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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 29 December 2025

There’s a line in The History of Sound, currently in cinemas, where a character offers two choices on how to deal with life’s troubles - “you could get sad, or you could sing about it.”  That same theme is at the heart of The Choral, the latest collaboration between director Nicholas Hytner and writer Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George, The History Boys).  They share an identical setting too with both trying to find a glimmer of happiness against the backdrop of World War I.

Set in a fictitious England town, Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) plays Dr Henry Guthrie, an experienced conductor recruited to lead the local church choir.  In the eyes of many within the conservative community, he arrives with metaphorical “baggage” as he recently spent time working in war-torn Germany, he doesn’t believe in God, and he’s a homosexual.  Wondering how he got the job? He was the only man with sufficient skills who hadn’t been conscripted into the army.

Fiennes adds star power and has the most screen time, but The Choral is best described as an ensemble piece where the supporting characters are equally important.  I speak of the townsfolk, both young and old, who are using the choir to fulfil their own needs.  Some see it as a place to find comfort among friends, some have stumbled into a romantic connection, while others use music as a form of catharsis to forget the horrors of war.  It’s a considered approach by Bennett but in juggling so many subplots, they don’t all get the attention to resonate with full emotion.

The Choral is “fine” but I’m not sure I can use a more superlative adjective.  It’s well-intentioned but trying too hard.  As an example, Bennett adds repetitive humour by having Guthrie annoy his superiors with German references, but the set-up and the subsequent response feel too scripted.  I had a similar reaction to meatier storylines, such as a young woman anxious awaiting her missing husband to return from battle.  It’s formulaic and the dialogue lacks spontaneity.

The film’s highlight is a final-act sequence involving Tony Award winning actor Simon Russell Beale as the charismatic English composer Edward Elgar (I won’t spoil by revealing more).  It allows The Choral to escape it’s predictable, war-centred path and surprise audiences with unexpected drama and well-earned laughs.  A shame the opening half wasn’t as engaging.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 17 December 2025

If being lazy, I could do a simple “cut and paste” job of my review for the 2022 release, Avatar: The Way of Water.  Yes, the plot is different, but my thoughts and sentiments are very similar.  I’ll be creative through and try to say the same thing by using different terminology.  Let’s start with the broader franchise and toast the achievements of director James Cameron.  Whether you liked the first two movies or not, you can’t ignore their societal impact given they have globally grossed a combined $5.3 billion USD.  That makes them #1 and #3 on a list of the highest grossing movies of all time (Avengers: Endgame sits in between them).

A significant contributor to their success is the quality of animation.  Cameron and his team have the luxury of working with an insanely high budget ($400 million in this case) but the hundreds of visual effect artists still need to step up and deliver.  They’ve done that… and then some.  The state-of-the-art motion capture technology, the use of 48 frames per second (instead of the usual 24), the array of bright colours, and the 3D experience – it adds up to a movie you must see on the big screen.  The fight sequences are clear and easy to follow.  It puts other action movies to shame which are often grimy, chaotic and over-edited.

Narrative remains the weakest element.  I loved the 2009 original but with these movies stretching out beyond the three-hour mark (this one is 197 minutes), the subplots feel increasingly familiar.  You’ve got the same heroes fighting the same villains and making the same choices in putting family above all else.  The five-person writing team have tried to spice things up by introducing a new, not-so-friendly Na’vi clan headed by a cutthroat female leader, Varang (Chaplin).  It changes the previous dynamic which was centred on good aliens vs. bad humans.  This shows the Na’vi can be ruthless, power-hungry jerks too!

Varang is comfortably the best addition to the franchise.  With a distinctive red paint on her forehead, she’s an excellent, scene-stealing villain thanks to her controlling, manipulative personality.  She’s incredibly untrustworthy which makes it hard for anyone to negotiate in her presence.  The “bad guy” from the previous flicks, Colonel Quaritch (Lang), returns but his storylines are becoming repetitive and stale.  He’s the classic example of a protagonist who often gets the upper hand but then, to prolong the runtime, loses it because of a dumb decision.  The same could be said of the human characters who resemble comic book caricatures.

I suspect Avatar: Fire and Ash will be another huge hit and Cameron, now 71 years of age, will get the green light for two more movies to close out the series.  He’s good at what he does!

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 December 2025

I’ve said it before – if you’re a studio looking to do a reboot/remake, you’re better to go with a bad film.  It gives you a much better chance of improving on the original!  That’s the approach adopted by writer-director Tom Gormican because the 1997 Anaconda was a garbage.  I gave it a C-grading, its current public IMDB score is a paltry 4.9 out of 10, and it was nominated for 6 Razzie Awards including worst picture (losing to The Postman).  It won’t rank too highly on the resume of stars Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and Jon Voight.

This 2025 edition makes the right decision in being a self-aware, spoof-like comedy.  It stars four lifelong friends who loved watching Anaconda as teenagers growing up and now, with one of them securing the film rights, they set out to make their own modern-day reboot.  Doug (Black) will write the script and director, with Griff (Rudd), Kenny (Zahn), and Claire (Newton) taking on the acting roles.  With minimal experience and next-to-no budget, they head to the Amazon, meet a snake handler, and start work on their “indie style” project.

Anaconda is far funnier than I expected.  It brings back memories Ed Wood, Tropic Thunder, and The Disaster Artist in that we’re watching a good movie about people making a terrible movie.  I enjoyed the comedic chemistry between the quartet with each have a distinctly different vibe – from Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) with his ego-driven persona, through to Steve Zahn (That Thing You Do) as a spaced-out alcoholic.  Brazilian actor Selton Mello (I’m Still Here) adds to the entertainment with scene-stealing portrayal of the quirky snake guy.

An additional promotion point is that the shoot took place here in Queensland with support from the State and Federal Government.  Visual effects play a part, but I was sufficiently convinced we were in the Amazon despite the locations being in our own backyard – Springbrook National Park and Purling Brook Falls on the Gold Coast being among them.  Further, the final stages of production were interrupted when Cyclone Alfred swept through in early March 2025.

It’s back-to-back outings for writer-director Tom Gormican where he blends reality and fiction in pursuit of laughs.  The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent saw Nicolas Cage play a warped version of himself caught up in criminal arms dealing.  It was a good idea but wasn’t well executed (repetitive, convoluted).  Gormican does a much better job with Anaconda and yeah, while it does features goofily large snakes, the jokes land and the characters arcs have more heft.

If looking for amusement over the Christmas holidays, Anaconda could be your answer.  A rare example where the remake significantly surpasses the original.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 December 2025

I’m someone who enjoys capturing memories – from taking photos with friends and uploading to social media, through to posting golf highlights of talented amateurs on YouTube.  They’re moments in time which can be fondly looked back on, hopefully, for decades to come.  It’s a luxury afforded to recent generations as prior to the 19^th Century, there was no way of capturing images, sound or video.

The History of Sound is a work of fiction, based on a book authored by Ben Shattack who also wrote the film’s screenplay, but it’s centred on a specific time in history.  It begins in 1917 where two young men, Lionel (Mescal) and David (O’Connor), meet at a piano bar in Boston and become romantically entwined.  Not long after, the pair go on a hiking trip across Maine as part of a college research project.  Their task is to meet an assortment of music-loving people and capture them signing folk songs using a revolutionary recording device.  Their beautiful voices would, in a small way, be captured in the annals of history.

Directed by Oliver Hermanus (Living), The History of Sound provides insight into the start of a new technology but it’s also a Brokeback Mountain-style love story.  Lionel and David weren’t largely open about their sexuality and while they shared beautiful, heartfelt moments together, they did so in a way that wasn’t visible to family and friends.  Their research trip across Maine, where they’d sleep each night in a small tent, provided the perfect “cover” given the work and sheltered landscape.

I enjoyed the opening act but felt the film ran out of energy in the later stages.  It ends on a weird, convoluted note involving a character played by Oscar winner Chris Cooper (Adaptation) and, for use a better term, the world’s first recorded voice mail message.  Paul Mescal (Aftersun) and Josh O’Connor (God’s Own Country) portray their introverted roles with the right balance of kindness and apprehension.  They’re nice performances but once their respective characters become separated in the film’s second half, we lose their engagement and the narrative is less interesting.

Chosen to screen in competition at the Cannes Film Festival back in May, The History of Sound is worth a look-see but the emotional resonance could have been stronger.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 December 2025

Families aren’t always harmonious, as we tend to be reminded of every year at Christmas, which makes the Boxing Day release of Sentimental Value appropriate.  It’ll be humorous to some and cathartic to others.  The film also arrives with big wraps having won the runner-up prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, earned Norway’s submission for best international feature film at the Oscars, and featured on a glut of critics’ top 10 lists (including my own).

Directed and co-written by Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), his new outing deals with forgiveness and legacy.  Gustav Borg (Skarsgård) is an acclaimed filmmaker who has, for the most part, put work ahead of family.  He seems happy with that decision.  He’s a “career man” who, driven by a mix of art and ego, has always wanted to leave a small mark on the world.  Critics say his best years are behind him, but he still travels the world, attends retrospectives of his works, and speaks openly at audience Q&A sessions.

His highly touted professional reputation does not align with his personal one in that he’s semi-estranged from his two grown daughters, Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Lilleaas).  The older they’ve become, the more they’ve realised dad wasn’t there for them growing up.  Gustav would prioritise his filmmaking, and when you throw in a lengthy stint of alcoholism, it’s no surprise the two women have built a world independent of his influence.  Nora is the most resentful of the pair.

Their separation is about to end with the 70-something-year-old Gustav wanting to make one last “great” movie and in the process, reconcile with Nora by casting her in the lead role.  From our perspective as the audience, they’re intriguing characters to study.  What is driving Gustav?  Is he only doing this because he’s a washed-up director looking to use his daughter to heighten his legacy?  Or is trying to make good after decades of neglect and set her up for an acting career?  How should the cynical Nora react?  After decades of drama, which have resulted in phobias and distress, can she fully put that side and trust her dad?  Does he deserve forgiveness?

Sentimental Value is absorbing from start to finish.  It opens with a poetic, reflective monologue where Nora, as a child, describes what it would be like if a physical house had feelings.  We are then treated to four outstanding central performances.  They’re all messed up, to varying extents, and are skilly played by Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning.  I haven’t mentioned Fanning yet but she’s sensational as an intelligent Hollywood starlet being courted by Gustav for his new movie.  Loved the nuance she brings to the role!

With lovely flourishes of humour (e.g. a Netflix reference, Gustav lying to Elle about the screenplay’s origins), Sentimental Value is one of the year’s best releases.  I’m not sure what’s in the water in Scandinavia but their ability to deliver wonderful cinema year-after-year is something to be proud of.