Author: Penny Spirou

Another entrant in the found-footage genre of horror that might have reached its expiry date. The Gallows would have had to do something exceptional (and exceptionally different) to tear it apart from the usual suspects. This all started with Blair Witch Project, reprised by the Paranormal Activity franchise, and many many others that never saw…

This week’s round up features a lot of science fiction to get excited about, on both the big and small screen. What’s new in film? The Martian features Matt Damon behaving like a sci-fi God, and is set for release in October. His character, Mark Watney, finds himself stranded on a mission to Mars. He…

Penny brings us the latest from the world of film and television in the The Iris’ weekly news round up! We kick things off with the new Tarantino blockbuster…

Before we get started on this week’s film and TV round up, we’d like to pay our respects to “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, a great of professional wrestling entertainment, inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, has passed away at the age of 61 on 30 July 2015. Rest in peace, Hot Rod. 

Happy birthday to Bugs Bunny, who turned 75 on 28 July. You haven’t aged a day! In movie news, The Bourne Identity franchise is returning with Matt Damon and Tommy Lee Jones in Bourne. No plot details have been released as yet, but it is scheduled to hit cinemas in July 2016. In TV, sadly Key &…

First up for our weekly news round up, we’d like to wish a happy birthday to the late, great Robin Williams, who would have turned 64 on July 21st this week. You are missed! In movie news, this week saw the bashing of Adam Sandler film Pixels by MovieBob that has been doing the rounds on…

Another entrant in the found-footage genre of horror that might have reached its expiry date. The Gallows would have had to do something exceptional (and exceptionally different) to tear it apart from the usual suspects. This all started with Blair Witch Project, reprised by the Paranormal Activity franchise, and many many others that never saw…

In our new weekly feature, we take a look back at some of the biggest stories in the world of film and TV this week… just in case you missed it. Suffice it to say, it’s been a great week of film and TV news, thanks in part to the annual San Diego Comic Con event,…

Blending visual artists, dancers, and filmmakers, 24 Frames Per Second is the most ambitious exhibition ever presented at Carriageworks. The exhibition, which celebrates dance on screen, has commissioned 24 artists to make 24 major new artworks. This is a cutting edge showcase, three years in the making. Exhibition co-curator Nina Miall reveals, “24 Frames Per…

Renowned for screening quality cinema, Palace Cinemas are an all-Australian family-owned business. They have a great reputation for high-quality programming, showing the best in local and international cinema. Re-opening on Sunday June 7 2015, The Astor Theatre, now a part of the Palace family, is set to flourish again. This is the last single screen…

Shooting is underway in Melbourne for the third season of Please Like Me, an international television comedy success created by Josh Thomas. Comedian Thomas wears multiple hats for the series, as creator, writer, and star, and will be making his directorial debut in an episode for the upcoming season. Thomas reveals, “This time around I’m…

Let’s be white chicks! Wait, we already did that… okay let’s be cops! Damon Wayans Jr. (from films including Dance Flick and The Other Guys) and Jake Johnson (from TV ‘s New Girl) team up as best buds and roomies, Justin and Ryan, pretending to be policeman, for a good old fashioned comedy caper. These…

  Of all of the films screened at the 2014 Sydney Film Festival, At Berkeley is perhaps the timeliest, considering the recent reveal that the budget here in Australia could see considerable changes to the tertiary education landscape. At Berkeley acts as a peek into how the University of California, Berkeley, is run in the…

British/Irish biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side tells the story of celebrated guitarist Jimi Hendrix, from humble beginnings jamming in the deserted Cheetah Club in New York City through to the development of the Jimi Hendrix Experience across Europe and his performance on 4 June 1967, at the Saville Theatre, London. The film is not your…

Raising a disobedient 7 year-old child while working shifts at a nursing home and maintaining what remains of your home after your husband is gone – killed in a car crash on the way to the hospital to deliver your unborn child – is pretty damn tough. This is what Amelia faces (Essie Davis) with…

When you learn that the budget for this feature was a measly $10K, you realise what they have pulled off with feature-length film, Thale, released initially in Norway in 2012 and recently broadcast on World Movies (Foxtel). Thale is a Norwegian fantasy/horror film that brings a unique air to the hybrid genre. The film takes…

The final four episodes of the new wave HBO crime drama, True Detective, pushed closer to solving the 17 year running investigation into heinous crimes and further explored the personas at the centre of the double barrelled story, Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey). Episode 5, “The Secret Fate of All Life”…

Biopics focusing on the lives of Australia’s music artists come few and far between. There tends to be a focus on criminals, which started with the string of Ned Kelly films (our first ever feature was The Story of the Kelly Gang), continuing over the last few years with the success of the Underbelly series…

Armed with the tagline, “A funny thing happened on the way to rehab”, this film tells the story of piano prodigy, Eli Bloom (Jesse Eisenberg) who desperately seeks to get his mother, Penny (Melissa Leo), checked into rehab. And he needs to do this in time to get to a very important audition for a…

Bringing together two giants of Hollywood; Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, True Detective is the latest offering from quality television provider HBO (broadcast on Showcase, Foxtel in Australia). The story, told across eight episodes in this first season, moves the viewer from past to present as ex-detectives narrate their investigation into the murder of a…

The plot of the recently released Runner, Runner centres around Richie Furst (played by Justin Timberlake), a Princeton student who loses all of his tuition money on Midnight Black, an online poker site run by Ivan Block (played by Ben Affleck) who then ends up working for him, moves swiftly from the get-go, but begins to pace…