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.
Film Review: Laurel Canyon
At first glance, one might get a sense of déjà vu (how appropriate) after watching the first half hour or so of the first episode of Alison Ellwood’s Laurel Canyon, but a bit of patience will pay off in the end.
Film Review: Driveways (NZIFF 2020)
How well do we really know our family? The sibling we haven’t spent much time with in adulthood but who we think of as being the same person we knew as a child, how do we reconcile realising we don’t know much about them at all? Driveways opens to single mum Kathy (Hong Chau) and […]
Film Review: Tench (NZIFF 2020)
A controversial movie in that this is a sensitive portrait of a young man, Johnathan, who is physically attracted to pre-pubescent girls, and the battle he endures to keep this at bay, when a lonely ten-year-old girl moves in next door to him with her solo mum. Director: Patrice Toye Starring: Tijmen Govaerts, Julia Brown, […]
Film Review: Fritzi – A Revolutionary Tale (NZIFF 2020)
Set in East Germany in the summer of 1989, Fritzi is an animated family movie about twelve-year-old East German Fritzi, who says goodbye to best friend Sophie who is leaving for a holiday in Hungary. When Sophie does not return, or call, Fritzi begins a quest to find out where her friend is. In the […]
Film Review: The County (NZIFF 2020)
“It’s the Co-op that keeps the community alive, you should know that,” states one farmer to another as they square off under the umbrella of a harsh Icelandic sky. The County tells the story of one woman’s audacity to take on the powerful who hold the means of her financial survival in their ledgers, camouflaged […]
Film Review: State Funeral (NZIFF 2020)
An epic Iliad cinema experience at the passing of the most influential person of the twentieth century, Josph Stalin. All the glory but none of the horror. Director: Sergei Loznitza
Movie Review: This Town
This Town is the latest film by New Zealand writer and director David White, an absurdist mockumentary comedy set in a fictional small NZ town. It has Robyn Malcolm as Pam, an ex-cop, belting out potential evidence on her trusty dot matrix from her garage office. Director: David White Cast: David White, Robyn Malcolm, Rima Te Wiata
Film Review: Hong Kong Moments (NZIFF 2020)
Hong Kong Moments attempts to capture the mood of the city and the forces at play leading up to the large-scale demonstrations against the notorious Extradition Bill in 2019. Director Zhou Bing attempts and all-sides examination of the ongoing conflict – through the eyes of seven Hong Kong citizens. Director: Zhou Bing
Film Review: Identifying Features (NZIFF 2020)
The story of missing teens and adults in Mexico, has been festering for years, as they disappear somewhere along the way, trying to cross the border to the promised land of the USA. In Identifying Features, a mother whose teenage son is missing after boarding a bus to a border town, undertakes a trip into […]