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2 weeks ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Two films in one review – featuring a Portuguese warehouse worker, and the return of the beloved (and idiosyncratic) Takeshi Kitano…We’re now halfway through the year, which means it’s time for a catch-up. If you’re new to Cinematic Sense, this type of post is where I review a group of new releases that sometimes have a link. This edition is like a particular Australian soap because we’re going home and away to look at two world cinema examples worth checking out.
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1 month ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
The final reckoning for Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt needs a lot of set-up, but it ends up being a stunning climax to the Mission: Impossible franchise. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. All roads have led to this. Or, in the case of Mission: Impossible, all stunts have led to this. The eighth entry in the series, The Final Reckoning, is being billed as a true swansong.
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1 month ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Michael Haneke’s Caché (Hidden) turns 20 this year. It is still a fantastically realistic, quietly thrilling story of hidden cameras and a hidden past. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. May is the month of Cannes, and few filmmakers have been as influential to the festival in recent years as Michael Haneke.
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1 month ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour is a journey through colonial Southeast Asia that is interesting and full of mysticism, but not as transfixing as it should be. ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 5. Winner of Best Director at last year’s Cannes, Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour has finally made its way to MUBI. A chase movie and a travelogue of Southeast Asia in one, it is experimental with constant temporal shifts between the colonial past and the present.
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1 month ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Barry Keoghan and a magnificent Christopher Abbott are on opposing sides of a farmer struggle in the impactful revenge thriller Bring Them Down. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. The debut feature from writer-director Christopher Andrews, Bring Them Down is full of grimness and anger.
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1 month ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour is a journey through colonial Southeast Asia that is interesting and full of mysticism, but not as transfixing as it should be. ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 5. Winner of Best Director at last year’s Cannes, Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour has finally made its way to MUBI. A chase movie and a travelogue of Southeast Asia in one, it is experimental with constant temporal shifts between the colonial past and the present.
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2 months ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Twenty-five years after its release, Mary Harron’s adaptation of American Psycho remains an intense indictment of Wall Street, capitalism and male conformity. When author Bret Easton Ellis released American Psycho in 1991, it was a shock to the system. Set in the midst of 1980s capitalism and Reaganomics, it was decried by many at the time for its brutal violence but became a big hit.
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2 months ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
In Here, Robert Zemeckis reunites with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright and uses one fixed camera shot to tell the story of one plot of land across time. ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 5. CAUTION: Light spoilers for the film. Proceed with caution…One house, one room. One story about the plot of land it sits on as it is subjected to the marching progress of time. One fixed camera, never moving from its spot. Here lies the conceit of Here.
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2 months ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Starring the great Val Kilmer, Top Secret! is a perfect spoof comedy from Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. There were two events last week that gave me pause for thought. The first was the sad passing of Val Kilmer at the age of 65. Kilmer was a great actor who ended up with an enviable filmography – Tombstone, Heat, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Déjà Vu, Willow, The Prince of Egypt and more. He was Batman and Jim Morrison.
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2 months ago | 
cinematicsense.home.blog | Daniel Allen |byDaniel Allen
Viktor Kossakovsky’s architecture documentary Architecton is a rock-solid film that is also visually spectacular. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Can you make a film about concrete interesting? The answer is yes, thanks to Architecton, a new documentary from Viktor Kossakovsky. An arthouse filmmaker who began his career at the tail end of the USSR’s existence, his most recent docs have been about water and ice (Aquarela) and farm animals (Gunda).
