Misogyny hangs over Blade Runner 2049 as blithely as the fog of the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles it portrays. While that’s not unusual for science-fiction epics with a substantially male audience, director Denis Villeneuve has made a two-and-a-half-hour film that, in its eagerness to have the audience linger over every point about artificial life developing authentic human emotions, feels more like four hours. By Kurt Jensen.

Roberto Benigni’s World War II drama, Life Is Beautiful (La Vita e’ Bella) is one of Italy’s most celebrated and beloved films. Winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Actor and Best Foreign Language Film; Life is Beautiful wowed audiences and critics around the world when it was released in 1997. Twenty years later, the Italian classic returns to the big screen at the Lavazza Italian Film Festival. By Daniele Foti-Cuzzola.

Naples, the home of pizza, pasta fazu and as Dean Martin famously crooned – amore (love), takes centre stage in Director Gianluca Ansanelli’s hilarious romantic comedy, From Naples with Love (Troppo Napoletano). The charming family friendly film celebrates love among all ages and is in itself a love letter to Ansanelli’s own birth city, Naples. By Daniele Foti-Cuzzola.

This British-American film is based loosely on a book of the same name written by Shrabani Basu in 2010. It tells the story of the relationship between Queen Victoria and an Indian Muslim commoner, Abdul Karim, in late 19th century England. Queen Victoria (Judi Dench), is lonely after the death of friend and servant John Brown, and she forms an ‘unlikely’ attachment to Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal). By Peter Sheehan.

A self-identified romantic comedy built around a priest’s struggle with his vocation is bound to be doubtful fare for viewers of faith. And so it proves with The Good Catholic.

When a group of 24 pilgrims took part in the Camino Salvado Pilgrimage from Subiaco to New Norcia last week, they took with them a valuable resource: a booklet reflecting on the life of Benedictine Bishop Rosendo Salvado, after whom the Camino is named.

Dr Ryan Messmore has broadcast his love life to the world.
The Catholic theologian, who is based in Brisbane. Queensland, has written a book about his four-year courtship and subsequent marriage to his wife Karin Messmore. Born to a devout Methodist family as one of triplets and later became an Anglican then a Catholic, Dr Messmore said writing a book had always been in the pipeline. By Emilie Ng.

The annulment process provides the unusual courtroom setting for the romantic drama The Tribunal (Freestyle). While the movie’s Catholic values are strong, they come filtered through some faulty filmmaking.
Divorced musician Joe Seacker pursues a decree of nullity so that he can wed his devout girlfriend, Emily Vanderslice. However, his case requires the testimony of his estranged former bandmate and best friend, Tony Mirakul. By John Mulderig.

Most of the mayhem wreaked by the figurine-haunting demon at the centre of the horror prequel Annabelle: Creation is restrained. Yet, as the film progresses, director David Sandberg and his collaborators allow their imagery to become briefly but disturbingly graphic. Accordingly, only those grown moviegoers willing to brave flashes of intense gore should say hello to this particular dolly. By John Mulderig.

Anyone who’s endured the ignominy of grinding poverty with an alcoholic, out-of-work parent understands that there’s nothing ennobling about the experience. It’s something to endure, to escape if one can. The screen version of Jeannette Walls’ 2005 account of her impoverished youth entitled The Glass Castle, the viewer sees a cheery gloss on everything, as if all the excruciating history was somehow not as bad as it seems.