Author: Penny Spirou

Your Love Is Mine is an Australian feature-film, focusing on the relationship between two young people in a small country town. Mechanic, Sam (Lester Ellis) and bartender Violet (Senie Priti) fumble their way through each day together in a dead-end town. They embrace each other’s company and talk about the future, hoping for a better…

Two Witches is a gritty, realistic take on a beloved Halloween subject. Broken up into three parts (The Boogeywoman, Masha, and Epilogue), this witch horror pushes the envelope to some extreme witchy behaviour. As cited in the film, witches eat babies and worship the devil. They do both things in Two Witches and much, much…

One of the closing night films at A Night of Horror International Film Festival, Zebra Girl (directed by Stephanie Zari) brings a melancholic yet disturbing story to the table. The film is based on a one-woman play titled Catherine and Anita. In it, Catherine (Sarah Roy) marries an academic by the name of Dan (Tom…

Loosely translated to rats nest, Razzennest is unlike your typical horror flick. Refusing to be defined, this arthouse take on the genre offers many layers of meaning to unpack. The premise, an ‘audio commentary’ on a visual art film from director, Manus Oosthuizen, who (along with members of the crew), sit down with film critic,…

Presented by Circa, Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus has a short stint at the Theatre Royal, adding a cheeky element of fun to the school holidays. The show is a more ‘child-friendly’ version of its adult counterpart, Circa’s Peepshow, which runs parallel in the evenings. The classical composer’s music comes to life on stage as the…

Before walking into the theatre, the quality of the storyline has already been confirmed as this play is based on the 1959 film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock who brought audiences iconic classics such as Vertigo (1958), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960). Considered the first ‘James Bond’ before there was any,…

The Theatre Royal in Sydney is currently undergoing a multi-million-dollar refurbishment and to mark its reopening in September, will premiere Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill stage musical. This is the first time it has been staged outside of Broadway. Jagged Little Pill debuted in December 2019 at the American Repertory Theater, however, was closed abruptly…

Wrong Turn appears to be your stock-standard horror which takes a group of young twenty-somethings into a remote rural part of the US for some hiking fun. Although none of it is very fun and absolutely no good times are had. As you might imagine, during the hiking trip, on the Appalachian trail, one of…

Set to hit Netflix soon is Safe – a drama television series set in a gated community where people are not as they seem. The series stars Michael C. Hall of Dexter fame as a father of two daughters, widowed after the passing of his wife from cancer. His character, Tom, juggles his profession as…

The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a dystopian future unlike those we are used to seeing. There aren’t any flying cars or amazing technology that you’d assume to see here. There is nothing but solid regression, simplifying life back to its roots. In fact, it appears that everything has gone backwards in the worst possible…

Based on the life of a transgender person, born Eugenia Falleni, The Trouble with Harry explores Harry Crawford’s struggle to live as a man in the 1920s. The harrowing journey covers issues in gender, abuse, family and crime. Through each emotive character, the audience takes a glimpse into what faces a transgender person in a…

Based on the 2012 novel by Dennis Lehane of the same name, Live By Night is set in the prohibition era across the 1920s and 1930s. The man at the centre of the story, Joe Coughlin, is played by Ben Affleck, who brought this adaptation to life. He directed, wrote and produced the film, which…

The second season of Showtime drama Billions will arrive on television screens in February 2017. The critically-acclaimed series, which is currently shooting in the New York summer, will see the return of Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades and Damian Lewis as Bobby Axelrod. Rhoades is a US Attorney who continues to battle for ultimate power…

Tim Burton’s new film, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, is based on the best-selling novel of the same name. And this week we’ve been given a bit more insight into the anticipated movie, with a featurette being released, seeing Director Tim Burton take us inside the story’s most peculiar world. Watch the featurette here:…

Set in a childcare centre called Big Oak, Little Acorns is a new Australian comedy series that will be available exclusively through YouTube from 1st September. The series will be told in nine parts, running in bite-size 3-5 minute episodes. Written and directed by Maria Theodorakis and Trudy Hellier, Little Acorns shows adults behaving like…

Billy Bob Thornton and his foul mouth are back for Bad Santa 2 – and this week we got our first taste of the film with the release of its first trailer. In the film, Billy Bob returns as Willie, the R-rated Santa, with his equally filthy elf accomplice, Tony Cox as Marcus. In the…

Acclaimed artist and filmmaker Lynette Wallworth will present a virtual reality film experience titled Collisions at ACMI from October this year. The free exhibition will be a part of the Melbourne Festival, and will run at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image from Thursday 6 October 2016 to Sunday 15 January 2017. Exploring the…

FemFlix is set to open at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA), at the University of Sydney, on 10 August 2016. It will feature an overlooked decade of feminism, the 1990s, that highlighted zine counter-culture, post-punk gestures, and cyberfeminists on screen. It will feature the work of Australian filmmakers who led the new wave of…

The Environmental Film Festival Australia (EFFA), now in its seventh year, is set to return to Melbourne next month. From 29 September, the EFFA will kick off in Melbourne and then tour nationally, covering Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart. EFFA encourages the participation of environmental advocates, film buffs, academics, business people, scientists, government, and creatives, all…

Robert Englund, known for his infamous role as horror supervillain, Freddy Krueger, will be at the Ritz Cinema in Randwick, Sydney for a special Q&A for his new film The Last Showing. The film tells the story of a projectionist (played by Englund) who is made redundant. As it was his life-long career he looks…

Based on the tell-all book by Obermaier and Obermayer, Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the World’s Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money, will be adapted in to a feature-length film. Key members from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Gerard Ryle and Marina Walker, are also on board with the project as…

Cable’s most watched new TV series of 2016, The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, will come to Netflix in 2017. The series will be available globally (excluding Canada) and will stream all new seasons in the hit American Crime Story TV series. The announcement is the first global agreement between Netflix and 20th…

Vin Diesel is back as Xander Cage, and he’s brought Samuel L. Jackson, Ruby Rose, and Toni Collette with him. As Jackson chomps on his boiled rice and broccoli in a quaint little takeaway restaurant he lectures that, “the world has changed… The world we’re fighting today, needs a different kind of soldier”. xXx: Return…

Little Big Shots is Australia’s only international film festival for kids. It’s currently touring the country and has been announced to take over the Sydney Opera House from Friday 5 August through Sunday 7 August. The weekend event will feature the best local and international shorts, animations and documentaries for children (including some that have…

Now in its 65th year, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has revealed the line-up of special guests set to grace Melbourne later this month (and well into August). Melbourne director Cris Jones and cast members Xavier Samuel, Matilda Brown and Rachel Ward will hit the blue carpet for the festival’s glittering Opening Night celebrations,…

The Australian independent feature film Bad Girl is celebrating today after  taking home two awards last night at the 28th Annual Western Australia Screen Awards. Directed by Fin Edquist, the film stars Samara Weaving (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Mystery Road) and Sara West (Ash vs Evil Dead, The Daughter). It’s a thriller that sees a rebellious daughter returning…

Behold, the running gag of the gold chain. This episode sees Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) finally on a salary, treating himself to a delicate gold chain that he drapes around his neck. Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) spots it first and so begins a pun-tastic thirty-minute journey. The Pied Piper boys spare no expense at tearing the poor…

Richie (Thomas Middleditch) returns to the doctor this week (the fantastically inappropriate, Andrew Daly) and comes out with a full bill of health. He’s still battling with being kicked out of Pied Piper, only to return as CTO. The boys enter the newly designed Pied Piper office, which again looks too good to be true….

The Pied Piper boys are back in a third season of Silicon Valley. Each season gets better and better, and this one is already proving to be its best yet. It is a wonderful blend of humour, honesty, and melancholy. Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) finds himself in another pickle with his start-up – it all…

Based on the live stage play by Alex Lykos that has toured around the country since 2006, Alex & Eve is a romantic comedy about a Greek Orthodox boy and a Lebanese Muslim girl who, against all odds, fall in love. This Aussie feature shows off the many cultures that live and breathe in Oz…