★★★★ - STUFF  - Superb doco recounts how wave riders stood up against sexism -  In the 1970s, surfing became a big money sport. Sometime in that decade and the one that preceded it, the usual swivel-eyed pack of muppets who pass themselves off as “marketing", or "management", or whatever other…

★★★★★ - STUFF  - An immersive, confronting, devastating drama that will haunt you -  Anthony Evans (Anthony Hopkins) loves his London flat. From his elevated view above Lauderdale Road, he can see the hustle and bustle of Elgin Avenue and he’s just a short distance from both the famed Abbey Road…

★★★★ - WASHINGTON POST  - ‘The Father’ is a meticulously constructed story in which very little is what it seems -  In the intricate, exquisitely crafted movie “The Father,” Anthony Hopkins plays Anthony, an elderly gentleman living in a well-appointed flat in London, where he’s been living with…

★★★★ - STUFF  - Benedict Cumberbatch, Jessie Buckley shine in Cold War thriller -  “You drink too much, you’re not in great shape. If this was the least bit dangerous, you really are the last person we’d send.” Meant to allay British businessman Greville Wynne’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) concerns…

★★★½ - STUFF  - Fourth-wall shattering sequel offers fab family fun -  The 2018 original was a long way from the anthropomorphised vege-stealing bunny of your grandmother’s youth. A sass-filled combination of live action and CGI animation, Peter Rabbit was a raucous and risque comedy notable for…

★★★★★ - STUFF  - Why you need to see 2021's most shocking, sobering and stunning doco -  It was a tragedy that had already taken down one government.  On October 30, 2015, 27 people were killed and 180 injured when a fire broke out at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest. Outraged that it had been…

★★★★ - DEADLINE  - Michelle Pfeiffer Delivers Oscar-Worthy Performance In Dazzling Film ‘French Exit’ -  The New York Film Festival wrapped tonight, and its closing-night film, French Exit, is a winner that firmly places Michelle Pfeiffer, a three-time past nominee, back in the heart of the Best…

★★★½ - STUFF  - Uplifting Kiwi doco about determination and dragon boating -  In the early part of last decade, they were regular medallists at the New Zealand Dragon Boat Championships. However, over the last few years, numbers have dwindled for the Auckland-based Pink Dragons. At the start of…

★★★★ - EMPIRE  - Shropshire, 1657. The downtrodden wife of a puritanical farmer seems resigned to her unhappy lot, until she has her head turned by the arrival of a young couple on the run from the law who bring with them new ideas about religion and personal freedoms.  The incredible Maxine…

★★★½ - STUFF  - Fanny Lye Deliver'd: 17th Century tale an oddity, artefact and unexpected treat -  We are in England, after the Civil War, when royalty had been defeated and, for half-a-decade or so, the country was ruled by a parliament with no monarch claiming any “divine right to rule”, as the…

★★★★½ - STUFF  - One hell of a story, very well told -  Fred Hampton didn't live to become a household name. Not outside of North America anyway. Unlike Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, Hampton doesn't feature much in potted histories of what we slightly squeamishly refer to as the “civil…

★★★★ - STUFF  - An unforgettable documentary that swings from the sombre to the rapturous -  Gaza is a 40 km long and 12 km wide strip of land. It is bordered on two sides by Israel and on one side by Egypt. But its longest border is with the Mediterranean Sea. Gaza is officially a part of…