Cinema4you2me

Steven Garza in Boys State In the US documentary Boys State , 17-year-old boys attend a program to form a mock government. It’s an enthralling insight into political processes; the voices of reason that rise above the regressive rhetoric are inspiring, while the effectiveness of the dominant discourse is horrifying. Released on Apple TV+ 14 August 2020 Jessie Buckley as The Young Woman in I’m Thinking of Ending Things Structured around an awkward drive to and from an even more awkward meet-the-parents dinner, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is an intriguing and bewildering puzzle of a film exploring memory, identity and authenticity in an unsettling and darkly comedic world of dream logic and artifice. Released on Netflix 4 September 2020 Ilanah Cami-Goursolas as Jess, Esther Gohourou as Coumba, Médina El Aidi-Azouni as Angelica and Fathia Youssouf as Amy in Cuties Given the inherent difficulties in depicting the uncomfortable issue of the sexualisation of children, Cuties ...

Ilanah Cami-Goursolas as Jess, Esther Gohourou as Coumba, Médina El Aidi-Azouni as Angelica and Fathia Youssouf as Amy in Cuties The sexualisation of children has to be one of the most difficult topics to explore in cinema given the importance to neither downplay the issue nor sensationalise it, in order to treat the subject matter with the sensitivity it requires. Given these inherent difficulties, Maïmouna Doucour’s coming-of-age debut feature film Cuties is all the more impressive for how well it navigates the experiences of 11-year-old Amy (Fathia Youssouf) who is drawn to a clique of girls at her new school who aspire to dance competitively. Torn between her the ultra-conservative values of her family’s religion and the hyper-sexualised popular culture she and her peers consume online, Amy’s sense of identity is increasingly assaulted as the result of trying to navigate the mixed and often contradictory messages she absorbs about how to behave and her value as a young woman. ...

Dev Patel as David Copperfield in The Personal History of David Copperfield The Personal History of David Copperfield is a wildly subversive adaptation of Charles Dickens’s novel. By championing the artifice and embellishment of storytelling, it accentuates the humour and absurdity of the material to deliver funny and cutting class-based social satire. Released in Australian cinemas 2 July 2020 Walter Mercado in Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado The documentary Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado is a loving tribute to celebrity astrologer Walter Mercado. A larger-than-life icon for Latino audiences and beyond, his charisma and big heart are impossible to resist, making the story of his life and career a feel-good tale of triumph. Released on Netflix 8 July 2020 Robyn Nevin as Edna in Relic Relic draws upon the tradition of exploring grief through the horror genre, resulting in a wonderfully atmospheric film that combines family drama and haunted...

Tom Hanks as Commander Ernest Krause in Greyhound Over the last decade Tom Hanks’s acting career has confirmed his noble everyman persona, evoking classical Hollywood stars such as Gary Cooper, but with less of the strong silent type baggage and instead with a lot more compassion and empathy. Hanks’s roles have mostly steered him away from being perceived as a two-dimensional moral crusader to instead see him excel in more thoughtful and nuanced roles such as Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller, 2019), possibly Hanks’s finest performance to date. For this reason it is somewhat disappointing that Greyhound – the next film he starred in as well as writing – is a distinctively old-fashioned war thriller with a simplistic presentation of America’s involvement in World War II, released at a time when the USA is in the grips of a powerful effort to reimagine its past as something far greater than it ever was. Greyhound is adapted from the 1955 novel The...

Robyn Nevin as Edna in Relic Relic draws upon the tradition of exploring grief through the horror genre, resulting in a wonderfully atmospheric film that combines family drama and haunted house tropes to generate feelings of dread and sorrow. It’s a sophisticated and confident debut feature by filmmaker Natalie Erika James whose distinctive voice ensures that Relic holds its own against films that employ a similar approach to horror and personal trauma such The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014), The Orphanage (JA Bayona, 2007) or even older classics such as Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973). Relic features three generations of women – Edna (Robyn Nevin), her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and her granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) – who are staying at Edna’s old house in the regional town Creswick. Kay and Sam originally go to the house to search for Kay, who has gone missing, and have to confront the fact that Kay may be suffering from dementia. The strain of the situation on...

Andrew Luria as Sebastian Ahmed and Hugo Weaving as Dan Fisher in Hearts and Bones Hearts and Bones explores men coping (or failing to cope) with trauma, and how it affects their loved ones. Following a friendship between an Australian war photographer and a South Sudanese refugee, it is a moving drama about recognising and transcending the pain that shapes lives. Released in Australia digitally 6 May 2020 Christo in Walking on Water Walking on Water is an entertaining look into both the chaos and banality of the art world, documenting acclaimed artist Christo realising the large-scale ‘The Floating Piers’. Christo’s volatile assistant and nephew Vladimir Yavachev steals the show with his outbursts and tirades. Released in Australia digitally 6 May 2020 Rob Brydon as Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan as Steve Coogan in The Trip to Greece There is more affection than usual between frenemy travel companions Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in The Trip to Greece , making it one of the...

Mark Ruffalo as Rob Bilott in Dark Waters The based-on-real-events investigative drama Dark Waters balances the big picture ramifications of the environmental lawsuit it depicts with the immense personal toll it had on attorney Rob Bilott. Its dark, overcast style conveys the murky, deadly world of corporate obscurantism. Released in Australian cinema 5 March Hatidže Muratova in Honeyland The Macedonian documentary Honeyland begins as an observational portrait of a wild beekeeper, before becoming a captivating metaphor for the tensions between living harmoniously with the land and exploiting it. The human drama captured unobtrusively in this film is incredible. Released in Australian cinema 5 March Laura Gordon as Claire in Undertow Set against the murky backdrop of football culture, the finely crafted Australian drama Undertow follows a woman who after losing her baby becomes obsessed with a pregnant teenager. It’s a bold and unnerving exploration of grief, sexuality, ...

Waad Al-Kateab in For Sama For Sama is an extraordinary documentary, consisting of footage taken by filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab while raising her infant daughter in Aleppo during the appalling violence and chaos of the Syrian Civil War. It delivers a unique perspective that is confronting, but also profoundly humane. Released in Australian cinemas 6 February 2020 Willem Dafoe as Thomas Wake and Robert Pattinson as Ephraim Winslow in The Lighthouse Hallucinogenic, claustrophobic and often surprisingly funny, The Lighthouse is a beautifully textured odd-couple film that mutates into psychological horror as two lighthouse keepers in the 1890s lose their minds; questioning what and who is or isn’t real. It’s intense and a lot of fun. Released in Australian cinemas 6 February 2020 Daisy Axon as Candice Phee and Wesley Patten as Douglas Benson in H Is for Happiness The warm and charming Australian coming-of-age film H Is for Happiness deftly balances humour and its protagonist’s...

Scarlett Johansson as Nicole Barber and Adam Driver as Charlie Barber in Marriage Story Marriage Story follows the awkward, messy, sometime hilarious and often heartbreaking process behind a couple getting divorced in Noah Baumbach’s most sophisticated and engaging film to date. This is a sincere and moving film about adjusting to enormous practical and emotional upheaval, and rather than oscillating sympathy between the couple, it explores how both perspectives are valid, even when conflicting. We see how rage and bitterness twist the memories of innocent details into arguments to discredit the other, but also how underlying all the pain is sorrow, tenderness and loss. Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino and Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran in The Irishman Martin Scorsese’s epic crime film The Irishman encapsulates so much of what has defined Scorsese over the decades as one of the all time great filmmakers. Both familiar and refreshing, Scorsese uses innovative de-aging visual effe...