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Regulars
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
This film is an impressive comedy-drama about crooked siblings that had its world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, 2008. It tracks two con artists, the Brothers Bloom, from childhood to adulthood; the brothers fake various exploits through their life mostly to bring them profit. - Peter W. Sheehan, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Regulars
Friday, 13 November 2009
You would have to be a bit of a grouch not to enjoy this old fashioned lavishly produced portrait of aviator, Amelia Earheart, during her ten years of limelight and flying feats. Especially if you know how it ends, you can sit back and be absorbed by this visit to the US of the 1920s and 1930s. Certainly the production values, sets, costumes, songs help us to immerse ourselves in this era. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Regulars
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Quite an exhilarating experience of Charles Dickens' classic tale of miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, his meanness to his clerk, Bob Cratchit, his unwillingness to celebrate Christmas with his nephew, Fred, and his miserable and lonely life. Though seen many times on screen, the story is always welcome. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Regulars
Tuesday, 03 November 2009
Whilst the film is not without its faults, it would be unfair to let these faults override the beauty of this brief but frankly moving film about responsibility and friendships. Shane Acker manages to do something very few other directors have managed to do, in that he cleverly blurs the line between the past and future. - Michael Bateson-Hill, Thinking Faith
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Regulars
Friday, 30 October 2009
In 1963, the pop music world was swept by a Belgian Dominican nun's recording of a song she had written about the founder of her order. You couldn't turn on the radio in Australia without hearing the Singing Nun's jaunty, happy tribute to "Dominique-nique-nique". The nun's identity was at first kept secret so she was given the name Sœur Sourire by an executive of the record company. - Jim Murphy, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Regulars
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
One of the ways of exploring the realities of love and commitment, happiness and sorrow and loss, is to use the conventions of time travel fantasy. Based on a very popular novel by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife is firmly in this genre - and many audiences have found that they can have more than a little weep as they watch it and remember it. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Regulars
Thursday, 22 October 2009
An Education is set in London in 1961, the year before The Beatles would be a sign to the UK and the world that the post-war age of innocence was at an end, Jenny (Carey Mulligan), is in her final year at school. Her solidly middle class family has great aspirations for their only child: an Oxford education. She has the ability and tenacity for it too. That is, until she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a debonair, worldly twenty something year old who whisks her cello out of the rain and sweeps Jenny off her feet. - Fr Richard Leonard, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Regulars
Thursday, 15 October 2009
This film is a small scale story but it has a top cast beyond expectations.The cast builds up the film beyond its small stature. Winona Ryder plays a friend, Monica Bellucci is the publisher's former wife, Julianne Moore is the aunt's companion and Shirley Knight is the neighbour. Robin Wright Penn is immensely watchable and gives the film its power. Many older women will find it easy to identify with her. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Regulars
Monday, 12 October 2009
Michael Moore, the writer, director, and producer, belongs to a long tradition of American humour. His scruffy, overweight persona may be traced back through Will Rogers and Mark Twain to the Down East Jonathan figures of the earliest American comedies. Such bumpkins and hicks exhibit, but more often feign, innocence and naiveté in order to expose the absurdity of their city slicker cousins. To their inherent populism, Moore adds a left wing ideology, his chief targets being the CEOs of Corporate America. - William Park, MercatorNet
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Regulars
Wednesday, 07 October 2009
A fine, often beautiful, film that can be recommended. It won the 2008 Best Foreign Film Oscar over Waltz with Bashir and The Class, strong competition. However, you might be wondering during the first ten minutes. It begins slowly and solemnly with ceremonial and ritual for the dead. Then, without warning, it becomes quite farcical and you wonder where you are. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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