Andreas Heinemann

Widowed college professor Walter Vale leads an aimless, unsatisfied life until he becomes embroiled in the lives of an immigrant couple living in New York City. They fill his life with renewed energy and purpose, largely through music, before an encounter with post 9/11 immigration policies intensifies the relationship and tests their newly forged connection. […]

It seems that romantic comedies are moving away from their sweet as sugar roots and incorporating a ruder, coarser approach to getting laughs. Similar to outings like Wedding Crashers and Knocked Up, My Best Friend’s Girl touches up the traditionally girly template with a liberal dose of laddish laughs. What next, action blockbusters for the […]

Think of war-scarred Beirut and the last thing you’d expect it to play backdrop for is a comedy about modern women and their relationships. In fact, Caramel, a cosmopolitan slice of female solidarity gravitating around a Beirut beauty shop, is dedicated to the city in which it takes place. If nothing else, it’s refreshing to […]

Ah suburbia, one of the favourite whipping boys for creative types. Combining expert opinion on the topic with the lives of the Moss family, who are new additions to one such neighbourhood, is Radiant City – the latest slice of culture to step up and take its shot. Instead of a potentially dry audiovisual essay, […]

Aww, poor Guy Ritchie, don’t feel bad about breaking up with Madonna. She’s old and her music sucks. Plus, now you can go back to making wisecracking cockney crime capers instead of inflicting Swept Away and such on audiences around the world. Everybody wins! Firmly back in Lock, Stock territory, Ritchie’s latest revolves around a […]

To pigeonhole Florian Habicht’s Rubbings From A Live Man as a documentary does it a disservice, encouraging preconceptions of an objective film based around clearly demonstrated facts. Instead, it is a kaleidoscopic blend of doco and the unashamedly dramatic that re-imagines the life of noted local thespian Warwick Broadhead, performing on camera for the first […]

Based on the memoirs of a bitter journalist fired from uber-cool mag Vanity Fair, it’s a little surprising this movie is so nice. Hell, based on the title I’m surprised it’s so nice. But at the risk of sounding like a joyless wanker reviewing a comedy, that’s kind of the problem with this film. Simon […]

Sounds like a horror movie doesn’t it? But no, it’s the latest British produced period drama, only this time sans Keira Knightley. Based on Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel, it’s the memoirs of Charles Ryder and his tale of love and innocence lost through dealings with the aristocratic family who own the Brideshead estate. Set between […]

The latest addition to the British gangster genre has hit local big screens. Whilst most recent examples have been fast paced, light hearted popcorn movies in the style of Guy Ritchie’s work, Rise of the Foot Soldier takes a different approach in depicting the London underworld, namely non stop, in your face violence. Based on […]

As most films based on video games turn out to be horrible messes (Streetfighter or Doom anyone?) I approached Max Payne with a reasonable amount of caution. Admittedly this project showed a lot more potential, featuring a big name cast and the game being used as source material clearly had more cinematic inspiration than most […]

Well, where is he? I don’t know, you don’t know and the American government sure don’t seem to have the answer. Maybe Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock can uncover the truth in this documentary. If he doesn’t, and I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to tell you up front he won’t, maybe […]

The Golden Palm winner at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a film about the ultimate test of friendship and black market abortions in communist era Romania. So yeah, it’s not going to do anything to change the stereotype of Eastern European cinema as bleak and depressing. It […]

A bio-pic centuries in the making, Mongol tells the story of warlord extraordinaire Genghis Khan. You may have heard of him, he’s the bloodthirsty barbarian who took over half the known world at the peak of his powers. Well, you’ll want to leave those preconceptions, and probably any fondness for historical accuracy, at the door […]

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly re-unite with their Talladega Nights director Adam McKay for Step Brothers. They play two middle-aged dead beats whose respective single parents get hitched and move the two families in under the one roof. Competition soon gives way to friendship as they reluctantly struggle away from the cosy confines of […]

Un Secret is the story of Francois, a sickly young boy growing up in 1950’s Paris to two parents who value athletic prowess having succeeded in the field in their younger years. Francois creates an imaginary brother as a coping mechanism, embodying all that he lacks in his parent’s eyes. The combination of his active […]

Normally, I don’t dig the Oscar bait holocaust movies, because they’re fundamentally flawed on a couple of levels. The underlying message that the holocaust was abhorrent is obvious, while visual attempts to depict the horrors can’t help but be weak, watered down approximations of what really happened. The Counterfeiters however is a different beast from […]

Two of the martial arts genre’s most celebrated sons, Jet Li and Jackie Chan, appear together for the first time in The Forbidden Kingdom. Li had previously stated that he was done with Kung Fu flicks, but the Weinstein brothers must have flashed their cheque books because he’s back again. Chan, on the other hand, […]