Movie: Ad Astra
Director: James Gray
Stars: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones
“Realistic” solar system bound space drama set in a future close to now, but far enough away to allow some horizon stretching. This is really a character study of Brad Pitt’s Roy McBride, a study in that supreme masculine trait of indifference, capable of calm action in the most distressed circumstances, and his achieving a philosophical understanding. Focus on that if you see the film.
Pitt’s class carries the film but it is not nearly enough to paper over the many flaws. In what might be a limited offering at the Cineplex, selecting this might be the best option as it is interesting enough and if you enjoy the genre then it is a must see, but I doubt the current critical respect will stand the test of time.
The holes in the world building here are far too frequent to dismiss easily in the moment, and a lot of them are unnecessary own goals. For example there is a 26 person research station somewhere between where the moon and Mars happen to be at the time, yet it is Norwegian. Why? No matter how awesome the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is this suggests an absolute plethora of resources in “near” space which just is not reflected in parts of the film – particularly the lunar sequence, portions of which are pure cringe. There was of course, no particular reason to label the station Norwegian whatsoever. It was done simply to suggest that almost everyone has access to space and has significant resources committed there, yet this point is not remotely consistently supported elsewhere. There is a yawning chasm between the attempts to make “everyday” some aspects of the space economy, and then paying attention to the logical consequences to maintain the film’s internal milieu.
Similarly, Pitt’s character is subjected to endless little psychological evaluations, very slightly echoing K’s “baselining” in Blade Runner 2049, yet another important astronaut is a complete flake. How is that possible in such circumstances? It is as bad as Alien: Covenant where apparently the only available pilot for a massive colony ship worth trillions was a totally loose unit called Tennessee, even played by Danny McBride to emphasise what a loose unit he was. These contradictions reflect lazy writing. Far too lazy for a film with this budget.

Movie: It Chapter Two
Director: Andy Muschietti
Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader
I do not really do horror, so I have to confess I have not seen 2017's “It”, nor the 1990 mini-series. I was interested in seeing the cast. Coming into Chapter Two cold was straight forward, with simple inferences to make, and there are more than enough flash back scenes to “It” required by the plot to fill in the gaps. Too many probably, given this runs just eleven minutes short of three hours.
This is entertaining enough with plenty of variety in tone, though despite the gore and bloodiness I found it to be horror light, especially after the controversial opening death made me think I would be in for a long evening of grim viewing.
The cast was a highlight, presumably because they knew they had to get the right adult actors for the first film’s child actor ensemble and worked to achieve good matches. To my surprise Hader was actually good, and McAvoy made an effort.

Movie: Rambo: Last Blood
Director: Adrian Grunberg
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega
First Blood was a reasonably intelligent film from a reasonably intelligent novel (Stephen King used it as a text when he was teaching creative writing) about the tensions created in an America which had largely turned its back on the people it had asked to make the ultimate sacrifice and take the ultimate risks in the name of national duty. Much like the Vietnam war itself and all that has followed, the wrong lessons were learned and the film was a ground breaker in what has become the fertile fields of cinema myth surrounding special forces, instead of concerns about managing PTSD. Thus the Rambo franchise immediately morphed into revenge porn fantasies involving super-hero-like powers set against the backdrop of American realpolitik.
Though focusing on sex slavery and trafficking and hence somewhat of a Taken scenario this version of Rambo also follows on in the tradition of narcotic based films such as Sicario. Its setting up of justifications for gloves-off barbaric revenge scenarios makes Denzel's Man on Fire look like a doctoral thesis in comparison. You only have to read the current news to know that yes, people are as stunningly naive and manipulable as Rambo's niece plays here, but you will not really buy into this.
If you appreciate gory revenge porn I guess this is for you, but if you are remotely looking for strands of connection to realism this is not it, but you already knew that. Paz Vega’s performance is a highlight.

Movie review: Good Boys
Director: Gene Stupnitsky
Stars: Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Brady Noon
Presumably there are several r/AskReddit threads in which someone asked everyone what stupid misconceptions they held as eleven year olds and these threads were mined as the source material for this farce.
Directed and written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, the team responsible for such fare as Bad Teacher and Year One, this has a producers list as long as your arm that includes Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen. Cheap and smutty laughs by the score, and the almost obligatory use of anal beads when Rogen is involved, but not nearly as clever as Sausage Party.
Amazingly I was surrounded by children in the cinema. Good luck to them given their parents have astonishingly poor judgement.

Movie review: The Kitchen
Director: Andrea Berloff
Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elizabeth Moss
The Kitchen is a dramatic female gangster flick set in Hell’s Kitchen, so don’t confuse it with an Ocean’s Eight or similar. Given this has Elisabeth Moss and Melissa McCarthy the fact I had not even heard of it before it started screening was a bad sign.
Is it that bad? Not quite, and if you are a Moss fan this is interesting just for her take on a battered woman. The other female lead, Tiffany Haddish, is also credible as far as the script allows. Unfortunately the writing has some very weak moments as there are several plot points that needed more attention and dramatic extension. If you do see this watch for the close-ups on Common’s face, and you too will have my “Pathetic!” response at the appropriate moment. This is a poor version of Widows, so you should watch that instead if it is available to you if not already viewed.

Movie review: Ride Like a Girl
Director: Rachelle Griffiths
Stars: Sam Neill, Teresa Palmer
The wholesome, mostly feel-good version of the amazing story of Michelle Payne, first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. Her story is phenomenal and if fictional you would accuse the author of laying it on with a trowel: one of ten children, mother died when Michelle was six months old, the childhood obsession with horse racing, the brother with Down Syndrome, Stevie, who would become a strapper, the death in a racing fall of a sister, Michelle's own brain injury from a racing fall and rehabilitation, the struggle of a woman in a male dominated sport for tolerance let alone acceptance, and the ultimate triumph of riding a 100-1 outsider, strapped by Stevie, to victory in the Melbourne Cup, one of the world's richest races and an icon of Australian culture.
This is actress Rachel Griffiths' directorial debut for a feature film, and it is a tight and steady effort, and she certainly shows rather than tells, though the text introduction of the Melbourne Cup and its significance is jarring in its near documentary like nature, presumably considered needed for an international audience. Once the film gets going it is all well and good and if you are looking for a genuinely affecting film with a heroine's journey through adversity then this fits the bill.
Sam Neill plays widowed single parent of ten Paddy Payne with his usual steadiness, and Teresa Palmer as Michelle is convincing. Much of the film is about their relationship, along with brother Stevie, who plays himself. While there is plenty of humour here this is not a comedy, and the story speaks for itself, so much as I like both Mick Molloy and Magda Szubankski their presence here is just a trite distraction. Shane Bourne too.
Before I say more, I think there are a lot of good reasons to see this and if you like to do a bit for Aussie cinema and give at least one worthy a go every year then this could certainly be it.
On the other hand the film feels more than a little constrained, maybe deliberately because this is in a sense, old Anglo-Irish Australia caught in a poverty of choice and expectation. Michelle's famous "everyone else can get stuffed" after the race, hinted at a lot more than is presented here in terms of sexism and harassment, egregious as what is shown happens to be, but Griffiths may have felt that there was enough adversity without needing to push that particular aspect of it harder. Maybe she is right not to over-dwell on it particularly as this is a film to show children with its central messages of perseverance and refusing to be constrained by limitations imposed by others. Some will know it in their bones, so perhaps the measured approach is best but sometimes you need to bang the drum to get people's attention. One also has to wonder if the strong involvement of the Payne family was a limiting factor because they are still neck deep in the industry and might not want to burn too many bridges. However, it is hard to see how it could have been done without them especially as Stevie playing himself is so important to the film. To be fair a famous jockey gets a poke, though with a redeeming moment at the end.
Speaking of the horse racing industry, Griffiths weaves a neutral path here - neither demonstrating a deeper affinity between the people and animals in it, which would be its best defence, nor dealing with the uglier aspects of it - some of which are now associated with some of the actual people represented in the film.

Juddy keeps busy consuming cultural media while posing as a student at a major Sydney university, thus shirking real work. He hosts pub trivia, and tutors at said university, for beer and book money.