STATE CINEMA
Amazing Grace (G) The perfection has long been there for all to hear. Now, with the belated release of Amazing Grace, all can finally see it too.This magically uplifting documentary leads you to a room where one of the greatest musical performances of the past century took place. The year was 1972, and singer Aretha Franklin was already renowned far and wide as ‘The Queen of Soul’. At the height of her powers as an incomparable purveyor of rhythm and blues, Franklin took the radical step of recording a live album of the gospel music that forged her golden gifts at a young age. Her record label was not thrilled, believing the project to be commercial poison. The album, titled Amazing Grace, went on to sell in the millions around the world.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (MA 15+) Attention fans of the incomparable Quentin Tarantino, the maverick filmmaker’s latest is one of his greatest. The trippily captivating Once Upon a Time in Hollywood unfolds at the close of the 1960s. Hollywood’s bright, sunshiny golden age is coming to an end. Dark clouds of change loom. In showbusiness, where it used to be all about the show in Hollywood, soon it will be all about the business. Emblematic of this seismic shift rumbling away underfoot on every soundstage and backlot across Los Angeles is Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio). He used to be one of the busier stars in town. But now the work is drying up. Nervy, needy and a bit too fond of the booze, Rick leans hard and often on the wise counsel of his longtime right-hand man, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Enough said.
Yesterday (M) Hot on the heels of Mamma Mia! (the music of ABBA), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) and Rocketman (Elton John) comes Yesterday, which can play the biggest trump card in all of popular music: the evergreen, never-fail back catalogue of classics that belong to The Beatles. The odd thing is, Yesterday never quite figures out how to make the most of the sizeable sonic head-start it has on the rest of the pack.
Palm Beach (M) Your mission from Palm Beach, should you choose to accept it, is to spend a wine-soaked, whine-riddled weekend on Sydney’s glorious Northern Beaches. Your host will be Bryan Brown, and for company, you shall join an exclusive entourage of mates, missuses and miscellaneous offspring. What follows is a rolling group-therapy session for the biggest bunch of moneyed-up mopers you could ever have the misfortune to meet.This beautifully filmed and sumptuously catered cavalcade of comfortable discomfort would be just about bearable if the acting, writing or direction could rustle anything relatable from the glam gathering. As Marie Antoinette might have said had she lived in Palm Beach, let them eat potato cakes.