Year: 2015

Last week, Arnold Schwarzenegger came to Sydney alongside co-star Jai Courtney to showcase a special preview of his return to the mega successful Terminator franchise, Genisys. The film opens on July 1st around the country.  While in town, Arnold got photos with fans, selfies with the Sydney Opera House and attended the special screening… among…

The anticipated new Pixar film Inside Out – the first release from the acclaimed animation studio since 2013’s Monsters University – will be premiering in Sydney, Australia next week (Monday, June 15th), ahead of its nstional release on Thursday, June 18th. And to help launch the film, one of the stars of the film, Amy Poehler,…

The stories of the mountaineers who climb Everest has long been documented and fictionalised on our screens. From the 1934 documentary short Wings Over Everest to the 1997 tele-movie Into Thin Air, based on the book of the same name, telling the stories of the men who battle the conditions of one of the most…

The names Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp may not mean much to you unless you know that they were the unlikely managers of The Who during the sixties and early seventies. The pair are a rather odd couple and they’re also the subject of a documentary by James D. Cooper. The result is a vibrant…

Get on Up was the entrée, a biopic on the inimitable, James Brown. But Oscar-winner, Alex Gibney’s documentary, Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown is the more substantial, main course. For over two hours the audience is treated to a film that is full of music and flamboyance, from old performances on stage and…

Jennifer Peedom’s Sherpa is worthy of praise for maintaining it’s focus when it could have easily been lost in the majestic and overwhelming beauty of Mount Everest. The team behind this documentary explore the increasingly strained relationship between the international climbing community and the Sherpas who make such climbs possible, effectively capturing the anxiety that…

I’ve often been intrigued by the idea of what would happen if you flip a movie on its head. Market it as one thing and then turn it into something completely different. Something that surprises. Something that gets people talking. Imagine, for instance, if Hostel (2005) had been marketed as a raunchy teen comedy? The idea…

The world of music biopic is always a tricky affair. Trying to balance enough rock and roll fantasy and/or exaggeration with reality to create an engaging but honest story about an iconic musician can often serve itself up as a disappointment (De-Lovely and Beyond the Sea are two that immediately come to mind). Focusing on…

  The gifted Thomas Salvador directs and stars in Vincent (2014), a French film that tells the story of a man named Vincent who develops extraordinary superpowers when he comes in contact with water. With his recently discovered ability, Vincent spends much of his time in the water, taking in the awe and wonder that comes with developing…

“There will be no subtitles, dialogue, or voiceover” is our introduction to The Tribe, a surprisingly shocking film about a state boarding deaf-school in Kiev, with it’s own seedy underbelly of crime and Lord of the Flies type brutality. Director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky delves into the miserable and calmly observes the bleak, dog-eat-dog world that is…

To celebrate fifty years since the release of “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, Normie Rowe brings FRENZY! – The 50th Anniversary Collection. The new album features 30 of his hits from 1965-1968 remastered for 2015. I spoke to Normie before he hits the road again for his album launch dates – which kick off today!

Long time friends of the AU, Chicks Who Love Guns, are set to play their final show in Sydney tomorrow afternoon, following five years of fun times and great music. The band will hit the stage at 5pm at the Lord Gladstone Hotel, and will be preceded by some other great bands from Sydney you…

Over 86 minutes, this chilling documentary details how a (very) small, quiet town in North Dakota slowly transformed into a breeding ground for hatred and paranoia over the course of a few months. It’s easy to watch Welcome to Leith as a highly effective thriller, forgetting that the events going down in the film actually…

On the surface Last Cab To Darwin is not just a film about euthanasia, but a film about the people you meet on the greatest journey you take of all, living the one single life you have. A road movie that’s a drama with heart and emotion at its core and a cast of genuine…

Station to Station isn’t so much a feature film as it is a travelling art experiment, the execution of a concept born years prior that is now travelling the globe. The film documents a train as it travelled from the Atlantic (we presume Union Station in NYC) to the Pacific (we presume Union Station in…

Every mention of Lily Tomlin is preceded by “the incomparable” because it’s a universal truth, but the famed American comedian has been a rare sight on the big screen in recent years, featuring primarily in supporting roles in TV series like Web Therapy and Malibu Country. Thankfully that drought is over, with not only her…

Being an adult is hard. Relationships are hard. Making new friends is hard. Exercising and eating right is hard. Having big dreams is hard. But what we really want is the result. The thing at the end of all that hard work that makes it worthwhile. Sometimes getting to that point can be a little…

Kim Farrant’s Strangerland has a magical and mythical quality to it, making full use of the Australian outback with rich, rocky-red landscape shots that swallow the film’s characters in expansive, ambitious cinematography. But while visually impressive, Strangerland’s flaws lie in a commitment to ambiguity, presenting itself as one thing and then veering off into another…

In our 53rd instalment of “Stumbled Upon”, we stay in Seattle to meet self-described ‘barf-core/fart-core’ rockers (and all round legends) Mommy Long Legs, and chat about their latest release Life Rips. Band Name: Mommy Long Legs Website / Social Media: Facebook / Bandcamp Genre: Rock Members & their roles: Lilly – Guitar/Vocals Melissa – Guitar/vocals…

We’re excited to, rather belatedly, present you this exclusive video of Goldheist (Hester Fraser) performing “Not My Fault” live at the second AU sessions series in Sydney, Australia. We run the AU sessions the last Tuesday of every month – and our next event will be on June 30th. Find out who’s playing HERE. And…

For singer songwriter and musician Amy Winehouse the last couple of years of her life were fodder for tabloids and the entertainment news machine monster. You may not have been a fan of her music but you were familiar with her and her drug-fuelled antics. But sometimes what gets overlooked when her name is brought…

Isabella Patterson’s arrival into the lives of a group of people in New York City brings about a chain reaction akin to a relationship shit-storm in Peter Bogdanovich’s new film, She’s Funny That Way, now showing as part of this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Originally written 15 years ago, it is now seeing the light…

The Daughter is the second Australian film screening at the Sydney Film Festival this year to be adapted from a play (or, more accurately in this case, “inspired by”) that originally appeared at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney – that being Simon Stone’s 2011 adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck (the other, Cowell’s Ruben…

Madame Bovary is a pleasant film but it’s an unnecessary adaption. The iconic novel by Gustave Flaubert has been adapted multiple times for film and television over the past few years. But what distinguishes this latest offering is that it is the first one to be directed by a female (Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls)). Here,…

The Golden Age Cinema & Bar in Sydney will play host to a program of Studio Ghibli favourites, including several screenings of the newest Ghibli film When Marnie Was There. The film is an adaptation of Joan G. Robinson‘s 1968 British novel of the same name. The film follows Anna Sasaki, an orphan in foster…

With Jurassic World returning us to the iconic cinematic series next Thursday, June 11th, and The Good Dinosaur releasing in November through the masters at Pixar, the prehistoric creatures are getting some pretty high exposure on the big screen this year. But dinosaurs have been a feature of cinema since the days of silent cinema…

Jim Murphy, director of Pixar’s newest short film Lava sat down with us at SXSW to talk about the beauty of showing shorts before features, how he approached creating the film, pitching ideas to Pixar, and more. The film will be premiering in Australia later this month, playing before Inside Out, which premieres on June…

As far as burgers go, Jimmy “The Burger Lord” Hurlston, also known as the man behind Jimmy’s Burgers, just may be the most experienced and well-traveled guy in history. He has spent years trekking all over the world tackling one of the most famous food creations of all time, attempting to eat, record, and review…

Note: This review contains some spoilers of the film and the original play. “How brave of you to stop drinking alcohol in this alcoholic country” – Zoya (Abbey Lee) With a penchant for young girls, alcohol and most of life’s vices (as well as a “me before you” attitude), Ruben Guthrie isn’t a particularly likeable guy….

Magic Mike XXL picks up three years after Mike bowed out of the stripper life at the top of his game. The sequel finds the remaining Kings of Tampa likewise ready to throw in the towel. But they want to do it their way: burning down the house in one last blow-out performance in Myrtle Beach, and…