Year: 2014

The Travelling Film Festival, an inititative of Sydney Film Festival, is returning in August. The Festival will be held in the town of Casula in NSW from August 1st until August 3rd and will bring with it five diverse feature films from around the globe, as well as two short films. The program will take…

Now in its 35th year, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal – or the Montreal Jazz Festival to us non-Francophones – is one of the world’s best known music events, sitting alongside New Orleans and Montreux as the most respected of the Jazz world. Today brings to an end their 2014 calendar, which saw…

Recently celebrating the landmark sitcom’s 25th Anniversary, the world has begun to reflect on Seinfeld, a show which has had an unparalleled impact on popular culture. The ‘show about nothing’ got off to a lukewarm start in it’s beginning seasons, but ended with an entire globe of TV addicts in tears as the show came…

2010 film Easy Money was a runaway hit in Sweden (so much so that a US remake with Zac Efron is in the works). The film, based on the novel of the same name by Jens Lapidus, centred on Stockholm’s gangland wars, with multiple stories of the descent into darkness culminating in one fatal, climactic…

The Possible Worlds Film Festival is coming back in 2014, and this year’s program looks better than ever! Celebrating its ninth year, the Festival presents an incredible selection of the best new independent films from the US and Canada. The Festival is presented by Cosmos Tours and run by non-profit The Festivalists. This year’s Festival…

I know there are time when you have watched Community and sat there wishing you could talk to Shirley about life, religion, and everything in between (at least I hope I’m not alone on this one). Today from 5:30pm to 6pm (AEST) you’ll get your chance. The bubbly Yvette Nicole Brown – who plays Shirley…

The Melbourne CBD is currently hosting a sci-fi/pop culture fan’s wildest dream right now, with the guests of this weekend’s Oz Comic-Con event settling into their hotel rooms and the city they’re calling home for the next few days. The pop culture convention, kicking off at the Royal Exhibition Building over tomorrow and Sunday, is…

Spooks and Spirits­ is the story of thirty-somethings Ingi (Gísli Örn Garðarsson) and Anna (Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir), a happy couple on the verge of starting the next big chapter of their lives together. Anna’s father, Ófeigur (Þórhallur Sigurðsson) is recently deceased and the couple plans to sell his house in favour of somewhere more family-oriented. But when Ófeigur makes an…

The cautionary tale of never taking anything for granted has been featured on film many many times before, but in this feature documentary film, When I Walk, filmmaker Jason DaSilva chronicles his life with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), from the moment his legs failed on him to the present day. And it’s anything but your typical…

Welcome to Zombie country! Mountain Sheep (producers of Ice Rage, KingHunt and Bike Baron) have moved on from the ‘Furries’ of their original iOS release and thankfully broadened their horizons, adding to an already popular Minigore game with a Zombie laden multi-platform sequel. Simple gaming aesthetics, a new view option and some interesting special guests add to the gory…

the AU review interviewed Geelong group The Evening Cast while they were in Sydney for their “Questions” singles tour. We talk about the single, the tour, their upcoming music and more! Final show of the tour will be held on the 12th of July at The Grace Emily in Adelaide, SA.

As we mourn the loss of the Socceroos and continue to enjoy some incredible games of football, today we turn our attention to the food and drink of Brazil – which, thanks to Brazilian Style Imports is easier to experience in Australia than you might think. Established in 2007, the company now supplies over 500…

So we have come to the end of what was once one of the most popular cable shows on TV. Over the years, the quantity of viewership has regressed right along with the quality of writing, with the show’s relevance relying too much on it’s often likable characters to carry some ridiculously lame plots. Over…

Horrible Bosses was a huge surprise when it was released in 2011. The film came out of nowhere and ended up being one of the funniest films in recent years, due largely to its creative and somewhat dark premise: what if three friends decided to kill each others bosses? The film was a hit critically and…

Community fans rejoice! After hearing the devastating news in May that NBC were cancelling the brilliant and clever Community, things did not look promising. Even though the show was being shopped around various studios in the hope of finding it a new home, it was never certain that we would ever get another season of the show. But…

Fans of Billy Elliot and stage musicals in general will have the incredible chance to see a live performance of the internationally celebrated stage show Billy Elliot the Musical. A special performance of the show will be filmed live on September 28th in London’s West End, and broadcast in cinemas across Australia on Sunday October 5th. The show,…

  I don’t feel like I’m speaking with a member of a multi-million blockbuster film franchise when I’m speaking with New Zealand’s Dean O’Gorman. His role as Fili in Peter Jackson’s recent film adaptation of the Tolkien-created mythology that is The Hobbit is now golden fodder for fanfic writers around the world and with the…

Well we all knew Transformer: Age of Extinction would open big, but did we know it would open this big? The fourth film in Michael Bay’s action franchise took $8.8 million in its Australian opening weekend, giving it the biggest Aussie opening of the year by overtaking May’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. The film also had the biggest US…

Local singer-songwriter Riley Pearce spent the majority of the first half of this year in America on exchange. Saturday night saw Pearce and his band play their first headlining show since his return to Australia and Perth. Those of you who follow Pearce on Facebook are no doubt already be aware that his time overseas…

Larry meets Joan Wasser aka Joan as Policewoman to talk about her latest record The Classic, collaborating with Paul Noonan, Reggie Watts and her upcoming Pygmy Flute Singing project. of course, we also talk about her Australian tour! She plays Lizottes in Newcastle tonight ahead of two nights at The Basement in Sydney.

Remi Gallego (aka The Algorithm) has been bringing a unique sound of harsh electronica and crunchy beats on a new album called Octopus4, being released on the back of his appearances at the Big Day Out. Here he talks about video games and Wil Smith. Both very much related to his own work. You were…

Marvel will be taking their biggest cinematic risk so far when they release Guardians of the Galaxy next month. The epic space adventure is set to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the far reaches of space, and looks like the most exciting and different Marvel film to date. Clearly confident of the high quality of the…

  It’s only been a few months since Jason Dohring and I last saw each other. I remember it well. We were both out the front of the beautiful Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas.  His film, the crowd-funded Veronica Mars movie, was making its world premiere at SXSW and there we were on the red…

Destination: Niagara Falls, Ontario (Canada) Origin: Toronto, Ontario (Canada) Travel Time (Each Way): Two Hours In the first part of our special feature series on the Niagara Falls day trip in Canada, we literally took you inside the famous Horseshoe Falls and got a birds eye view of the natural wonder from our elevated room…

The Iris’ writers count down their top 10 films, released between January 1st and June 30th in Australia! 1. The Grand Budapest Hotel Though there are moments of unexpected violence and cruelty, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ stands as one of the most joyous experiences I’ve had in the cinema this year. Tackling feelings of loneliness…

Performing arts has always been – and will always be – fertile ground for documentary filmmaking. Clashing egos and high stakes in the pursuit of a craft is always going to be fun for a camera to follow, and we’ve seen it work multiple times over in movies like Every Little Step, Mad Hot Ballroom,…

The movie version of the musical of the same name, Jersey Boys, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel here, and director Clint Eastwood does a solid job and even manages to retain a little bit of that musical flair but it’s not altogether brilliant, nor is it terrible. We’re given the fairly routine storyline…

One country. Two men. Three cities. Two Men In China sees friends- comedian and writer, John Doyle (who is best known as “Rampaging” Roy Slaven) and scientist and activist, Tim Flannery once again taking a trip. This is the pair’s first overseas sojourn as the two have previously travelled across the Great Divide as well…

I’ve not watched a huge amount of Swedish cinema in my life, but the few films that I have watched have the same stylistic feature that has led me to believe something about Swedish dramas: that they are characterised by a distinct visual and narrative style based in honesty and stark realism. This realism is…

Exciting news, Whovians! The first teaser for Doctor Who season 8 has landed, and it’s brought a release date with it. The sci-fi powerhouse will be returning to our screens on August 23rd, which is less than two months away! Although the trailer itself doesn’t reveal much, it does involve  the new Doctor (Peter Capaldi)…