All User Reviews

Land of Storms
7/10 by CinemaSerf October 10, 2025
Quite a well told story of a young footballer ("Szabi") who quits his team and his overbearing father to move to Hungary where his late grandfather has left him a dilapidated old house. Once he gets there, a few of the locals try to steal his motorcycle; he catches one ("Åron") and the story tells of their budding relationship as they work to restore the house (and to keep bees!) against a backdrop of traditional ignorance, intolerance and fear. The two leads deliver convincing performances for most of the film (the sex scenes don't work at all well) as they struggle to come to terms with what…
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4 Moons
6/10 by CinemaSerf October 10, 2025
This is a cleverly constructed series of 4 interwoven dramas telling stories of gay identity. The first features a young boy coming to terms with an infatuation at school and the consequences; the second with two best friends at school who reunite as young adults and discover there is more to their friendship; the third is an established couple going through their almost obligatory, irrational, relationship menopause and finally an older (married with a family) professor who frequents a sauna where he falls for a young prostitute trying to raise money to flee from Mexico to the USA. In themsel…
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The Way He Looks
by CinemaSerf October 10, 2025
This is a lovely, gentle film about a blind lad (Ghilherme Lobo). At school he meets new student (Fabio Audi) who helps him on his quest for independence from his loving, but overbearingly controlling parents; from his best girlfriend "Giovana" (Tess Amorim) and from the practical limitations of his visual impairment. Slowly, they fall for each other and this becomes a story about identity and confidence. The plot isn't going to surprise you; but the performances are strong and convincing and the dialogue flows well too. There's a good bit of Belle & Sebastian music thrown in, too.…
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Monster Pies
6/10 by CinemaSerf October 10, 2025
A genuinely engaging Aussie film about a lad who comes to a new school, ends up on a project with a geeky-looking classmate and they slowly fall for each other. It's clearly done on a low budget and is a bit rough around the edges; but it does attempt to tackle some bigoted behavioural stereotypes and it doesn't just follow the procedural norms as it works its way to a rather grim, if ultimately empowering, conclusion.…
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Holding the Man
7/10 by CinemaSerf October 10, 2025
Based on a true story; this is a touching and moving story of a couple of young Australian men who fall in love as youngsters in the days before there was any AIDS awareness. Ryan Corr ("Tim") and Craig Matthew Scott ("Tom") are superb as they act out their joyous loving relationship (complete with it's obligatory ups and downs) and then have to face the fact that, 15 years later, one has become terminally ill. We share the traumatic journey, poignantly told as they both try to reconcile themselves to the inevitable. Guy Pearce and Geoffrey Rush star too and Anthony LaPaglia and Camilla Ah Kin…
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Cousins
6/10 by CinemaSerf October 10, 2025
This is really quite an enjoyable little story of a young lad "Lucas" (Paulo Sousa) who lives with his aunt. When his wayward cousin "Mario" (writer/co-director Thiago Cazado) comes to stay with them after a spell in jail the boys hit it off in an unexpected manner; one that the devoutly religious, and particularly naive "Auntie Lourdes" doesn't clock - or does she? It's kind and romantic - there are no angry or intolerant overtones; just a gentle consideration of the reconciliation of Catholic values and gay life with a bit of added mischief from the put-out "Julia" (Duda Esteves) who has lon…
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The Green Dinosaur
6/10 by CinemaSerf October 10, 2025
Animation artist (Piotr Polak) is struggling to find a new idea for his publisher (Helena Englert) after she rejected his latest idea around a cheeky and curious green dinosaur called “Diplo”. Oh well, back to the drawing board he thinks and begins to erase his work. Thing is, in the magical world he had already created the effects of his rubber on the paper is causing havoc, and forces the terrified young beastie to run for its life. Fortunately, the artist is frequently distracted from his destructive spree, and that allows “Diplo” to make some friends who might be able to bridge the gap bet…
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Hunger
7/10 by CinemaSerf May 31, 2025
Well nobody could ever accuse Michael Fassbender is giving half measures here in this graphic and brutal biopic of Irish Republican prisoner Bobby Sands. Shortly after Margaret Thatcher was elected in Britain, he was incarcerated in Belfast’s Maze Prison where his stance against not just the UK but the predominately Unionist views of the population of Northern Ireland at the time were seeing him and his fellow inmates living in what can only be described as squalid (though much of that was self-afflicted) conditions that would not have looked out of place in some South American dictatorship. H…
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
7/10 by kevin2019 October 10, 2025
"A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" is an extremely engaging film despite the fact that it is in the very nature of sequels that each new entry in any franchise won't match the rapidly declining standard set by the previous film and none of them will ever be as good as the original anyway because the format is bound to be played out and looking desperately tired by now. However, it is very refreshing to find out this current entry in the increasingly lucrative series is inexhaustibly imaginative and visually creative when it could have been nothing more than a disappointing exercise …
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The Crossing
8/10 by Wuchak October 9, 2025
**_Crossing the Delaware on Christmas night to take down a Hessian garrison_** Shot in April-May, 1999, this is a realistic account of George Washington’s audacious gamble precisely when his demoralized scanty army needed a victory. As for Jeff Daniels as the iconic Father of America, who would’ve thought that one of the stars of “Dumb and Dumber” could pull off the challenging role? Yet he does so superbly. While some minor things are inaccurate and included for dramatic reasons, such as what happens to General Gates, this is the next best thing to going back in history and bein…
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