It’s impossible to be objective about Bohemian Rhapsody as I have been a Queen fan since 1977.
Reel to Real
REEL TO REAL | MUSIC DRAMA : A STAR IS BORN (NO SPOILERS)
Much to unpack about the latest remake of 1937’s A Star is Born. The story itself will be familiar even if one has never seen the original or its subsequent two remakes.
REEL TO REAL | DOCUMENTARY : LOST IN THE FUMES
As part of its 60th anniversary, the Singapore Film Society (SFS) has programmed a series of independent award winning documentary films between September to October as its core screenings in the lead up to the Singapore premiere of Sandi Tan’s award-winning SHIRKERS on 20 October.
REEL TO REAL | MUSIC FILMS : VOX LUX
Music films are all the rage now, it seems – and I do not mean musicals!
REEL TO REAL | ACTION-ADVENTURE : BUFFALO BOYS
Buffalo Boys is helmed by first time director Mike Wiluan and jointly produced by Infinite Frameworks and Zhao Wei Films.
REEL TO REAL | CRIME DRAMA TV : SHARP OBJECTS (SPOILER REVIEW)
Lots of quality behind and in front of the camera, as far as this 8-part adaptation of Sharp Objects was concerned.
REELTOREAL | CRIME DRAMA TV : TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON 3 TEASER TRAILER
Nic Pizzolatto’s anthology crime drama True Detective returns with Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali in the lead role.
REEL TO REAL : OCEAN’S 8 (REVIEW BY YONG SHU HOONG)
It has been 11 years after director Steven Soderbergh wrapped up his trilogy of heist films that began with Ocean’s 11 (2001) and ended with Ocean’s 13 (2007).
REEL TO REAL | DRAMA : WONDER WHEEL [REVIEW]
By Yong Shu Hoong While Wonder Wheel bears a lot of writer-director Woody Allen’s finger-smudges – from the plain and simple opening credits, and the use of old songs on the soundtrack, to the featuring of big-name Hollywood actors – it’s unfortunately one of his middling works to be parked Continue Reading
REEL TO REAL | TRUE LIFE DRAMA : I, TONYA [REVIEW]
By Yong Shu Hoong If you’ve been noticing Australian bombshell Margot Robbie since her appearance in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and, more recently, her show-stealing portrayal of Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (2016), this new biopic brings her up to another level in her acting career.
REEL TO REAL : BASED ON A TRUE STORY [REVIEW]
By Yong Shu Hoong First of all, a declaration: I might have been slightly in love with Eva Green ever since she graced the big screen as Bond girl Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006). So despite some bad reviews plaguing Based on a True Story, I decided to watch Continue Reading
GEEK OUT!!! REEL TO REAL : FIVE THINGS WE LOOK OUT FOR IN A MOVIE WHEN WRITING A REVIEW – III. TONE
So far we have looked at why characters and plot are probably the primary elements to consider when reviewing a movie. What’s next? Probably, the TONE of the film.
REEL TO REAL : MOLLY’S GAME [REVIEW] BY YONG SHU HOONG
As Oscar bait to showcase American actress Jessica Chastain’s prowess (and hopefully add a golden statuette to the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress she’s already won for her CIA agent role in 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty), this new biopic Molly’s Game squarely delivers the goods.
GEEK OUT!!! REEL TO REAL : FIVE THINGS WE LOOK OUT FOR IN A MOVIE WHEN WRITING A REVIEW – II. PLOT
Last time out, we looked at why characters, both main and supporting, are probably the most important element to consider when reviewing a movie. What comes next? Plot.
REEL TO REAL : COCO – MOVIE OF THE YEAR! [SPOILERS]
Better late than never, we always say. We only got to see Coco a few days ago, and we loved it so much that we needed to acknowledge and recognise its greatness!
REEL TO REAL : INGRID GOES WEST [REVIEW]
One of the better movies of 2017, Ingrid Goes WestReel is a dark incisive commentary on the millennial obsession with social media.
REEL TO REAL : RAVING IRAN
Anoosh and Arash are young men who make up the DJ-producer duo called Blade & Beard. Nothing special about that fact until you realise that Anoosh and Arash are from Teheran, Iran.
REEL TO REAL : MINDHUNTER [SPOILERS]
The best Netflix series hook you in sometimes on premise alone. And that was certainly the case with Mindhunter.
REEL TO REAL | CRIME TV DRAMA : NARCOS SEASON 3
The first two seasons of the Netflix Crime drama Narcos centred around the infamous Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his powerful Medellin cartel, told through the perspective of US DEA agent Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook).
REEL TO REAL : DUNKIRK
It’s fair to say that Dunkirk is an unconventional war movie. Considering that renowned director Christopher Nolan is at the helm, that comes as little surprise.
REEL TO REAL : WONDER BOY
Wonder Boy is a biopic of the Singapore music icon Dick Lee, directed and written by Lee himself with co-director Daniel Yam and co-writer Wang Guo Shen. The film stars popular local musician Benjamin Kheng as Lee.
REEL TO REAL: THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL
Synopsis A 2015 American coming-of-age drama written and directed by Marielle Heller, based on the graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner. The film stars Bel Powley as a 15-year-old girl (Minnie) who becomes sexually active by starting a relationship Continue Reading
REEL TO REAL: THE REVENANT
Film-maker Alejandro G. Iñárritu deservedly won the Best Directing Oscar for the innovative narrative on the critically acclaimed Birdman. It’s fair to say that Iñárritu has not rested on his laurels with The Revenant.
REEL TO REAL! FILM REVIEW: ANOMALISA – MOVIE OF 2015
Apart from writer-director Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa being animated from stop-motion puppetry, there is initially nothing too different about the film. But knowing Kaufman’s reputation for weird story-telling (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), that normalcy does not last for too long.
REEL TO REAL: YOUTH
Despite its title, Youth is really about aging. Or perhaps a surreal examination of the meaning of youth. For this reason, Youth has been compared to Birdman, apart from the fact that the innovative cinematography in both movies clearly marks them out as distinctive.