A complete guide to all major movies in Australian cinemas now

A COMPLETE guide to all major movies currently showing in Australian cinemas: rated or slated to get you to the right movie faster.

BIG EYES (M)

The biggest part of the picture kept out of frame, US, 104 min

The art of Margaret Keane could never be accused of imitating life. Her signature style - morosely cloying portraits of small children about to weep with eyes triple their usual size - became a kitsch sensation in the 1960s. However, in this absorbing, tragi-comic biopic from director Tim Burton, we experience a true story just as unworldly as those paintings. At the height of her works’ massive popularity, Margaret (subtly, yet strongly played by Amy Adams) discovered her shamelessly self-promoting husband Walter (another winning display from the great Christoph Waltz) had taken all the credit for himself. The bizarre dysfunction afoot in the Keanes’ marriage brings the best out of Burton as a filmmaker, who knows he is working with sensational material here.

***1/2

Scene from the animated movie Book Of Life. Fox

THE BOOK OF LIFE (PG)

Quite the page-turner, US, 95 Min

Don’t be fooled by the cutely-drawn characters on the poster. For this is one of the more original and ambitious (in storytelling terms, at least) animated offerings of recent times. In fact, if some kids aren’t on their best form, they may lose track of a rather complicated tale - rooted firmly in traditional Mexican folklore - and struggle to catch up again. Channing Tatum and Zoe Saldana lead the voice cast in a story spanning three distinct and beautifully rendered dimensions : the Lands of the Living, Remembered and Forgotten.

***

(L-R)— Hugh Jackman, Hugh Jackman’s semi-mullet, Chappie the cop-bot in Chappie.

CHAPPIE (MA15+)

No rules when playing the automating game, US-South Africa, 117 min

Frustratingly scrappy, but admirably ambitious gangsta fairytale from acclaimed director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium). This is the strange tale of a police robot programmed to feel human emotion, only to fall into the hands of crooks ready to exploit the innocent machine for their own nefarious means. On a storytelling level, Chappie mixes a sweetness and a swagger that becomes quite addictive. However, Blomkamp’s aggressive attempts to make this strange affair also play as sociopolitical commentary is a complete failure. Therefore, your real chances of enjoying Chappie will come down to how exciting you find its generous collection of splenetic (and sometimes gruesome) action sequences. Stars Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman.

**1/2

One Shot Review - CINDERELLA : No need to sink the glass slipper into this. A classy Disney offering all the way. pic.twitter.com/4LrinS8LU7

— Leigh Paatsch (@leighpaatsch) March 27, 2015

CINDERELLA (G)

Nothing ragged, just riches, US, 105 Min

Everything is exactly as it should be in Disney’s lavish new live-action adaptation of Cinderella. As directed by Kenneth Branagh, this Cinderella is always straightforwardly sincere, right down to its sparkly glass slippers. With her once-idyllic home now controlled by a wicked stepmother (Cate Blanchett), Cinderella (Downton Abbey’s Lily James) has grown up to become little more than a servant to her two stupid stepsisters. You know how the rest goes. A Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) waves her wand. A pumpkin becomes Cinders’ pimped-out ride to a royal ball, where she will temporarily catch the eye of a dashing prince (Richard Madden). While the would-be boyfriend starts a kingdom-wide shoe-fitting frenzy to find Cinders, that sinister stepmum does her worst to keep Cinderella off the grid, and on housekeeping duty 24/7. If you love fairy tales - listening to them intently, lingering upon every last detail - then this rendition of Cinderella will live happily ever after in your memory.

***1/2

DIOR & I (M)

Simply the dress, France, 90 min

Top-notch documentary about the inner workings of the legendary Parisian couture house Dior. In 2012, the famously reclusive designer Raf Simons took the reins as creative director, and the film is primarily focused on how he acclimatises to one of the most public jobs in the fashion world. There is also a lot of money at stake, with the biggest customer accounts reaching over a million dollars each season. While Simons’ shyness makes him a difficult character to warm to, the way in which invigorates Dior’s traditional operations with fresh ideas and intuitive leadership comes through strongly at all times.

***1/2

Theo James and Shailene Woodley try to put some ‘urgent’ in Insurgent.

One Shot Review - THE DIVERGENT SERIES : INSURGENT - a sequel that ain't quite equal. #twomoretogo pic.twitter.com/VmxDUXcqhx

— Leigh Paatsch (@leighpaatsch) March 19, 2015

THE DIVERGENT SERIES : INSURGENT (M)

More running and gunning, less stunning, US, 118 Min

In young-adult movie terms, the Divergent series is the cheaper, dumber, moodier and not-so-hot cousin of The Hunger Games. Not that it matters to the fans who made the first instalment a blockbuster hit last year. They’re in it for the long haul. However, with the pressure now off - and plans now firmly in place for the obligatory two-part finale in 2016 - Insurgent is very much an exercise in holding captured ground, rather than expanding established appeal. Still very much on the lam due to her rare biology as a ‘divergent’ being, series heroine Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) resumes hostilities with the villainous Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet). While there is no real problem with the pacing of Insurgent, there is a repetition of devices fixed to its scripting that limits any potential for sustained excitement. Too many life-and-death situations are reversed by the sudden brandishing of weapons. Co-stars Theo James, Naomi Watts, Miles Teller. **1/2

Mae Whitman is over it all in her overalls in The Duff.

THE DUFF (M)

What’s in a name? Everything, and nothing., US, 101 min

Why the title? It’s an acronym, standing for Designated Ugly Fat Friend, a social stereotype that supposedly acts as a buffer between attractive young females and any possible young male suitors. Ouch. This being a Hollywood movie and all, the young woman who has been slapped with this less-than-flattering label is neither ugly, nor fat. However, Bianca (Mae Whitman) does wear overalls a lot, which definitely makes her look a darn sight dowdier than her two hot best friends. What follows is a moderately astute, consistently entertaining teen comedy about the evils of social-media shaming and the healing power of just being yourself. Co-stars Ken Jeong, Alison Janney.

***

The late Paul Walker doing what he did best in Fast and Furious 7.

FAST & FURIOUS 7 (PG)

Thank you, and good nitrous, US, 140 Min

You can safely take your time looking for a park outside before you park yourself in front of Fast & Furious 7. The first half-hour is as horribly hackneyed as this famously fuel-injected franchise has ever been. However, after that, the movie swiftly begins earning its keep. Recent F&F sequels have paid their way by pinning everything on audaciously ridiculous and irresistibly adrenalised set-piece stunt sequences, and this one ups the ante in all the best ways. Two extended scenes set at high altitudes disobey all laws of velocity, geometry and air-traffic control so flagrantly, you just won’t be able to wipe the dopey grin off your face. The rest is tosh, save for a touching tribute to the late Paul Walker at the close. Stars Vin Diesel, Jason Statham.

**1/2

A hard-working Margot Robbie is at her best in Focus when a coasting Will Smith is nowhere to be seen.

FOCUS (MA15+)

A lesson in cunning conning, US, 103 min

The best way to extract maximum enjoyment from Focus is not to focus at all. Do not look too closely or think too hard as this colourful cavalcade of swindles and stings passes by. Otherwise, the whole thing will shudder to a halt and then instantly fall to pieces. Those pieces will look mighty familiar to anyone who’s seen an Ocean’s Eleven or any other commercial caper flick in the past decade. Will Smith stars as Nicky, a too-cool-for-school conman who knows every trick in the book when it comes to emptying pockets, wallets and bank accounts. Australian rising star Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) plays Jess, a small-time solo scammer who wants to learn the light-fingered game from the best in the business. Robbie walks away with scene after scene in the movie, simply by being alive in the moment and alert to all possibilities. In stark contrast, Smith gives very little of himself to his performance.

***

One Shot Review GET HARD : No wonder Will Ferrell's juicing the PR. Once this hits the fans, stand back ... #pee-yew pic.twitter.com/IYWgQVK2Kp

— Leigh Paatsch (@leighpaatsch) March 27, 2015

GET HARD (MA15+)

No pride. Some prejudice. Few laughs., US, 100 min

A sporadically repellent, unyieldingly soft-headed comedy, breathing stale air into the lungs of stereotypes and tropes that should have expired long ago. Will Ferrell has the lead role of James, a clueless financier about to enter prison for fraud. To confront his fear of becoming everyone’s boyfriend in the slammer, James hires the only black guy he knows (Kevin Hart) to help him handle all that malicious man-love heading his way. What follows is a closed loop of gags about the fun and games of rape in jail, alternating with racial caricatures and bouts of gay-panic that defy all belief. If you must see it, be sure to take along a calendar. In a film whose thinking is this recklessly retrograde, you’ll need all the reminders you can get it is actually the year 2015. *

There’s no place like home. But there’s a lot of so-so animated films like Home.

HOME (PG)

Here to stay, though soon forgotten, US, 94 min

So-so animated adventure for the younger set, more likely to be enjoyed by primary schoolers than their elder siblings. There has been an alien invasion of our planet, which is now controlled by a cute and colourful interplanetary species known as the Boov. They’re a bit like the minions from Despicable Me, only with a better wardrobe and a proper vocab. A plain, very formulaic tale centres on a friendship that blossoms between a lonely Boov outcast (voiced by Jim Parsons from TV’s Big Bang Theory) and a young human fugitive (Rihanna, all over the soundtrack as well). Looks a treat in 3D, if that matters to you.

**1/2

One Shot Review - INFINITELY POLAR BEAR : Mark Ruffalo vs. rose-coloured memoirs. Ruffalo wins. No contest. pic.twitter.com/RvF2Zfu9Dg

— Leigh Paatsch (@leighpaatsch) March 27, 2015

INFINITELY POLAR BEAR (M)

Will one job be too much for a man of two minds?, US, 91 min

A family film with a difference from first-time director Maya Forbes, who also penned the script based on her experiences growing up in unusual circumstances in the 1970s. Mark Ruffalo has the lead role of Cameron, a man with a bipolar disorder who has just emerged from a spell in a mental institution. With his estranged wife (Zoe Saldana) forced to leave town to complete her studies, Cameron must somehow transcend his condition to look after his two young daughters on a daily basis. The tone of the film is light and often gently funny, but not to the extent of trivialising the difficulties facing Cameron and his perpetually exasperated (and just as often, embarrassed) offspring. Might have been a very different and far-inferior outcome if not for the casting of a superb Ruffalo.

***

Each of Joaquin Phoenix’s sideburns in Inherent Vice deserve their own postcode.

INHERENT VICE (MA15+)

Leaving no stoner unturned, US, 148 min

In the collective opinion of the many loyal readers of legendarily enigmatic author Thomas Pynchon, maverick US writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood) is doomed to fail in adapting one of their idol’s unwieldy works. They may well be correct. Nevertheless, this trippy tale of a drugged-up, bugged-out private eye (Joaquin Phoenix) investigating a case in a sun-dappled 1970 southern California is a truly escapist experience. It doesn’t make much sense, but as an exercise in mind-altering time travel, it’s as immersive and involving as such fare can get. Don’t go looking for any explanations. Just look, man. Co-stars Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro.

***1/2

One Shot Review - LEVIATHAN : Not just a movie. It's a message in a bottle. A whole country is beyond rescue. pic.twitter.com/5OuJOmzvI7

— Leigh Paatsch (@leighpaatsch) March 27, 2015

LEVIATHAN (M)

Look away or look into the abyss, Russia, 140 Min

This hauntingly heavy-hearted drama is the movie as message in a bottle. So who needs urgent assistance? That’s easy : the whole of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. So what can be done to help them? That’s where it gets difficult. If the average Russian citizen is not prepared to look the other way when told, it can only be assumed they are looking for trouble. Staged as a powerful parable for all that ails modern Russia to its absolute core, we learn the story of one man who not only forgets to avert his gaze, but fails to see the hellish outcome his homeland has in mind for him. What starts out as a minor property dispute threatens to swallow several lives whole. A near-masterpiece written and directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return).

****1/2

Kate Winslet gives good garden in A Little Chaos.

A LITTLE CHAOS (M)

When everything goes according to plants, UK, 116 min

Any detectable chaos is indeed very small in this polished period drama. The year is 1692, and a minor horticultural revolution is about to take hold in the royal gardens of Versailles. A determined and skilled woman of the earth named Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet) scores a job with King Louis XIV’s chief landscaper, Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts). After an uneasy start, the pair collaborate on a beautiful transformation of a prized corner of the palace gardens. As directed by respected British thesp Alan Rickman (who also plays the King), this is safe, yet pleasingly assured filmmaking of a strong pedigree. As always, Winslet, carries proceedings both meaningfully and effortlessly.

***

LOVE IS STRANGE (M)

How to keep it together when you can’t be together?, US, 92 min

Love can indeed be strange. But friendships can be even stranger. Particularly when your love for one person puts all your other friendships to the test. If all of the above makes Love is Strange sound like heavy going, let me assure you this intelligently crafted, beautifully acted light drama is anything but a drag. John Lithgow and Alfred Molina play Ben and George, longtime life partners forced to live apart when one of them loses his job. Domiciled with friends who may not be as welcoming as hoped, Ben and George struggle with their new status as virtual welfare cases. An astute, restrained and unyielding truthful affair, culminating one of the better final scenes you’ll see all year.

***1/2

One Shot Review : SHAUN THE SHEEP - THE MOVIE : the best kids film for the school holidays by the length of the farm. pic.twitter.com/QJrPYoYiH4

— Leigh Paatsch (@leighpaatsch) March 27, 2015

SHAUN THE SHEEP (G)

Raising the baa, UK, 84 min

It was 20 years ago that the movie biz first took a gambol on young Shaun as a bit-part player in Wallace and Gromit’s Oscar-winning short A Close Shave. Some 100-plus solo TV shows since then has Shaun and his Mossy Bottom Farm posse more than ready to take their big-screen bow. The end result is a relentless delight, a kooky adventure yarn where Shaun must venture to The Big City to rescue The Farmer, who has come down with amnesia. The ever-inventive stop-motion claymation of Aardman Studios holds the key, of course. There’s always something happening somewhere in every single frame of an Aardman production, and the in-jokes and out-there flights of fancy just never let up here. Without doubt the pick of the bunch for youngsters hitting the cinema this school holidays.

****

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE : SPONGE OUT OF WATER (PG)

And soak say all of us, US, 91 min

SpongeBob SquarePants has been a surreal staple of kids’ TV programming since the late 1990s : a serenely silly, nicotine-yellow talking kitchen-sponge who works as a short-order cook at a fast-food restaurant on the ocean floor. This busy, enjoyably nonsensical affair pings all over the screen in all directions, and goes well enough as mindless, message-free entertainment for little’uns. However, when compared to another new release based on a popular TV offering – we’re talking about you, Shaun the Sheep – SpongeBob runs a distant second. Stars Antonio Banderas and the voice of Tom Kenny.

**1/2

Sugar is a drug, people. And don’t you ever forget it. So goes the message behind That Sugar Film.

THAT SUGAR FILM (PG)

The sour side of all that sweetness, Australia, 98 min

Having banished all refined sugars from his diet a number of years ago, Australian actor-filmmaker Damon Gameau decided to explore what would happen if he suddenly got back on the sweet stuff. The end result is That Sugar Film, a Super Size Me-style combo meal of documentary and infotainment issuing a timely warning about the perils of excessive sugar consumption. While the methodology behind Gameau’s mission would not stand up to moderate scientific scrutiny, it does not detract from the doco’s ability to provoke a welcome debate on a worrying issue for us all. Appealingly mounted overall, and sure to strike a chord with younger viewers who may not be aware of the dangers posed by too much sugar.

***

Originally published as A complete guide to all major movies in Australian cinemas now