Phil Jeng Kane
Phil has written for magazines, corporate videos, online ads, and even an app. He writes with one eye on the future, one eye on the past and a third eye on the Lotto numbers. His social bits are here.
Baby Done Review
BABY DONE is a New Zealand comedy about a couple, Zoe (Rose Matafeo) and Tim (Matthew Lewis), who are some years into a stable relationship. They are arborists who work together. They take care of trees, mostly by using equipment like cherry pickers and working high in the tree-tops. Zoe is also extremely good at climbing trees and plans on going to Canada and competing in an international tree-cl...
The Trial of the Chicago 7 Review
In August 1968, there were Anti-Vietnam War protests in Chicago, Illinois. The Democratic National Convention was taking place and there were numerous rallies and marches protesting against President Lyndon B. Johnson’s policies regarding the war. To those protesting, young men were being conscripted to die needlessly in a conflict in a country on the other side of the world. The various protests ...
Pinocchio Review
Many of us know the character of Pinocchio, the wooden puppet who wanted to be a real boy, from the 1940 award-winning Disney animation. Unlike other Disney animated features such as SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) or CINDERELLA (1950) the story wasn’t based on a folk tale adapted by the Brothers Grimm. Pinocchio comes from an 1883 children’s book by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. The origin...
On the Rocks Review
Laura (Rashida Jones) and husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) live in New York where they’re raising two young daughters. Life is good. Dean’s advertising business is expanding rapidly and Laura is a writer contracted to complete a book. Then, one or two small things happen, and Laura thinks she detects signs that Dean might be having an affair with a co-worker. She confides her fears in her father Felix...
The High Note Review
Maggie Sherwoode (Dakota Johnson) is the personal assistant of legendary R&B singer Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross). This means she takes care of all the everyday concerns of the star. She has been in the role for three years and would like to move up and into the entertainment business proper. Maggie took the job in the first place because she has always been a dedicated music fan and sees he...
Buffaloed Review
We meet Peg Dahl (Zoey Deutch) around the age of 10. She lives in Buffalo, New York. Her family has never had real money and always scraped by. Her father died when she was around seven-years-old. Her mother (Judy Greer) operates an unregistered hair-dressing business out of their home. As Peg ages into her teens, she runs cheap hustles like selling discount cigarettes which are probably stolen. H...
Bill & Ted Face the Music Review
A long time ago, there was a movie made called BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1989). It was the story of William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) who lived in San Dimas, California in the late 1980s. Bill and Ted were a pair of teen slackers who loved metal, but weren’t too bright academically and were close to dropping out...
Slim & I Review
Many Australians know of country music legend Slim Dusty. A dedicated group of fans even know the woman behind the legend, was his wife Joy McKean. The new feature length documentary SLIM & I, charts the fifty-plus years in which their partnership created an extraordinary legacy of Australian music and entertainment. Slim Dusty was born David Gordon Kirkpatrick in 1927 in New South Wales. He w...
Tenet Review
A global audience of Christopher Nolan fans has been waiting for the release of his new film TENET for most of 2020. The date was announced, then changed, then announced, then changed. It was almost as though time was travelling backwards. The actual reason was, of course, the uncertainty brought about by the Covid-19 Pandemic. The major studios have been forced to reconsider the launching of thei...
The Burnt Orange Heresy Review
THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY is a thriller set in the world of high art. It tells the story of James Figueras (Claes Bang), a minor art critic, who makes some money selling his book and working a lecture circuit in Italy. His book is called The Power of the Critic and in it, he proposes that critics have the power to shape our understanding and appreciation of art. In the first few minutes of the tale,...
The King of Staten Island Review
Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) is a 24-year-old high school dropout, who lives on Staten Island. His life is going nowhere because he has no job and spends most of his days hanging with his friends in a basement, smoking weed and playing computer games. Scott is afflicted with Crohn’s disease and ADHD, but it is the death of his father, when Scott was 7, that has most deeply affected the young...
Below Review
Sometimes a movie comes along that defies your ability to categorise it simply or quickly. About fifteen minutes into the new feature film BELOW, I knew this would be the case. By the end, I had seen many things, but still wasn’t sure how to describe the world that had unfolded in this Western Australian film directed by Maziar Lahooti. This is when every reviewer, turns to the Press Kit. It had t...