Talking to Stephanie McIntosh at the AACTA Festival Awards Industry Gala, you’re reminded just how fluid her career has always been – and how thoughtfully she reflects on it. From her breakthrough years on Neighbours and her pioneering pop album, Tightrope, to the accompanying televisual journey The Steph Show that felt almost ahead of its…
Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia, we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the star-studded crime thriller Crime 101, starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan and Halle Berry, in Australian theatres from February 12th, 2026. Set against the sun-bleached grit of Los Angeles, Crime 101 weaves the tale of an elusive jewel thief (Chris Hemsworth)…
The Gold Coast glittered a little brighter on the first night of the AACTA Festival on Wednesday, February 4th – not because of Hollywood shine, but because of something far rarer and more meaningful: a genuine celebration of Australia’s own. This opening night wasn’t about red carpets for the biggest stars or the climactic awards…
Nintendo held yet another showcase for its upcoming games in 2026, this time focused more on the various third-party titles coming to the platform. While pretty much all of these games are currently available on other platforms, or at the very least have been announced to release on other platforms, it’s simply nice to see…
Twenty years on from the release of “Step Up” – Samantha Jade’s glossy, Diane Warren–penned introduction to the pop world – it’s striking how aptly that title has come to describe her career. Again and again, Jade has stepped up: into new creative arenas, back into an industry that repeatedly underestimated her, and into her…
Our Discovery playlist gets a fresh shake-up this week, with ten new tracks added across Spotify and Apple Music, including two songs we had the pleasure of premiering earlier this week. Leading the charge as our Track of the Week is Royal Ratbags with “Hesitation” — a brash, self-aware burst of new-wave punk that captures…
In a sport often defined by scoreboard lights, playoff runs, and Super Bowl glory, the new docuseries The Object of the Game turns its gaze back to where it all truly begins. Arriving February 4th on Prime Video (US) – timed for the most-watched week in American sport – the three-part series assembles an extraordinary…
Thanks to Roadshow Films, we have 5 double digital in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the terrifying new horror flick Whistle, in Australian theatres from February 12th, 2026. A group of high school misfits inadvertently come across an ancient Aztec death whistle. Blowing it summons their future deaths to hunt them down. As the body count…
The InterContinental Tahiti Resort and Spa delivers luxury with island charm and an ocean view for everyone. It doesn’t take much to float dreams of French Polynesia through your mind’s eye. When words like “Tahiti” and “Bora Bora” are thrown into the wind, we all get visions of steep mountains carpeted in lush green jungle,…
There is a strangely elegiac calm to the opening stretch of Ric Roman Waugh’s latest Jason Statham vehicle, Shelter – one that might catch viewers expecting immediate punches, car chases, and broken necks slightly off guard. For a while, this isn’t really a movie about violence so much as solitude: wind-battered cliffs, a creaking wooden…
There is something almost old-fashioned in the way writer/director Zak Hilditch approaches the end of the world in We Bury the Dead: less as a spectacle of chaos, more as a slow, sad reckoning with what remains when everything familiar has vanished. His latest film feels heavy with mourning from its very first frames, suffused…
Ahead of its general release this Friday, the AU review is proud to premiere the live video for “Figure It Out” from Joan & the Giants and Seb Szabo. A gorgeous celebration of friendship, the clip was filmed across two sold-out nights at Melbourne’s iconic Forum Theatre, capturing the pair at a genuine creative high…
The Mario Tennis series has never been one to hold my attention. While it has been a solid entry in the Mario sports genre, outside of the motion controls on the Wii in Mario Power Tennis, when that felt new and exciting, since then, the novelty of motion controls has definitely worn off. After the…
Wolf Alice currently touring exclusively with Laneway Festival have just announced an Australian tour The Clearing for December 2026. One of the best live bands to emerge from the English music scene from the past 10 years and having witnessed Wolf Alice live personally on every tour since 2018 I can highly recommend to catch…
The first Code Vein didn’t really grab much of my attention when it released back in 2019, but I had gotten around to it some time later, with some surprisingly pleasant results. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it broke new ground within the Souls-like genre, but it certainly did enough to warrant…
As I wrote on the recent opening of IHG’s voco Gosford on the Central Coast, some of Sydney’s oldest seaside hotels are being dusted up for well-timed makeovers, some moulding into more premium brands, while others (like voco) sprout as brand-new builds. “A new chapter in coastal luxury” is what they’re calling it, with IHG…
Today at the Apple TV 2026 Press Day, the stars of Margo’s Got Money Troubles, alongside prolific storyteller David E. Kelley, took the stage to unveil a teaser and shared a glimpse into the star-studded new series starring and executive produced by Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominee Elle Fanning, Golden Globe winner and…
Kathleen Jennings‘ debut novel, Flyaway was a quiet achiever of a novel– it wasn’t the title on everyone’s lips, but those who knew it, raved about it. Published in 2020, it was a finalist for the 2021 World Fantasy Awards and the 2020 Crawford Award, as well as one of NPR’s picks of 2020. Kathleen is…
the AU review is thrilled to bring you the exclusive single and video premiere of “Tambourine Mountain”, the warmly reflective new single from Australian favourites Icecream Hands. Premiering today ahead of its official single release this Friday, “Tambourine Mountain” is taken from Icecream Hands’ eighth album, Giant Fox Pineapple Tree, which is out now on vinyl,…
Any complaints about Sydney’s nightlife vanish after a night at Carriageworks nowadays. It’s become the Inner West’s iconic warehouse-style venue, perfect for raves (as we witnessed with the The Works, kicked off by none other than Underworld) And so it’s no surprise that to see South Korean DJ and effortless cool-girl Peggy Gou set up…
It’s been an event thirty years in the making as Sidney Prescott faces her past in Scream 7. After sitting out the events of Scream VI, Neve Campbell is back facing the knife in the hotly anticipated sequel which sees original writer Kevin Williamson step into directing duties, three decades after the original film terrorised…
British pop icon Lily Allen will return to Australia for a national headline tour, delivering a run of highly anticipated live shows that will include a special featured performance of her acclaimed rendition of West End Girl. Lily Allen emerged in the mid-2000s as one of the UK’s most distinctive pop voices, blending sharp social…
It’s hard reviewing A Fine Line Between Clever & Stupid: The Story of Spinal Tap now. It is devastating to know that its co-author, the acclaimed director Rob Reiner is no longer with us. Vale Rob! If there’s any consolation, it is knowing that now – more than ever – the world needs to be…
In today’s day and age, we do more on the go than ever. Whether for work, gaming, or a mix of both, the rise of portable monitors has arguably never felt more justified. We recently had the chance to take the Arzopa Z3FC portable monitor for a few weeks now, and have been pleasantly surprised…
Few artists have reshaped popular music as decisively as Britney Spears. From the moment she debuted in 1998, she redefined what a pop star could look like, sound like, and represent. Her influence is embedded in the DNA of modern pop – in vocal styles, production trends, choreography, and the marriage of image and music….
Silenced is a bracing, compassionate, and urgently necessary documentary that transforms complex legal battles into a deeply human story about power, credibility, and the precariousness of women’s voices in public life. Director Selina Miles delivers a film that is both rigorously investigated and profoundly felt, blending courtroom insight with intimate, vérité-style storytelling that keeps the…
2026 is already off to a great start in the book world, and the AU Review’s resident bookworms have gathered together some of the reads they’re most excited to get stuck into in the first few months of the year. From rich fantasy and sci-fi reimaginings, to 1960s sitcom moms and famous female pirates, we’ve…
Does anyone even trust celebrity chef restaurants? To me, they seem a bit like influencers. Had trust, lost trust, and now no one trusts any of them. The only people who trust influencers now are other influencers. I don’t think even chefs would trust celebrity chef restaurants. I’ve been stung more than once, I can…
Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? is a film about what lingers after the end of a marriage – not the explosive rupture, but the quieter aftermath where two people must confront who they’ve become once the life they built together begins to dissolve. Rather than framing divorce as a dramatic turning point, Cooper is…
In Is This Thing On?, intimacy isn’t played for grand gestures or easy resolutions. It’s found in the quiet, uncomfortable spaces where love begins to shift shape. Directed by Bradley Cooper, the film observes Alex and Tess Novak as their marriage gently fractures, following two people forced to confront who they are beyond the roles…
