January 2024 Movies

Wonka

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key

Director: Paul King

Rating: PG

Synopsis: Focusing on a young Willy Wonka and how he came to meet the Oompa-Loompas on one of his earliest adventures.

Reviews

“Wonka, like his chocolate, is a sweet, delicious treat.”

The AU Review

“Wonka is a delightful blend of fantasy, adventure and humour. Chocolate lovers rejoice!”

The Blurb

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Cast: Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Viola Davis

Director: Francis Lawrence

Rating: M

Synopsis: Coriolanus Snow at age 18, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem. Young Coriolanus is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, he sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the Tenth Hunger Games. Only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor the girl tribute from impoverished District 12.

Reviews

“For Hunger Games fans, it will be a must-see and newcomers will get something from it too.”

The Canberra Times

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a highly entertaining expansion of the young adult film franchise.”

ScreenHub Australia

Trolls Band Together

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Kenan Thompson

Director: Walt Dohrn, Tim Heitz

Rating: M

Synopsis: Poppy discovers that Branch was once part of the boy band ‘BroZone’ with his brothers, Floyd, John Dory, Spruce and Clay. When Floyd is kidnapped, Branch and Poppy embark on a journey to reunite his two other brothers and rescue Floyd.

Reviews

“Trolls Band Together hits the right musical note across its pop-filled family journey.”

The AU Review

“The voice cast is doing an incredible job, and the shining star is again Anna Kendrick. She was born to play Poppy and devours every line.”

SWITCH.

Godzilla Minus One

Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yûki Yamada

Director: Takashi Yamazak

Rating: M

Synopsis: In postwar Japan, a new terror rises; Godzilla. Will the devastated people be able to survive… let alone fight back?

Reviews

“Godzilla Minus One goes back to the Kaiju’s origins, and in doing so rewrites the myth to include more Japanese cultural reflection.”

ScreenHub Australia

“Director Takashi Yamazaki sets his destroyer of worlds against a postwar Japan still recovering from the effects of the A-bomb with the little people left to work out how to save themselves.”

The Guardian

Saltburn

Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike

Director: Emerald Fennell

Rating: MA 15+

Synopsis: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) brings us a beautifully wicked tale of privilege and desire. Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.

Reviews

“The Promising Young Woman filmmaker is clearly having fun with our expectations … as is the stellar cast.”

ScreenHub Australia

“It’s sexy.  It’s funny.  It’s tragic.  It’s Saltburn.”

The AU Review

Napoleon

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim

Director: Ridley Scott

Rating: MA 15+

Synopsis: Napoleon is a 2023 epic historical drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa. It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Ludivine Sagnier, and Rupert Everett.

The film takes a personal look at Napoleon Bonaparte’s origins, and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor viewed through the prism of his addictive, and often volatile, relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine.

Reviews

“The ​impressive c​ombat sequences pull you right in, but ​both the director and Joaquin Phoenix​ as Bonaparte struggle to show us what drove ​the military mastermind.”

The Guardian

“Joaquin Phoenix captivates in Ridley Scott’s portrait of the Emperor – but the film is not a painstakingly accurate history lesson.”

The Australian

Poor Things

Cast: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Rating: MA 15+

Synopsis: The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter; a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter.

Reviews

“Poor Things is a sexually liberated black comedy stirring with emotion and topical commentary.”

The AU Review

“Stone gives a hilarious, beyond-next-level performance as Bella Baxter, the experimental subject of a troubled Victorian anatomist, in Lanthimos’s toweringly bizarre comedy.”

The Guardian

Starts Tuesday, 26 December 2023

Migration

Cast: Isabela Merced, Elizabeth Banks, Awkwafina

Director: Benjamin Renner, Guylo Homsy

Rating: G

Synopsis: A family of ducks try to convince their overprotective father to go on the vacation of a lifetime.

Starts Tuesday, 26 December 2023

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Cast: Jason Momoa, Ben Affleck, Patrick Wilson

Director: James Wan

Rating: CTC

Synopsis: Aquaman balances his duties as king and as a member of the Justice League, all while planning a wedding. Black Manta is on the hunt for Atlantean tech to help rebuild his armour. Orm plots to escape his Atlantean prison.

Having failed to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father’s death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman’s family, and the world, from irreversible destruction.

Starts Tuesday, 26 December 2023

Mean Girls

Cast: Jon Hamm, Angourie Rice, Jenna Fischer

Director: Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr.

Rating: CTC

Synopsis: Cady Heron is a hit with the Plastics, an A-list girl clique at her new school, when she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

Starts Thursday, 11 January 2024