Year: 2015

the AU review sits down with Paul Saulnier of Canadian outfit PS I Love You at SXSW to talk about the festival, their latest music with For Those Who Stay, working with Paper Bag Records in Toronto, potential trips to Australia, his favourite Australian bands, evolving the live show “we’ve gotten better at it, I…

Kicking off over the weekend, it’s hard to know where to begin with the 2015 Melbourne International Comedy Festival schedule. Every night there is so much amazing comedy – both from local and international talent – that it’s a job within itself to try and decide what to see. Well, we thought we’d lend a…

the AU review sat down with Los Angeles based group AWOLNATION‘s frontman Aaron Bruno while at SXSW earlier this month. We talk about the madness of SXSW, “it’s kind of like how life on the road is in general… I think people come together at South by and experience a little bit of what it’s…

This May, the annual music festival and conference Canadian Music Week will be opening its doors to the world, shining a spotlight on Australia and New Zealand, bringing with it dozens of bands and delegates from our countries up to the great city of Toronto. Why not come and join us? Over the next two…

Last Tuesday saw the annual tradition of the APRA Music Awards hit Sydney, a celebration of the Australian music which has made the biggest impact at home and around the globe over the past 12 months. Thanks to a special between Moshcam and APRA, the “Song of the Year” live performances were recorded and streamed,…

Self-described as “darkly whimsical folktronica”, Quintessential Doll are an up-and-coming Brisbane outfit fronted by Steph Linsdell, who is today premiering her new track “Thunder Gods”, featuring the incredible vocals of Clio Em, on the AU. The genre-bending track, jumping between the words of Opera, Electronica, Indie Pop and, indeed, “folktronica”, is a stand out of…

Our most-loved songs are often from a heartbroken man. And while Goon has an undoubtedly autobiographic touch to it, Tobias Jesso Jr at least takes on the persona of any sad lover pining helplessly for what once was. Sure a whole album dedicated to heartbreak has its melodrama, but Jesso Jr brought his real-life experience…

“Conquer” gave us a heap of great acting and character moments, sprinkled it with a bit of action – courtesy of Daryl and Aaron – and a triumphant return; but it did little more than make the wait for Season 6’s premiere all the more painful. There was a lot here that we wanted to…

Every once in a while a phrase or acronym surfaces which unjustly gives legs to a social stereo­type. In The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) Director Ari Sandel applies his tongue in cheek approach to some of the more serious social undercurrents that continue to plague ‘young people’ working out their place in the world, resulting in a film…

When Ryan Gosling premiered his Directorial debut Lost River to a packed house at Cannes last year, it’s fair to say the odds were stacked against him. He couldn’t have picked harsher critics to premiere his film to. This is a crowd who have rarely been fans of Actors turned Directors. Do you remember The Brave – Johnny…

This might vilify me in the eyes of die-hard series veterans but I feel like Final Fantasy, as a series, has been in a bit of a rut for years now. And with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, we see exactly the sort of fresh perspective that could return the series to greatness.

Earlier today, a certain cat won the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for “Aussie/Kiwi’s Favourite Animal”. Before he won, we asked the infamous Tardar Sauce aka Grumpy Cat a few questions about things that are pretty unimpressive like movies, awards, and living in a world of celebrities. Yes, that’s right… we had the chance to do…

Some of the most celebrated films are returning to the big screen at Event Cinemas George St, with their In The House Program! Hosted by Channel 7’s Jason ‘Jabba’ Davis, and Quinny from Supanova Pop Culture Expo, the program features a line up that includes Blade Runner, Mad Max 2 and The Fifth Element. A…

Monday 30th March 2015 Three Kings – Go! – 10:00pm AEST David O. Russell’s Three Kings is a comedic adventure that takes places as four American soldiers set out to steal gold in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze and Ice Cube star in this fresh, unique film…

If you can imagine the Disney fairy tale animated film of the same name brought to the screen in all its resplendent glory as live action, then Kenneth Branagh’s version certainly fulfils that. A consistently visually bold film even though it does lack a sense of originality or uniqueness in the story. Regardless it’s still…

Gang culture and it’s devastating effects are never far away from the front pages of London’s newspapers. 2008 was one of the worst years for gang-related violence. The murder of Shakilus Townsend was arguably the most shocking. Honeytrap, which is based around this murder, follows Layla (Jessica Sula), the girl who would ultimately lead this young man to…

The line up for today’s A Day On the Green at Bimbadgen Winery in the Hunter Valley has a stellar line up featuring a plethora of talented musicians. The venue appears to be practically sold out as there isn’t much green left to sit on, the regular general admission punters always arrive early to grab…

The first teaser trailer for the next James Bond film, SPECTRE has just been released – and it’s a doozy. The film appears to pick up soon after the disintergration of Skyfall, depicting ruins of the bombed out headquarters still smouldering. Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) also has a surprise for Bond (Daniel Craig) – a piece…

Jake Gyllenhaal has bulked up in an epic physical transformation to play boxer Billy “The Great” Hope in Antoine Fuqua’s fighter drama SOUTHPAW. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day” and “The Equaliser”), SOUTHPAW follows the battles of a boxer (Gyllenhaal) who fights his way to the top, only to find his life falling apart around…

Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke and J.K. Simmons in new footage for Terminator Genisys When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline. Now, Sgt. Reese…

In the 33rd installment of ‘Stumbled Upon’, we meet Melbourne quartet Big Smoke, and chat about their latest track ‘Try A Little Love’, the music that inspired them and find out how they got started… Band Name: Big Smoke Website / Social Media: Facebook / Soundcloud Genre: Rock ‘n’ Roll Members & their roles: Adrian…

the AU review captures Petter Ericson Stakee – the lead vocalist and guitarist of UK (via New York) group Alberta Cross – in the AU’s pop up venue at SXSW performing their latest single “Isolation” as part of their SXSW AU Sessions series. The track comes from the forthcoming self-titled album (number three!), due out…

Talk about taking a great song and making it something even more special – Thelma Plum and Andy Bull – with the help of the Dans from Art vs Science managed to do just that, delivering a stunning cover of Dan Sultan’s “Kimberley Calling” at the APRA Awards earlier this week in Sydney. The song…

Earlier this week at the APRA Awards – which took place at Carriageworks in Sydney – artists joined together for unique collaborations to cover the songs that were nominated for APRA Song of the Year. It’s an annual tradition at the Awards and it’s always an entertaining and unique part of the night. We’ll be…

the AU review captured Brooklyn group Great Caesar in the AU’s pop up venue at SXSW performing a brand new track “Hey Jolene” as part of their SXSW AU Sessions series. Watch the full performance here: For more on the band head to: http://www.greatcaesarband.com/

Head to Texas for her fourth SXSW, Lenka has brought us back a tour diary of her return to the massive event, which was full of birthday celebrations, delayed flights and a brief few days in LA for rehearsals and Pho. Day One: Arrive in Los Angeles for rehearsals with my LA-based band, (who I’ve…

Annual Ideas festival, TEDxSydney has unveiled its 2015 Film program, giving Australians access to a wide variety of bold, thought-provoking and inspirational film debuts. You saw it here first! One of the most celebrated TEDx events in the world, TEDxSydney will take place on Thursday, 21 May 2015 at the Sydney Opera House in front…

BBC Two is preparing a 90-minute drama that focuses on the creation of, and fallout from Grand Theft Auto, describing it as “the greatest British coding success story since Bletchley Park” (the story of the codebreaker who helped shorten WWII by two years). The drama is part of an initiative called BBC Make it Digital,…

A crude comedy starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, fraught with cliche stereotypes and offensive humour. This is going to be the description a lot of people who watch Get Hard will jump to, but – assuming they are offended by one of the many exaggerated stereotypes in the film – they will probably throw…

2015 will no doubt be George Maple’s year. The Future Classic star first won fans nationally in 2014 with her debut EP Vacant Space and had everyone singing along to lead single ‘Talk Talk’. Now the singer-songwriter is making waves overseas, grabbing the attention of music heavyweights in Los Angeles, San Diego and New York City.