The one that reaches, hits and holdsTHE HIGH NOTE (M)★★★★FOXTEL, BINGE, AMAZONThe Covid era has come up unfeasibly short on feel-good films. Therefore the arrival of The High Note – easily the best sustained burst of positivity to hit a screen in the past 12 months – should be cause for celebration for the glass-half-full crowd. While the movie does cater to all appetites in an effortlessly endearing manner, it is no way content to merely have us settle for a serving empty-calorie escapism. The High Note has both soul and smarts. Just like its two female protagonists: a veteran music diva of many moods, Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross); and her long-suffering, ever-obliging personal assistant, Maggie Sherwoode (Dakota Johnson). Though navigating very familiar territory, this balanced and accessible affair holds its appeal strongly throughout, thanks largely to a pair of top-notch lead performances from the relatively unknown Ross (a daughter of the great singer Diana) and the unfairly maligned Johnson (now putting the shaky start of Fifty Shades of Grey far behind her). Oh, and the music you will hear is glorious.The one that’s sheepishly goodRAMS (PG)★★★½FOXTEL, AMAZONThis is a fine Australian remake of an astonishing (and utterly engrossing) Icelandic production that made quite a ripple on arthouse circuit a few years back. The story unfolds inside a close-knit sheep-farming community in WA, where two brothers live on adjacent properties. One goes by the name of Colin (Sam Neill). The other is Les (Michael Caton). The sibling’s houses stand less than 20 metres apart. They have not spoken in over 20 years.Intriguingly, Rams never really fully clues us in about what drove the brothers apart. Instead, very subtly and skilfully, the movie steers both men on differing paths through the same personal crisis: a bovine disease outbreak which threatens to obliterate everything this pair have lived for. Like the original version, this take on Rams is a difficult movie to classify. At times, it is as charming a comedy as they come. At others, it is a strikingly well-observed drama. The minimalist performances of Neill and Caton convey much more than most viewers will expect, particularly as their characters are the embodiment of “men of few words.”The one where the Rock is back on a rollJUNGLE CRUISE (PG)★★★DISNEY+ (premium surcharge)A joyfully old-fashioned adventure flick, with a storytelling lineage that shares plenty of parallels to the likes of National Treasure, The Mummy and any Indiana Jones title that may come to mind. As for present-day charm, well, that factor is more than ably covered by the near-perfect lead pairing of Emily Blunt and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Blunt plays Lily Houghton, a pioneering botanist in the early 1900s trying to win the respect of London’s male-dominated scientific community. No longer prepared to wait for her gender to be accepted, Lily mounts her own research expedition to the Amazon. Which is why she must come to rely on the thoroughly unreliable Frank (Johnson), an experienced steamboat captain with a disrespect for danger and a fatal attraction to bad puns. The moment Johnson and Blunt get started with their winning repartee, it is clear that Jungle Cruise’s family audience will happily follow them wherever the movie chooses to go. While the movie does rush off in too many storytelling directions in a very cluttered second half, it never stops being entertaining for a heartbeat.The one that’s anything but child’s playWHAT MAISIE KNEW (M)★★★½SBS ON DEMANDIf only Maisie didn’t know anything in What Maisie Knew. Sometimes ignorance can indeed be bliss. Maisie (a stunning performance by Onata Aprile) is seven years old. She lives in New York City. Her mother, Susanna (Julianne Moore), is a washed-up rock star. Her dad, Beale (Steve Coogan) is just a washout. All that Maisie ever hears is her parents fighting. They are no longer together, but apart they are as damaging to the welfare of their daughter as they have ever been. This brilliantly-acted study in emotional neglect as child abuse can be quite wrenching to watch. Though Maisie is living in relatively affluent surrounds, the worry for her wellbeing steadily rises throughout the picture.The one where getting old means getting evenLET HIM GO (M)★★★½RENT via GOOGLE, APPLE, FOXTEL STORE etcThe last time we saw Kevin Costner and Diane Lane together on the big screen was as Clark Kent’s parents in the Superman flick Man of Steel. Now the veteran stars have been reunited to play vigilante grandparents in what turns out to be a very solid genre thriller set in the American west in the early 1960s. Costner’s George is a retired lawman, and Lane’s Margaret is his resourceful wife. Together, they make a pact to not only ascertain the exact whereabouts of their lost grandson, but also haul him back to a safe place his own mother and her new husband are in no shape to provide. A long and worrying journey interstate puts George and Margaret on a collision course with a set of outlaw in-laws who will not relinquish their grip on the child, and will do anything to keep it that way. Pacing and performances (especially Lesley Manville as the evil backwoods matriarch who is Margaret’s polar opposite) remain in the right zone throughout here, even if the storytelling sometimes strays from clarity. Based on the novel by Larry Watson.The one paying the right kind of tributeMY NAME IS GULPILIL (M)★★★★ABC IVIEWA documentary with a difference – no, make that several differences – lyrically captures the rare creative essence of its subject, the incomparable Australian actor, dancer and dreamer, David Gulpilil. During the shooting of this aptly stark and defiantly honest telling of his story, it was believed a gravely ill Gulpilil did not have long to live. Rather than infuse the doco with an urgency to square the ledger or correct the record, a calm sense of clarity takes hold that is impossible not to be touched by. Of course it helps this well-made production no end that Gulpilil has lived one remarkable and unique life, both as a proudly Indigenous man and a globally significant artist. He’s also a gifted and deceptively funny raconteur, who can wave away a windstorm of bulldust with just a few words. So here’s two pieces of good news for the price of one: David Gulpilil is still with us, and this doco is the right kind of way to celebrate that fact.The one that has an it, but doesn’t have itFOUR KIDS & IT (PG) ★★NETFLIXWhile on holiday in Cornwall, a quartet of British children encounter a creature on the beach that has the power to grant wishes. Though not exactly the worst children’s movie to happen along in recent times, this modernised remix of the old E. Nesbit book is decidedly average stuff. Very little kids will get a kick from the narky, farty magic critter voiced by Michael Caine. But that overlong running time will snap all attention spans in two.
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