acmi | Film Blerg

Classics, Film, Foreign June 25, 2014 June 25, 2014

Film Review: Goyokin (1969)

Goyokin is a samurai film about honour. Opening voice-over narration explains that the title refers to a payment of gold delivered as a tax…

Animation, Film June 18, 2014 November 20, 2014

Film Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2 3D (2014)

by Angus Tonkin

Haven’t dragons just come roaring back into vogue lately? Smaug. Godzilla. Daenerys has three. Even the latest Bond flick (Skyfall) got into the act with…

Classics, Festivals, Film, Foreign June 17, 2014 June 25, 2014

Film Review: The Twilight Samurai (2002)

by Nick Alexander

A conversation by Nick Alexander, Scott Halligan & Joanna Di Mattia (27/5/14) Synopsis: Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada), a low-ranking samurai, leads a life without…

Classics, Film, Foreign June 17, 2014 June 25, 2014

Film Review: Yojimbo (1961)

by Nick Alexander

Yojimbo (1961) is probably legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s most accessible film for modern audiences. By his standards it is relatively short, full of…

Festivals, Film June 10, 2014 June 25, 2014

Film Review: 13 Assassins (2010)

by Joanna Di Mattia

Midway through Takeshi Miike’s 13 Assassins (2010), a man in a tavern jokes, ‘These days, swords are only good for cutting radishes.’ It might…

Festivals, Film May 27, 2014 June 25, 2014

Film Review: The Wages of Fear (1953)

by Joanna Di Mattia

Conventional ideas about courage are blown apart in The Wages of Fear (La salaire de la peur), an existential thriller directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot…

Festivals, Film May 21, 2014 June 25, 2014

Film Review: Seven Samurai (1954)

by Joanna Di Mattia

Early in Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) the wise Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura) explains, ‘I’m not a man with any special skills, but I’ve…

Current Theatrical Releases, Film May 24, 2013 May 24, 2013

Film Review: Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2012)

by Mark Hewitt

A rock doco in the spirit of The Devil and Daniel Johnston and Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me is at both immersing and terribly bemusing, leaving the audience to wonder what could have been when the curtain is finally drawn on the would-be super group.