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The New Daily (Australia)

The New Daily (Australia) is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Stephen A. Russell.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
4/5
August: Osage County (2013) Stephen A. Russell August: Osage County captivates for every second of its two hours of spectacularly awful behaviour. Worth it for the battle of wills between Roberts and Streep alone, when the two finally come to blows, quite literally, it's sheer cinematic gold
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Stephen A. Russell Liman deftly orchestrates the destruction, ensuring it doesn't sink into mind-numbing Transformers fare. Blunt and Cruise invest a great deal of heart in their action heroics, thankfully minimising the hokum romance angle.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
5/5
Omar (2013) Stephen A. Russell With Omar he has delivered an incredibly powerful story in a lean 90 minutes, a commendable economy that should be a lesson to the ever-increasing number of directors who believe a film must run to two-hour plus to deliver emotional weight.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
The Skeleton Twins (2014) Stephen A. Russell It will have you guffawing wildly at a perfectly judged lip synch dance off to Jefferson Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now one minute, then sobbing surreptitiously into your sleeve.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Interstellar (2014) Stephen A. Russell None of these characters feel fully-fledged... for a film so rife with schmaltzy musings on the meaning of life, it's alarming how lacking it is in this department.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
The Volcano (2013) Stephen A. Russell If you go in expecting a good dose of silly fun that looks good without boasting any major smarts, you may just find yourself erupting in laughter.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Stephen A. Russell There's a tantalising darkness just beneath the surface of Anderson's trademark whacky whimsy in his latest offering, The Grand Budapest Hotel, making it one of the year's most unforgettable films
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
5/5
12 Years a Slave (2013) Stephen A. Russell It may have taken its time to daunder down under, garnering plenty of awards buzz behind it, but late January finally saw Steve McQueen's impeccably crafted slavery epic hit our shores, and boy was the eventual Best Picture Oscar-winner worth the wait.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Snowpiercer (2013) Stephen A. Russell Insanely brilliant.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Whiplash (2014) Stephen A. Russell What makes musical genius? Is it inherent, or does it have to be dragged kicking, screaming and bleeding from you?
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
My Old Lady (2014) Stephen A. Russell With a fair few unpredictable twists and an avoidance, for the most part, of more overt romantic tropes, My Old Lady is a fascinating chamber piece, even if it is all a bit too rosy at the end after thoroughly raking up the dirt.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
5/5
Boyhood (2014) Stephen A. Russell The simplicity of story in Linklater's Boyhood, following the not-overly eventful life of six-year-old Mason till he leaves home for college as a teen, is an incredible cinematic achievement.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Charlie's Country (2013) Stephen A. Russell Gulpilil, as the eponymous Charlie, dreams of returning to his people and traditional way of life, setting out on a quest across the unforgiving yet ethereally beautiful bush. He's a joy to watch.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Force majeure (2014) Stephen A. Russell The aftermath, played out against the imposing beauty of the Alps and the vast wooden hallways of a sparsely stylish hotel, is fraught with riveting tension, only exacerbated by Ola Flottum's soaring score.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
5/5
Nightcrawler (2014) Stephen A. Russell Dan Gilroy's pitch black satire of the 24/7 news cycle and our morbid fascination with the misery of others is a devious delight.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
Maps to the Stars (2014) Stephen A. Russell From celestial bodies to those rather grubbier, Cronenberg's biting satire of Hollywood, both its self-obsessed stars and its whacked-out fans, is trippy and viciously rewarding.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Stephen A. Russell Nothing much of note happens, despite their tenuous living arrangement seemingly likely to derail at any moment, but the undeniably rich world in which these fantastic players work their dark magic is thrillingly alive.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Locke (2013) Stephen A. Russell Writer/director Steven Knight wrests a commendable amount of emotional turmoil from the material, with a strange sort of poetry wrought from cement mix.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Under the Skin (2013) Stephen A. Russell A genre oddity of the utmost excellence
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Particle Fever (2013) Stephen A. Russell Levinson studied particle physics at Berkley, but despite clearly possessing a gargantuan brain, this fabulous whistle-stop tour of the Hadron Collider and the clever and surprisingly cool boffins ... never makes you feel out of your depth
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
52 Tuesdays (2013) Stephen A. Russell Sophie Hyde's breathtaking feature debut 52 Tuesdays explores the boundaries of both cinema and gender identity in a seamless way.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
The Infinite Man (2014) Stephen A. Russell It's a head-scratcher, but one packed full of witty fun and electric chemistry.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Swiss Army Man (2016) Stephen A. Russell A bizarre buddy comedy hybrid of Tom Hanks' Castaway and the Ryan Gosling-led Lars and the Real Girl, Swiss Army Man is provocative and yet endearingly absurd.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
2/5
Passengers (2016) Stephen A. Russell What he does next is unforgivable, as is his duplicitous cover up, but perhaps a smarter, bleaker film could have played it as a brutal moral dilemma faced by a desperate man who must then face the consequences.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) Stephen A. Russell By the final-act showdown with a much larger threat, you may find yourself inadvertently tearing up. Family can be tough, but then, love usually is.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
2/5
Ghost in the Shell (2017) Stephen A. Russell Directed in pedestrian fashion by Rupert Sanders of Snow White and the Huntsman ignominy, Ghost in the Shell is both boring and derivative. What's more, the casting is an even bigger problem than expected.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
5/5
Jackie (2016) Stephen A. Russell Larraín's first English-language feature, the battle between privacy and public expectation is at the heart of this staggering movie.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
Tickled (2016) Stephen A. Russell The insane levels of aggression levelled at anyone who walks away tips this fascinating story from one of awkwardly uncomfortable comedy to something much more unsettling, a disturbing thriller of unimaginable psychological abuse and cyber-bullying.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
Down Under (2016) Stephen A. Russell Hard to watch at times, that's the point of a comedy trying to expose a thorny topic still dividing Australia, an approach we could use a lot more of.
Posted Aug 26, 2020  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Okja (2017) Stephen A. Russell Sadly, the horror and humour are dead on arrival. Despite an all-star cast featuring Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal and Paul Dano, the performances are also wildly bad.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Girls Trip (2017) Stephen A. Russell Saucy laughs land rapid fire
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Killing Ground (2016) Stephen A. Russell Working well-worn horror tropes, Power energises them with the taut, split narrative involving the peril of another family with a toddler.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
5/5
God's Own Country (2017) Stephen A. Russell One of the finest films about love in many years, hot on the heels of Oscar-winning Moonlight, God's Own Country feels like the film we need right now in the midst of Australia's marriage equality debate.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Ali's Wedding (2017) Stephen A. Russell Boosted by goofy humour, Sami embraces rom-com tropes including a mad dash to the airport, playfully mucking around with Muslim stereotypes in the way only an insider can.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
2.5/5
mother! (2017) Stephen A. Russell It all goes horribly wrong in the ridiculous finale
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Stephen A. Russell irected by New Zealand's Taika Waititi, it's the daftest movie from the comic book studio to date, shot through with the anarchically quirky humour in Waititi's films like What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Boy.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
It (2017) Stephen A. Russell The young cast is excellent, but focusing solely on them lessens the haunted weight of the novel. Their backstories feel a little rushed, suggesting It would have been better served as a Stranger Things-style mini-series
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) Stephen A. Russell Kidman expertly conveys a mother's determination to do anything it takes to protect her family in the face of her husband's failure, even if that necessitates an impossible sacrifice.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Flammable Children (2018) Stephen A. Russell It's a full-throttle 90 minutes of sensory overload on '70s interiors and heinous fashion, but there's also an undercurrent of just how hard it can be for teenagers to push away from parents and find their own identity.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
Incredibles 2 (2018) Stephen A. Russell In a movie brimming with girl power, writer/director Bird sees brawny bruiser Mr Incredible benched and Elastigirl and her more discerning approach to vigilante heroics put in the electric motorcycle-driving seat.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
1/5
The Nun (2018) Stephen A. Russell For all its disappointment, it's unlikely The Nun will be the last we see of this bad habit as long as those staggering numbers remain undead.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Annihilation (2018) Stephen A. Russell Yes, it's weird, but in a soul-searchingly haunting way that shares DNA with Arrival, particularly its non-linear structure revealing Lena's love life, spliced with alien first contact.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
3/5
Hereditary (2018) Stephen A. Russell I found myself laughing at, not with, Hereditary's hammiest horror moments, culminating in a truly awful ending that spells everything out and yet is still riddled with plot holes big enough to bury a desecrated body in.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
1/5
The Predator (2018) Stephen A. Russell In 1987 Shane Black played Hawkins, the first of Arnold Schwarzenegger's burly soldiers to get brutally eviscerated by the dreadlocked alien hunter. If only this was the death of his involvement in a franchise that has rotted from the head down ever since
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
3.5/5
A Star Is Born (2018) Stephen A. Russell The trajectory of a doubting girl made famous by the love of a damaged man is beginning to feel a bit hoary in 2018
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
First Man (2018) Stephen A. Russell Combining breathtaking, claustrophobic cabin sequences that feel like you're being shot into space in a shoebox, with Ryan Gosling's restrained-but-pained performance as Neil Armstrong, a grieving father focused on the mission, it's a powerhouse.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
2/5
The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) Stephen A. Russell Playing out like a boring Bond stripped of that franchise's knowing humour, the fight sequences are thoroughly unimpressive, as are the snoozesome car chases.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
4/5
Mandy (2018) Stephen A. Russell As a bereaved lover out for blood, Cage is unstintingly, resolutely fantastic in the hack 'n' slash 1980s genre homage.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
5/5
Custody (2017) Stephen A. Russell Taking us inside the harrowing reality of a woman's struggle to be believed, freeing herself and her kids from her abusive ex-husband, this razor-sharp revelation of a movie cuts to the bone.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) Stephen A. Russell There's no denying El Royale's secret weapon. No, not all the smuggled guns everyone's packing, but the stunning vocals and magnetic delivery of Tony Award-wining British singer-songwriter, Cynthia Erivo.
Posted Aug 19, 2020  Edit critic review
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