Pasha's Film Reviews Etc.

9/10 Frank (Bryan Brown) is having a big birthday party so he invites his best friends Leo (Sam Neill) and Billy (Richard E Grant) with their spouses and families to his house in PALM BEACH. It doesn’t take long for the grudges, old and new, to emerge and the old secrets refuse to be buried. The commotion that rocks the three families threatens to ruin the holiday. What will it take to get things back on track?  Exploring the nature of a true family, that goes far beyond blood relations, PALM BEACH is a colourful portrait of a lifelong friendship with all its outcomes, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. While the dining table drama-comedy has become its own sub genre in France (Little White Lies, Namesake) and Italy (PERFECT STRANGERS) middle class families rarely take centre stage in Australian film.  PALM BEACH takes a very Australian approach, avoiding high concept drama, it is breezy summer fun that focuses on the characters’ onscreen chemistry. Sam Ne...

7/10 Department Q is a series of mystery novels by Dutch author Jussi Adler-Olsen about a group of detectives who investigate cold cases. In modern Copenhagen a sealed room is discovered in an old apartment building with four dead bodies positioned at the table. The murder had occurred so many years ago the bodies are mummified. There’s one empty place left at the table. Your enjoyment of the film is highly dependent on your love for the main characters. This is story number 4 and for those of us who have been on this journey for some years our detectives - sombre Carl and charismatic Assad have become our old friends. The narrative as usual switches between the past and the present. The flashbacks in Department Q films can be a bit boring and confusing, but not this time around. The story gallops forward at a high pace introducing many elements, some require serious suspension of disbelief, but the core message about women’s suppression of the past and the present is l...

7/10 Ingumundur lives alone on a desolate farm. He is trying to rebuild his house and is looking after his granddaughter from time to time. He is quiet on the surface, but underneath he is grieving for his recently deceased wife. When a disturbing detail about his wife’s past suddenly comes to the surface it threatens to destroy the fragile peace he has created, and affects everyone he loves. When the movie starts with good few minutes of a car driving down a misty road you know you are in for a long ride. The harsh landscape of the setting is almost a character in the film. It gives the movie almost a magnetic quality. But there’s a sense of imminent tragedy lurking underneath it all.  A WHITE WHITE DAY tells a seemingly simple story, but is secretive at times, letting the viewers decide for themselves what motivates the characters. And it is often what happens off screen  that has the real impact. The cinematography however goes a bit overboard...