Author: Larry Heath

With just over a week until doors open at Oz Comic-Con Melbourne, Keisha Castle-Hughes, best known for her role in Whale Rider and recently introduced into the epic TV series Game of Thrones is one of three late additions to the event. Paul Blackthorne and Rila Fukushima from the hit TV show Arrow have also been added to the event. The…

One of the hottest names in comedy right now, Amy Schumer (Inside Amy Schumer), is set to come to Australia introduce her first feature film, Trainwreck, alongside co-star and fellow comedian Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live). The film, which has so far been received positively at screenings – including at SXSW in Austin, Texas – is Produced…

You had us at Bill Murray. But the synopsis for the film makes it all the better: “A washed-up music producer finds one last shot at redemption with a golden-voiced young girl in Afghanistan.” Not bad, eh? And with Kate Hudson amongst the cast, there’s a bit of a bizarro Almost Famous vibe about it…

Dreamworks is making good on its promise to bring us a third film in the hugely successful Kung Fu Panda series, with the first trailer for the film starring Jack Black seeing the light of day earlier today – though the film itself won’t be released until late March 2016. But, as is typical of…

Today, over 25 locations internationally are showcasing the “3-Finger Salute” from The Hunger Games series. Promoting the upcoming release of Mockingjay: Part Two, the posters can be seen at Times Square in New York, Westfield Centre in London, Colonne di San Lorenzo in Milan, Novy Arbat Avenue in Moscow as well as at locations around…

With tickets flying out the door for the 2015 installment of the iconic Lollapalooza festival in Chicago next month, organisers have announced a run of late night “Aftershows” that will take place in the leadup to the festival, and each night of the event. Many of these shows have already sold out, but these shows…

Over the last two weeks, our Sydney Film Festival review team have covered some 40 films at the festival, the reviews of which you can look back at HERE. After much debate and discussion, we’re now counting down our favourite films of the festival: FICTION FEATURE FILMS: 6. Love & Mercy is a powerful and tragic…

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…

I’m ending my Sydney Film Festival coverage looking at a short film that was a perfect end to the run of incredible cinema at the 62nd annual event. Sari Braithwaite’s Smut Hounds was a nine minute film, screening before the French film Metamorphoses, detailing the festival’s role in bringing the conversation of censorship to the…

No-one was expecting to see gameplay from Kingdom Hearts 3 during the Square Enix E3 presentation this morning, but that’s exactly what we were given. 2 minutes and forty five seconds of glorious gameplay. As in the past games from the series, Kingdom Hearts 3 will feature characters from across the worlds of Disney, with…

From one of the most creative minds working in cinema today, Pete Docter, comes his third feature length film for Disney/Pixar. First, there were the monsters living in our closets in 2001’s Monsters Inc.. Then, in 2009 he brought us the tale of a man, a house, some balloons and a Boy Scout in Up; a…

Fur Coat and the Peace Boat is the newly released EP from Sydney five piece Burn Antares. The rockers have been schooled on the blues rock of The Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane, to the soul and funk of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, while the album was produced by Tony Buchen (The Preatures, Andy…

Photo: Jess playing Clockenflap festival in Hong Kong. Photo by Johnny Au. What a wonderfully dark track Jess Ribiero has brought us with her new single “Kill It Yourself”. The song comes off the new Remote Control Records signee’s debut record, which she produced with Mick Harvey, due out in August. The song itself –…

Fans can’t get enough dinosaur action, it seems, as the franchise Jurassic Park returned with its fourth installment over the weekend with the highly anticipated Jurassic World. It’s been a long time coming and it seems that the wait for Universal executives has paid off. The film just broke all box office records in North…

Once named “the director of the decade” from the late, iconic film critic Roger Ebert (who, in turn, has this film dedicated to him), Ramin Bahrani’s new film 99 Homes is a self-described “humanist thriller”, which takes us into the realities of the American housing crisis, out of which tragedy and corruption has emerged. Set…

When you bring up the now classic TV series Friday Night Lights – which ran for five seasons from 2006 to 2011 – the response you either get is “American Football!? Why would I watch a show about American Football!?” or “That is one of the single greatest series of all time. Matt Saracen is…

Arriving in Australia for the first time to promote her starring voice role in the anticipated new Disney/Pixar film Inside Out, Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation) caught up with The Iris’ Larry Heath on the multi-coloured carpet at the Australian premiere in Sydney. Amy talks briefly about her visit to Sydney, what it was like…

Inside Out director Pete Docter spoke to The Iris’ Larry Heath at the Australian premiere in Sydney earlier tonight, and talked about about bringing such an original idea to life on the big screen, and working with the likes of Amy Poehler and Lewis Black. He also sheds some light on the character he was…

At just 17, Baro has the world paying attention to his unique hip hop sound, with comparisons to the likes of Earl Sweatshirt, Joey Bada$$ and King Krule. Following the success of his debut mixtape HOWGOODISGOOD?, which dropped about 12 months back, he’s set to release his debut EP. Dubbed 17/18, the release (and its…

From prolific Oscar Winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Freakonomics and dozens of others) comes the much talked about new film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, one of three films Gibney has showcased at this year’s Sydney Film Festival (the others were Steve Jobs: The Man…

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. centers on CIA agent Solo and KGB agent Kuryakin. Sound familiar? That’s because we’re talking about the popular 1960s television series of the same name, which is getting a cinematic revamp courtesy of Guy Ritchie (Lock…

After two successful seasons, showcasing the finest in cult and now classic cinema from around the world, In The House will be returning to Sydney’s Event Cinemas on George Street this September for their third season – with a special screening of Akira taking place at the end of July along the way. The third…

In an exclusive interview which took place last week during the Sydney Film Festival, I got to sit down with acclaimed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani – a man who critic Roger Ebert hailed as “the director of the decade” before his passing (in turn, 99 Homes was dedicated to Ebert) – to talk about his new film 99 Homes,…

In the lead up to the release of Terminator Genisys we take a look at a featurette with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emilia Clarke discussing the “The Guardian”. With the much older Arnie going up against his younger Terminator self it’s a case of two for the price of one! But the role of “The Guardian”…

Following its success at The Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, and at Universal Studios Japan, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is set to open at the world’s original Universal Studios Park, in Hollywood, in Spring 2016 (Autumn in Australia, should we get technical). Though this has been known for a…

Marquee Las Vegas are temporarily lending us their main man, Jason Lema to rock the upcoming Belvedere Winter Ball White Party at Marquee Sydney. It all goes down on June 27th, and with Lema in charge we thought it’d be a good idea to catch up with the renowned DJ to get a picture of…

Fresh from playing Singapore’s Music Matters, Perth group Our Man in Berlin have announced a national tour (sans Adelaide unfortunately) in support of their five track sophomore EP Spirit Down, due out June 19th – the title track off which has already been making waves. Combining melancholic, guitar based songwriting with dense, rhythmic electronica, Our…

After taking home the Oscar for Best Picture earlier this year, the critically acclaimed Birdman has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray today in Australia, following its digital release last month. You can read our FOUR AND A HALF STAR review of the film HERE. We got our hands on the Blu-Ray edition of the…

Next weekend, in the Kent Countryside of the UK, a special festival will be held dubbed Camp Wildfire for the first time. In one hand, it’s a unique concept in itself: an adventure camp by day, a music festival by night, featuring a secret lineup of bands and DJs. But the three day event (held…

There was some big news yesterday for those of us who travel to the US. Qantas and American Airlines (AA) announced they’d be expanding their trans-Pacific relationship, which will introduce AA to the popular and competitive Los Angeles to Sydney route for the first time, while Qantas will return to flying direct from Australia to…