Author: Peter Gray

Seasoned film critic and editor. Gives a great interview. Penchant for horror. Unashamed fan of Michelle Pfeiffer and Jason Momoa. Contact: [email protected]

Film Review: In the Grey; charisma abounds in Guy Ritchie’s effortlessly cool caper

Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey feels like the filmmaker maintaining the exact groove he knows best – fast-talking criminals, swaggering operatives, tangled negotiations, and men who communicate affection through insults, loyalty, and violence. After several years spent bouncing between blockbuster experimentation and franchise filmmaking, Ritchie once again returns to the kind of slick, dialogue-driven crime…

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Interview: Jasmin Tarasin and Courtney Collins on Life Could Be A Dream, romantic myths, and invisible cages

There’s a haunting contradiction at the centre of Life Could Be A Dream. On the surface, Sarah has everything: beauty, privilege, a handsome husband, an elegant home, and the kind of curated life that resembles a glossy magazine spread. But beneath the designer clothes and glass walls sits something far more fragile – a woman…

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Interview: Zoe Pepper on how class obsession and generational entitlement shaped her black comedy Birthright

The housing crisis has become such a relentless part of modern conversation that it’s often reduced to statistics, market forecasts, and political finger-pointing. But in Birthright, writer-director Zoe Pepper turns that anxiety into something far messier, darker, and deeply human. The film follows Cory (Travis Jeffery) and his pregnant wife, Jasmine (Maria Angelico), after they’re…

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Film Review: Birthright is a sharp, uncomfortable black comedy about generational resentment

Birthright is the kind of film that feels painfully recognisable, even as it spirals into increasingly absurd and unsettling territory. Writer-director Zoe Pepper takes the all-too-relatable anxiety of moving back in with your parents as an adult and turns it into a viciously funny social satire about class, entitlement, and the widening emotional divide between…

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Film Review: Dirty Hands is a rough-edged, emotionally charged crime drama

There’s a grimy authenticity pulsing through Dirty Hands that elevates it beyond the standard one-night crime thriller. Written, directed by, and starring Kevin Interdonato, the film thrives not because of its escalating violence, but because of the emotional wreckage left in its wake. Beneath the bloodshed, bruises, and frantic survival instincts is a surprisingly affecting…

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It’s The Five Star Weekend away for Jennifer Garner in first-look trailer for new Binge series

BINGE has unveiled the official trailer for The Five Star Weekend, a glossy new eight-part drama led by and executive produced by Jennifer Garner. Adapted from the bestselling novel by Elin Hilderband, The Five Star Weekend follows Hollis Shaw (Garner), a beloved celebrity chef and author whose carefully curated life begins to unravel after a…

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Film Review: Mother Mary; Anne Hathaway commits wholly to gothic horror fever dream that’s as intoxicating as it is self-indulgent

David Lowery’s Mother Mary wants to be an exorcism of pop stardom. Sometimes it feels like a fever dream stitched together from celebrity mythology, couture spectacle, psychological collapse, and gothic horror imagery. Other times, it feels like a film so entranced by its own symbolism that it forgets to give its characters enough humanity to…

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Interview: Karis Oka on the importance of representation and the emotional whiplash of Beetlejuice the Musical

Death, grief, loneliness, goblin demons, and a “crusty old” bio-exorcist in black-and-white stripes are probably not the ingredients you’d expect for one of musical theatre’s most unexpectedly heartfelt shows. Yet that strange emotional cocktail is exactly why Beetlejuice the Musical has developed such a fiercely devoted following around the world. Beneath the chaos, the absurdity,…

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Prime Video’s Off Campus; it’s Dawson’s Creek for the TikTok generation

Off Campus understands exactly what it is selling within the first ten minutes. Beautiful people. Hockey players with tragic backstories and perfect jawlines. College hookups shot like perfume ads. Emotional vulnerability wrapped in towels (and sometimes not) and locker-room lighting. It knows the “girls, gays, and theys” audience it is chasing, and it goes after…

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Interview: Andrew Bernstein on making Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War feel more cinematic than episodic

After four successful seasons on Prime Video, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War marks the franchise’s leap from streaming series to full-scale feature-length thriller. Directed by Andrew Bernstein, the film finds Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) reluctantly pulled back into the world of espionage when a covert international mission spirals into a deadly conspiracy involving a…

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Delta Goodrem announces new album Pure

Delta Goodrem has never really fit into a single lane. Across more than two decades, she has moved seamlessly between chart-topping pop star, songwriter, actress, author, television personality, and entrepreneur, building one of the most enduring careers in Australian entertainment along the way. Now, with a new label partnership, a major international spotlight, and a…

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Whatever Will Be at 21: Tammin Sursok’s break from the pop princess playbook

In 2005, when Tammin Sursok released Whatever Will Be, the pop landscape was in a fascinating state of transition. The glossy, hyper-produced dance-pop that had defined the late ’90s was still dominant – championed by figures like fellow soap-turned-pop players Kylie Minogue and Holly Valance – but there was a parallel wave surging forward. Artists…

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Interview: Blake Johnston on breaking the silence around mental health with In Pieces Together

Endurance stories are often framed around the finish line – the record broken, the impossible conquered. But In Pieces Together reframes that idea entirely. What begins as Blake Johnston’s attempt to break the world record for the longest continuous surf – a gruelling 40-hour effort – quickly reveals itself to be something far more profound….

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Interview: Macario de Souza on documentary In Pieces Together and turning vulnerability into strength

There’s a moment in In Pieces Together where the scale of what Blake Johnston is attempting stops feeling physical and starts feeling deeply emotional. On paper, surfing continuously for 40 hours to break a world record sounds almost impossible. But beneath the exhaustion, saltwater and spectacle lies something far more personal: a son trying to honour…

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Bridesmaids at 15: How one comedy blew up the boys’ club

Fifteen years on, Bridesmaids doesn’t simply just hold up – it looms. What once arrived as a risky studio gamble now feels like a cultural reset, a film that didn’t merely succeed within its moment but permanently altered the parameters of what mainstream comedy could look like, who it could center, and how honestly it…

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The Mortal Kombat II cast and filmmakers celebrate its Gold Coast homecoming at official Australian preview

The Gold Coast turned into Earthrealm this week as fans, gamers and cosplayers packed out the Official Australian Preview of Mortal Kombat II at Event Cinemas Pacific Fair on Tuesday night, welcoming the stars of the blood-soaked blockbuster back to the place where much of the film was brought to life. The event marked something…

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Elle, the prequel series to Legally Blonde, drops colourful teaser ahead of global launch

Before she conquered Harvard in pink stilettos, Elle Woods was just trying to survive high school. Prime Video has unveiled the first teaser trailer for Elle, the upcoming prequel series to the beloved Legally Blonde franchise, ahead of Amazon’s annual upfront presentation in New York on May 11th. The series will premiere July 1st on…

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Film Review: Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is an entertaining and surprisingly accessible portrait of one of heavy metal’s most enduring bands

Heavy metal has always carried a certain mythology around it, but few bands have embodied that larger-than-life aura quite like Iron Maiden. With their undead mascot Eddie, operatic stage shows, and literary-infused lyrics about war, history and mortality, the British legends have spent five decades building a legacy that stretches far beyond music. Iron Maiden:…

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Interview: Director Simon McQuoid on fan expectations, fatalities, and finding the soul of Mortal Kombat II

As Earthrealm prepares for its most brutal battle yet in Mortal Kombat II, director Simon McQuoid returns with a sequel determined to go bigger, bloodier and far more ambitious than its predecessor. Bringing the long-awaited tournament to the screen, the film introduces Karl Urban’s swaggering Johnny Cage into a sprawling war against Shao Kahn, while…

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Interview: Karl Urban, Jessica McNamee and Josh Lawson on Mortal Kombat II, action icons, complexity and escapist cinema

In Mortal Kombat II, Earthrealm’s champions return for a bloodier, louder and far more chaotic showdown against the forces of Shao Kahn – this time with Karl Urban’s swaggering Johnny Cage entering the arena. Leaning fully into the outrageous spirit of the iconic video game franchise, the sequel embraces brutal fatalities, self-aware humour and the…

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Film Review: Mortal Kombat II; bigger, bloodier sequel embraces the game’s chaotic spectacle

Mortal Kombat II understands exactly what fans wanted more of after the 2021 film: brutal fights, outrageous fatalities, fan-favourite characters, and a stronger sense of the video game’s gleefully excessive identity. While Simon McQuoid’s first film may have been the more technically controlled entry, the sequel is easily the more entertaining one, operating with the…

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Interview: Mark Kassen on his paranoid, political thriller PH-1; “The film is less about what’s revealed and more about what’s being explored.”

Set almost entirely within the confines of a luxury penthouse, PH-1 unfolds over one harrowing night as rising politician Payton Burnham watches his carefully constructed public image disintegrate in real time. Held hostage by an unseen force, he’s trapped not just physically, but within a media ecosystem that thrives on speculation, spin, and viral outrage….

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Interview: Nicholas Braun on The Sheep Detectives and playing the cop no one believes in; “He just wants to matter.”

In The Sheep Detectives (read our review here), a delightfully offbeat mystery led by Hugh Jackman’s well-meaning shepherd George, it’s not just the sheep quietly observing – it’s also the humans scrambling to keep up. Enter Tim Derry, the endearingly outmatched small-town cop played by Nicholas Braun, who might be more afraid of his own…

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Interview: Kevin Interdonato on building tension, capturing emotion within violence, and remembering Patrick Muldoon through Dirty Hands

Dirty Hands is a bruising, tightly contained crime thriller that turns a botched drug deal into something far more emotionally volatile. On paper, the story is simple: the Denton brothers, Danny and Richie, have one night to survive after everything goes wrong. But writer-director-star Kevin Interdonato is less interested in the mechanics of survival than…

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Natalie Imbruglia announces new album Algorithm and drops first single “Upside Down”

There are pop songs, and then there are cultural timestamps. For Natalia Imbruglia, that moment arrived with “Torn” – a track that didn’t just define the late ’90s, it quietly reshaped the emotional language of pop itself. Decades later, that same voice – unmistakable, vulnerable, and quietly defiant – is stepping into a new era….

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Interview: Mabel Li unpacks The Testaments, the power of psychology, complicity, and the quiet sacrifices of the characters

In a world where devotion is demanded and dissent is deadly, The Testaments ushers in a chilling new chapter of The Handmaid’s Tale – one that shifts its gaze to the next generation raised within Gilead’s suffocating grip. At the centre are Agnes and Daisy, two young women navigating the brutal indoctrination of Aunt Lydia’s…

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Film Review: It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley is an intimate, emotionally layered portrait of an artist beautiful and unresolved

Access can be a dangerous crutch in documentary filmmaking – all the unseen footage and unheard audio in the world won’t save a story that doesn’t know what to do with it. Amy Berg’s It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, however, understands that access is only the starting point. What she builds from it is something…

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Prime Video’s YA obsession: A fandom-first strategy for the next generation

Prime Video is officially launching “Obsession is in Session,” a global initiative positioning the platform as a leading destination for young adult storytelling. But unlike the YA boom of the late 2000s and early 2010s – defined by blockbuster franchises like Twilight, The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner – this new wave is less…

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Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein’s aren’t suitable for work in first trailer for Netflix’s Office Romance

Office Romance is clocking in – and it’s bringing a whole lot more than coffee runs and calendar invites with it. Jennifer Lopez returns to the genre she helped define, but this isn’t the glossy, safe-for-work flirtation audiences might expect. The first trailer for Office Romance pairs Lopez with Brett Goldstein in a workplace relationship…

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Zach Cregger promises a new era of evil with first-look Resident Evil trailer

A new era of evil has arrived – and if this first teaser is anything to go by, Resident Evil is being dragged back into the shadows where it arguably belongs. Directed by Zach Cregger, the filmmaker behind Weapons, this reinvention of the long-running franchise looks less interested in bombastic action and more committed to…

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