart the story of Andy Murnane and Danny “Brother D” Leaosavai’i who met at a business college and went on to found a successful Hip-Hop music production and clothing business in 1999 in Papatoetoe, South Auckland.
Film Review: The People Upstairs Dir: Cesc Gay
Starring: Belén Custa, Javier Cámara, Alberto San Juan, Griselda Siciliani (Spanish with English subtitles) Two middle class couples find plenty to bicker about until one comes up with a potentially indecent proposal.
Film Review: The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart Dir: Frank Marshall
The title says it all. Out of the dozens of hits The Bee Gees racked up over the years, 1971’s How Can You Mend A Broken Heart captures the mood of this otherwise pedestrian documentary as sole surviving Gibb brother Barry remembers his three fallen brothers.
Film Review: The Dry Dir: Robert Connolly
Starring: Eric Bana, Genevieve O’Reilly, Keir O’Donnell Perhaps not the feel-good film folks may be looking for to start the new year with…The Dry brings us a world of dust, death, deceit and disillusion.
Film Review: Dreamland Dir: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
Starring: Margot Robbie, Finn Cole, Travis Fimmel Back to the future with this Depression-era crime drama firmly set well within the world of Bonnie & Clyde.
Film Review: Amundsen Dir: Espen Sandberg
Starring: Pål Sverre Hagen, Katherine Waterston, Christian Rubeck At the turn of the twentieth century Roald Amundsen (played by Pål Sverre Hagen) appreciated the risks of extreme weather conditions in the polar regions, and how the region’s indigenous peoples survived such conditions.
Film Review: Words On Bathroom Walls Dir: Thor Freudenthal
Starring: Charlie Plummer, Andy Garcia, AnnaSophia Robb, Taylor Russell “A person with an illness is not the illness itself” is repeated throughout Words On Bathroom Walls, a YA film about a teenager living with schizophrenia. This message is tempered with the painful reality that those living with mental illness are perceived and treated quite differently […]
Film Review: The Godfather, Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Sofia Coppola No, this isn’t a new addition to The Godfather franchise, but rather Francis Ford Coppola’s re-edit of the 1990 film formerly known as Godfather III.
Film Review: The Mystery of D.B. Cooper Dir: John Dower
Dan Cooper (AKA D.B. Cooper) is a mystery. The airjacker (or air pirate) of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 in 1971, his identity—and thus his fate—remains unknown. He stepped onboard the plane just before 3pm on November the 24th and left the plane by parachute some five hours later, USD200000 in hand.
Film Review: Baby Done Dir: Curtis Vowell
Starring: Rose Matafeo, Matthew Lewis, Emily Barclay, Madeleine Sami Having recently watched Rose Matafeo’s HBO Max stand-up special Horndog I was super excited for Baby Done, the latest NZ comedy directed by Curtis Vowell and written by Sophie Henderson. I wasn’t disappointed. No surprises that Taika Waititi is an Executive Producer on the film.
Film Review: I Am Woman Dir: Unjoo Moon
Starring: Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Danielle MacDonald, Evan Peters A solid, standard music biopic that feels more timely with the recent death of its subject, Helen Reddy.
Interview: Film Director Anders Refn on his WW II Epic Into The Darkness
With Into The Darkness finally in cinemas, the films’ director, Anders Refn talks to The 13th Floor about this important look at the past and what it tells us about what’s happening in the world today.
Film Review: On The Rocks Dir: Sophia Coppola
Starring: Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, Marlon Wayans It’s not exactly a Lost In Translation redux, but then, it’s not trying to be.
Film Review: Becky Dir: Jonathan Milott & Cary Murnion
Starring: Lulu Wilson, Kevin James Joel McHale This nail-biting thriller has two things going for it…a (very) empowered 13-year-old girl and The King Of Queens as the Angel Of Doom.
Film Review: Return To Gandhi Road
The extraordinary story of Kangyur Rinpoche, a great Tibetan spiritual Master and Teacher, and his odyssey to leave his country with 84,000 original sacred Buddhist texts. As the Chinese Army moved in. Interwoven with the story of New Zealander Kim Hegan, a music promoter who nearly fell off the floor, not having engaged in this […]
Watch: 13th Floor MovieTalk With Kim Hegan
Watch as Kiwi film producer Kim Hegan takes us to India via Tibet in Return To Gandhi Road.
Watch: 13th Floor MovieTalk with Michael Shannon
Acclaimed actor Michael Shannon talks to The 13th Floor about his role in the new film, The Quarry.