T H U R S D A Y 0 3 S E P T ED M B E R -
W E D N E S D A Y 0 9 S E P T E M B E Rr 2 0 2 6
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The Wellington Film Society, Monday 7 September at 6.00pm and 8.30pm :
THE QUIET EARTH Geoff Murphy, New Zealand, 1985
A powerful study of loneliness, the film hinges on Bruno Lawrence's understated but profoundly sympathetic performance. Zac is just complex and unreasonable enough to remain interesting when doing nothing whilst remaining someone most people in the audience will be able to identify with. At the time of release, when most films in the genre featured assertive, traditionally masculine men, his ordinariness had a profound appeal, and Lawrence always makes him feel real... The great strength of this film is not in anything technical or visually spectacular (both these elements are used sparingly) but in its human focus. The simplicity of its structure and core idea mean that it has aged much better than most of its peers, and unlike most similarly high concept films, it doesn't fall apart at the end but successfully ups the ante. Most of the cinematography is low key, so that when it wants to dazzle it can easily do so, and Geoff Murphy is a director who understands that less is often more. The quietness with the film lets it build up tension stealthily, putting Murphy in complete control, until the clamour of what is unspoken builds to a crescendo.
- Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film.
Members only.
Film Society Memberships are available at any time on line.
Film Festivals to note:
The Italian Film Festival runs in Wellington this year in October between the 9th and the 15th.. at The Embassy, The Roxy and the Penthouse. Find the programme on line or at the venues.
If you have a festival due to run in Wellington and it's not listed here, contact the Cinemaster.
This site relies on the various cinemas having their own websites up to date to access their screening times.
The paragraphs describing the films starting this week are in most cases adapted from the linked reviews.
For comments and movie news, contact the Cinemaster at
filmster@gmail.com.
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s t a r t s t h i s w e e k!
LOMU -
Much more than a documentary charting the rise of New Zealand's first rugby mega-star, this is an intriguing look at the other side of the Tongan rugby legend. It deserves to be seen; in some ways, it's a surprising film that is more than just a film about a sportsman who shaped the New Zealand collective psyche - it's painfully raw, emotive and ultimately uplifting. From the NZIFF.
Also Penthouse, Lighthouse, Queensgate, Monterey, Reading, Coastlands and Shoreline.
BY ANY MEANS -
This is a 2026 crime thriller starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg, inspired by true events, where a young Black FBI agent partners with a notorious mafia hitman to investigate civil rights leader killings in 1960s Mississippi. New Age Ceo at an early screening gave it a 10/10 and said it was the best movie he's seen in a while.
Also Queensgate, Monterey and Reading.
TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA -
Jane Schoenbrun pulls off the trick of inventing an imaginary media phenomenon and treating it with complete fan-seriousness in this slasher movie franchise about a teen transgender killer who periodically emerges from a lake in a sleepaway camp where scantily clad young people will be brutally speared. Strange and eccentric, but carried off with commitment and even passion. From the NZIFF.
FALL 2; DEADPOINT -
Directed by Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig. This time, they're moving from a giant tower in the desert to one big-ass mountain in Thailand. The sequel follows two climbers who become trapped thousands of feet above the ground during a dangerous climb, where sheer exposure and impossible odds transform their journey into a fight for survival.
Also Monterey.
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