Hateship, Loveship (2013)

The post-feminist age bottles up Cinderella as a suburban wish fulfilment fantasy for all the Mary Sues out there

Her (2013)

Joaquin Phoenix has a meaningful relationship with his personal computer in Spike Jonze’s scifi arthouse take on Chobits

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Baz Luhrmann reimagines The Great Gatsby as a jazz age Moulin Rouge!

Black Gold (2011)

Two little princes become hostages to a neighbouring emirate. They grow up, get involved with the daughter of their captor. Oil is discovered in the no-man's land. Hilarity ensues.

It's an old fashioned romance about heroism and derring-do that John Milius (Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn, Hunt for Red October) might have written in the 1980s.

Watch for: how the film avoids being a political piece about the beginnings of western dependency on Middle Eastern oil and the American intervention and imperialism in Arabia.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 14 November 2012.

Trouble with the Curve (2012)

Think of this as the old school reply to new science Moneyball.

Clint Eastwood plays an ageing talent scout who is due to be replaced by number crunchers after one last signing.

Watch for: quirky sports drama full of sports minutiae, a predictable if moving family drama, and a well-made road movie that delivers a slice of Americana.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 31 October 2012.

It Begins with the End (Ca commence par la fin) (2010)

This would be the French arthouse version of 500 Days of Summer, telling the ins and outs of a failed romance out of chronological order.

Unlike 500 Days of Summer, this isn't really good at all. It's a first film by a director who makes the typical mistakes in storytelling, concept, casting, editing, and so on.

Watch for: every other scene beginning with the first eight bars of the Brandenberg Concerto no. 4, movement 2, as if to signal that you're watching something important and intense.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 24 October 2012.

Dangerous Liaisons (危險關係) (2012)

This would be the third cinematic remake of Les liaisons dangereuses of note.

Cheat sheet: A pair of frenemies decide to ruin a morally upright society woman for fun and giggles. And sex. This remake trades the Ancien Regime for Jazz Age Shanghai.

It's a huge mistake. Jazz Age Shanghai was never a strait-laced, moralistic society where the proceedings of such dangerous liaisons would be a shocking, untold scandal. There's no sense of near-absolute cynicism, amorality and malice either.

Watch for: Stupendous sets. Otherwise: Watch the Korean remake instead.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 10 October 2012.

To Rome With Love (2012)

Woody Allen gets commissioned by the City of Rome to make a "Woody Allen comedy" without realising his best comedies are about love affairs with cities.

To Rome With Love lacks the sincerity of Midnight in Paris but it's funny enough.

It's a generic enough, amiable enough romcom set in Rome, showcasing the sights and sounds of the city. For comedy fans, it's a genuinely funny film with great comic timing and dialogue, with four stories based on the simple theme of infamy and notoriety.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 19 September 2012.

Snowfall in Taipei (台北飘雪) (2009)

Imagine if Wim Wenders went to Taiwan and made an indie.

A celebrity with career jitters disappears on her talent agency and settles incognito in a town in the middle of nowhere.

The film plays like a Wim Wenders story but told with the typical slightness of Taiwanese popular drama. The concept is an interesting enough reason to watch this.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 20 June 2012.

Bel Ami (2012)

A penniless man claws himself to the top of French society in the Belle Epoque by playing the game of love (and being played by it).

This adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's social realist novel manages to fit everything into the 100-min runtime of a feature film without feeling too hurried.

Watch this: with an open mind. Despite the stunt casting, the cast including Pattinson is more than up to the task of serious drama.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 28 March 2012.

Brown Sugar (น้ำตาลแดง) (2010)

This erotic anthology is to Bangkok what Paris Je'taime is to Paris.

Bangkok here is a sensual city whose inhabitants fall under its spell, succumbing to the multitudinous aspects of love. Old love, new love...

Sadly, the shorts are very hit and miss. It is the final poignant short, a beautiful meditation on loneliness and alienation, that truly deserves the stamp of arthouse erotica.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 13 July 2011.

Lover's discourse (恋人絮语) (2010)

Everyone wants to make a Paris Je'taime these days.

Here, we have 4 quirky short films about love and romance in Hong Kong.

The offbeat storytelling revolves around the moment love is found and lost, and questions the norms of the romantic genre, as it's been written for the past 20 years in Hong Kong.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 12 January 2011.

Time Traveller: The girl who leapt through time (時をかける少女) (2010)

The girl who leapt through time is the title of far too many novels, manga, anime, and live action films that feel like remakes, sequels, and adaptations all at the same time.

This 2010 entry thankfully IS different though. Watch it for the side-plot where the time travelling protag and her friends learn to make short films, and wait for the recognition of filmmaking as memory and thwarted desire to hit you square in the eyes.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 15 December 2010.

Charlie St Cloud (2010)

Zac Efron plays a man who watches his kid brother die before his eyes in a sailing accident, then sees his dead brother everywhere he goes. All the time.

I bet that has to be really depressing. Maybe there is an opening in the depressing date movie market I haven't heard of.

The result on screen is far better than it sounds. We put it to Mr Efron pushing the limits of his acting ability and the direction of Burr Steers, the ever talented nephew of Gore Vidal.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 29 September 2010.

Step Up 3D (2010)

Adam Selvani looks set to be the new mascot of the Step Up franchise following the departure of Channing Tatum.

Director/producer Jon Chu on his part attempts to beef up the script and characters even though this is still a dance movie. We're lucky though it's in 3D and the choreography seems to emphasise the fact.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 19 August 2010.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2010)

It was a dark and stormy night at the museum...

Two headstrong, avant garde artists having a torrid affair might be something you've seen before.

But surely, there has to be something worth seeing if it's the creators of Chanel no. 5 and the Rites of Spring?

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 21 April 2010.

Tenshi ko noi (天使の恋) (2009)

He possessed the unique ability to fall asleep in a sitting position

Ever wondered how Trainspotting would look like with Japanese schoolgirls looking for trouble?

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 7 April 2010.

Crazy Heart (2009)

How many roads must a man walk down...

Is it true that this was just a remake of The Wrestler, but with a country singer?

Did Jeff Bridges really have a voice to pull off his character?

Does the music in the movie serve as a good compilation of country music?

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 10 March 2010.

The Last Station (2009)

Mmmm, they go so well with chianti...

You're Leo Tolstoy, the greatest Russian novelist of all time, and the founder of a religious movement.

You have an army of minions and admirers. And a wife who adores you.

You're all set to conquer the world. Right? Right?

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 3 March 2010.

A Bright Star (2009)

A portrait of the artist as a consumptive young man

How easy is it for a Romantic poet to fall in love?

This being the England of Jane Austen, how easy is it for a earn a living, become respectable, and win a lady's hand?

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 18 February 2010.