Always Good Movies

Direction: George Miller
Country: Australia

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise and a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), exploring the early life of Imperator Furiosa. Anya Taylor-Joy plays the title character with passionate commitment, bringing to life a new heroic figure in Gorge Miller’s post-apocalyptic universe. Kidnapped by wild motorcyclists, Furiosa falls into the hands of warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) before left at mercy of another tyrant, Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). As she grows up, revenge becomes her sole focus.

Miller does not reinvent the wheel here, and the film is not entirely satisfying. However, a few sequences may leave you holding your breath. Despite CGI imagery increasing artificiality - some scenes resemble Dantesque animated sequences - the action surpasses the basic plot. This cult-film venture oozes blood, motor oil, and biter tears in an incessant chaos set against desert backdrops. I'm just worried it's not good enough considering its potential.

Bouncing around to sometimes memorable effect, the film only soars intermittently, amassing tension ahead of a climax that might feel underwhelming. It’s consistently caustic and dynamic, although never outright challenging.

Direction: George Miller
Country: USA

From the creator of Mad Max, the writer-director George Miller, Three Thousand Years of Longing showcases a reserved Tilda Swinton as Alithea, a respected professor in a comfortable white robe, and Idris Elba as a wish-granting, size-shifting Djinn inadvertently released from the bottle that was holding him prisoner for so long.

The film, an uninspired adaptation of the short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt, is marred by an overflow of images with arguable special effects and also discussions that drag on with convoluted meaning. Overall, it lacks emotion, and only the cinematography by John Seale (he worked with Miller on Mad Max: Fury Road) is something one should take into consideration.

In Istanbul, in the sequence of Alithea’s difficulty in making three wishes for herself, the Djinn feels compelled to tell his restless 3000-year story marked by the presences of the biblical figure Queen of Sheba (Aamito Lagum), the knowledge-seeker Zefir (Burcu Gölgedar), and the irascible Sultan Suleiman (Lachy Hulme). With a tone that teeters between delicate and affected, this fantasy drama has no claws to be of more than passing interest. Basically, it fails to achieve what it tries to claim: the power of a deeply engaging narrative.