Author: Peter Gray

The Melbourne International Film Festival has unveiled its full 2026 program, with more than 300 screen works set to play across cinemas, special events, XR experiences, regional Victoria and MIFF Online. Running from August 6th to 23rd, with MIFF Online available nationally from August 14th – 30th, the 74th edition of the festival will open…

Across Booksmart, Don’t Worry Darling and now The Invite, Olivia Wilde has shown an unmistakable fascination with characters reaching a point of rupture. Her films may differ wildly in tone and genre, but they all orbit a similar question: what happens when people begin to challenge the life they have accepted as normal? With The…

A dinner party where everyone decides to be honest. Is there anything more dangerous? That deceptively simple premise powers The Invite, Olivia Wilde‘s sharply observed adaptation of Cesc Gay’s The People Upstairs, and what initially resembles an awkward comedy of manners gradually evolves into something richer, sadder and surprisingly profound. Restricting itself almost entirely to…

Saccharine arrives with one of the strongest horror premises of the year. In an era where Ozempic, body positivity, calorie counting and algorithm-fuelled beauty standards dominate everyday conversation, a ghost story built around weight-loss pills made from human ashes feels both deliciously grotesque and eerily timely. It’s exactly the sort of concept that seems tailor-made…

For more than four decades, the Evil Dead franchise has survived by refusing to stand still. Every new filmmaker handed the Book of the Dead has found a different way to unleash hell, from Sam Raimi’s manic inventiveness to Fede Álvarez’s unrelenting brutality and Lee Cronin’s apartment-block nightmare. With Evil Dead Burn, French filmmaker Sébastien…

Disney’s live-action Moana arrives with the kind of built-in affection most remakes would envy. The 2016 animated original was vibrant, heartfelt and visually intoxicating, a film that made every drop of water and grain of sand feel alive. It was familiar in structure, yes, but it owned its optimism with such sincerity that its message…

The road to the Toronto International Film Festival has officially begun, with the first three films unveiled for TIFF’s 51st edition and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Siân Heder set to open this year’s celebration of cinema. Heder’s Being Heumann, based on the life of pioneering disability rights activist Judy Heumann and starring Ruth Madeley, has been…

There was a time when an album’s success meant something simple: people bought it. One version. One release. One shot. Artists lived or died by whether the music itself convinced listeners to open their wallets. That’s why comparisons between today’s record-breaking sales and those of pre-digital eras are increasingly meaningless – especially in the case…

Thanks to Shudder and NIXCo, we have 5 Blu-ray copies of The Mortuary Assistant, the new horror film from the producers of Terrifier, based on the best-selling video game, to giveaway for our devoted (and physical media-friendly) readers. Newly certified mortician Rebecca Owens is hired to embalm the dead at River Fields Mortuary, working under…

Following her appearance representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Delta Goodrem has announced a one-night-only Sydney performance, Pure: Prelude, set to take place at Liberty Hall on Tuesday, 14 July. Designed as an intimate live show, Pure: Prelude will see Goodrem return home after recently completing a sold-out UK and European tour, giving…

For more than four decades, the Evil Dead franchise has revelled in pushing the boundaries of horror, blending relentless gore, pitch-black humour and unforgettable Deadite mayhem. But with Evil Dead Burn, director Sébastien Vaniček adds another layer to the carnage, grounding its blood-soaked terror in the raw emotions of a family already splintered by grief…

There are countless documentaries that ask audiences to feel outrage. Acropolis Cats & Other Wondrous Animals, the latest film from award-winning Australian documentarian Mary Zournazi, instead asks something far more radical: that we choose tenderness. Beginning among the stray cats of Athens before expanding across Greece, Australia and beyond, the film explores the fragile bond…

Horror has long explored the monsters lurking in the shadows, but Lockbox is far more interested in the fears that live inside us. Beginning as a quiet meditation on grief before gradually unfolding into something far more unsettling, the film follows Ellen (Carla Gugino) as she retreats to a rural town after the death of…

You can’t help but see how fitting the notion of a proud homemade production is when it comes to Hamilton House. A film about struggling artists desperately trying to create something extraordinary from almost nothing mirrors the circumstances of its own creation, writer-director Jordan Rowe never shies away from that parallel. Rather than disguising its…

On paper, Lucky has all the ingredients of a gripping crime thriller. There’s a multimillion-dollar heist gone wrong, a woman on the run from both the FBI and a ruthless crime boss, and a protagonist forced to revisit a life she desperately tried to leave behind. But beneath the danger, deception and high-stakes action, the…

There are plenty of television series about criminals. Far fewer are interested in the contradictions that make them human. On paper, Lucky has all the ingredients of a high-stakes thriller. Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, the Apple TV+ series follows Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy), a gifted con artist forced back into the criminal world she…

On the surface, Lucky is a high-stakes thriller about a woman running from both the law and the criminal world she thought she’d left behind. Beneath the twists, cons and near-constant danger, however, lies a far more universal story about inheritance – not of money or possessions, but of perspective. Adapted from Marissa Stapley’s bestselling…

Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia, we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the scorching horror sequel Evil Dead Burn, only in Australian cinemas from July 9th, 2026. Evil Dead Burn unleashes the franchise’s most savage and terrifying ride to date, blazing onto big screens with an all-new chapter of carnage and demonic…

Prime Video is giving Reacher fans little time to catch their breath, confirming that its highly anticipated spin-off Neagley will premiere immediately following the conclusion of Reacher Season Four. Alongside the announcement, the streamer has also released the first-look images from the new action series, which places fan-favourite Frances Neagley firmly in the spotlight. Reacher…

The full program has been unveiled for the 2026 edition of Regionality Sunshine Coast, with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi set to headline the one-day documentary and factual industry event. Presented by AIDC and Screen Queensland, with the support of Sunshine Coast Council and in association with the Sunshine Coast Screen Collective, the event returns…

For more than two decades, Australian producer, writer and director Jeff Purser has worked across both commercial hits and critically acclaimed cinema, helping bring stories as varied as Fat Pizza and Cedar Boys to the screen. With a career spanning film, television and streaming, Purser has seen the industry evolve through changing technologies, audience habits…

There are few characters as effortlessly likeable as Elle Woods. Twenty-five years after Reese Witherspoon first turned the bubbly sorority girl into one of cinema’s most enduring heroines, Elle arrives with the daunting task of telling us something new about a character who already felt complete. The good news is that the series has found…

Netflix is expanding its gaming slate with Unhinged, an immersive interactive thriller that transforms your smartphone into your only lifeline as you attempt to survive a terrifying night trapped inside a dark apartment building. Launching exclusively on Netflix on June 30th, Unhinged comes from Night School Studio, the acclaimed developers behind Oxenfree and Oxenfree II:…

For audiences expecting little more than Minions-fuelled chaos, Minions & Monsters has a delightful surprise waiting. Beneath the slapstick, sight gags and monster-sized mayhem lies an unexpectedly heartfelt tribute to the magic of cinema itself. Set during Hollywood’s seismic transition from silent films to talkies, Illumination’s latest adventure isn’t simply about the Minions accidentally conquering…

On paper, Minions & Monsters sounds exactly as delightfully ridiculous as its title suggests: Minions accidentally conquer Hollywood, unleash monsters upon the world and somehow have to save it all over again. What our Peter Gray wasn’t expecting was a surprisingly heartfelt love letter to the movies themselves. Set against Hollywood’s transition from silent films…

With Good Vibes Only, writer/director Sarah D’Ambrosio imagines a world where artificial intelligence doesn’t just organise our lives – it dictates how we’re allowed to feel. After a painful break-up, Eva desperately wants to cry, but her relentlessly upbeat AI companion, Margaret, insists on steering her back towards positivity, transforming grief into something that needs…

The cast of Every Year After knew they were stepping into beloved territory. Adapted from Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel ‘Every Summer After’ – a BookTok sensation that spent 16 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List and has sold more than one million copies – the series arrives with an audience already deeply invested…

Charlotte MacInnes speaks about her debut EP HIGHWATER with the kind of wonder that feels inseparable from the music itself. Across five tracks, the Australia-born, London-based singer-songwriter builds a world where rivers become places of reflection, ghosts become lessons to carry or release, and contradictions are embraced rather than resolved. Rooted in alternative pop but…

For an album named RAGE, Kita Alexander‘s second full-length effort is remarkably gentle. That isn’t a criticism. In fact, it’s the album’s greatest strength. Rather than presenting rage as explosive, destructive, or all-consuming, Alexander approaches the emotion as something far more nuanced: a catalyst for growth, self-discovery, and necessary change. Across these songs, anger isn’t…

Nearly three decades after becoming one of cinema’s most beloved cult classics, the Owens sisters are finally back. Warner Bros. has unveiled the first full-length trailer for Practical Magic 2, reuniting Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian Owens for a long-awaited return to the enchanting world of family curses, forbidden love, and…