Author: Peter Gray

The fact that Moana 2 was originally envisioned as a long-form television series for Disney+ (Moana: The Series, for those playing at home) perhaps explains why this sequel – which was only announced as a reworked theatrical effort at the beginning of the year – never quite reaches the emotional heights of its predecessor, and…

In the last few years Hugh Grant has truly taken pleasure in playing against the grain of expectation he laid upon himself after a career of inhabiting predominantly likeable characters.  Arguably starting with his wonderfully committed camp turn as the villainous Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 in 2017, Grant has been on an incline of…

The Dead Don’t Hurt is a story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationships with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting with Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his…

Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia, we have 5 double digital in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Pharrell Williams‘ LEGO-inspired biopic Piece By Piece, screening in Australian theatres from December 5th, 2024. Featuring a star-studded cast of music super stars like Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, and Justin Timberlake, PIECE BY PIECE is an inspiring autobiographical story…

Director John Swab, a gritty aesthetic and the gruff likeability of Frank Grillo have proven a welcome parcel over the last few years, and following on from both Body Brokers and Ida Red is Little Dixie, a formulaic but no-less investing thriller that exists in a rough, dirty reality. Though there’s plenty of genre tropes…

Who’s badder than The Bad Guys? The Bad Girls. In the new chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed 2022 action-comedy hit about a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws, The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced…

When first introduced to the story of CNN war cameraperson, Margaret Moth, Lucy Lawless immediately jumped at the chance. In local lore, Moth was a rockstar and an enigma. Having long eschewed directing, finally here was a story that Lawless could not resist. “It felt like destiny that I should be asked to tell the…

Given her career achievements, and that name alone, it’s quite a surprise that Margaret Moth isn’t more of a well known figure.  Working as a full-time camera operator in 1970s New Zealand at a time when no other women held such a position in her homeland, nor Australia, Moth – born Margaret Wilson (she was…

At 2 hours and 40 minutes, there’s a lot of Wicked. And this is only the first part of the story.  Yes, despite the advertisements simply marketing this as “Wicked”, the opening credits inform us that this is the first half of the mammoth Broadway adaptation that expanded the wonderful world of Oz by letting…

Two estranged brothers are forced back into each others lives when they’re tasked with scattering the ashes of their recently deceased mother in the country town where she grew up. Such is the logline for Australian director Henry Boffin’s directorial debut, Strange Creatures, starring Riley Nottingham and Johnny Carr as the aforementioned brothers who reevaluate…

An Australian road movie that wisely operates beyond such genre simplicities, Henry Boffin‘s Strange Creatures finds organic humour in the tragic circumstances of its two main characters – estranged brothers Nate and Ged Taylor (Riley Nottingham and Johnny Carr, respectively) – as they respect the dying wish of their recently deceased mother. The opposing personalities…

Gemma’s life is about to take a dramatic turn. Living in London, she faces the sudden loss of her American fiancé, Nathan, just before their wedding day. Nathan’s passing forces Gemma, who has always been skeptical of modern marriage, to reassess the meaning of a lifelong commitment. With a push from Nathan’s free-spirited and unpredictable…

It’s too easy for any British romantic comedy of sorts to be likened to the works of Richard Curtis.  With Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and About Time amongst his credits, we can see why he’s often something of a benchmark for the genre, but whatever formula he established, director…

The Gods have spoken! To celebrate the release of Gladiator II, with thanks to Paramount Pictures and Superdream, we are giving away 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington in Ridley Scott‘s anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning 2000 epic, Gladiator. For your chance to win…

Two-time Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger returns to the role that established a romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre. Bridget Jones first blasted onto bookshelves in Helen Fielding’s literary phenomenon Bridget Jones’s Diary, which became a global bestseller and a blockbuster film….

Whilst his latest efforts have wavered in their quality and execution, you still have to hand it to director Ridley Scott, who, at almost 87-years-old, is one of the few filmmakers who commits to the notion of epic storytelling to be played out on the format God intended: the cinema screen. And such is the…

Given that the trailer for We Live in Time very much informs audiences that it will be a tale of potential emotional manipulation, with the Nick Payne-penned script basing itself around a family dealing with late-stage cancer, it proves worth the screentime as Brooklyn director John Crowley breathes a certain life into proceedings, aware that…

Established in 2013, Casting Guild of Australia (CGA) come together each year to identify a group of extraordinary actors they believe have the potential to break out on the world stage; The CGA Rising Stars. With such previous recipients as Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road), Alexander England (How To Please a Woman), Katherine Langford…

This is the story of Jelena Dokic’s extraordinary survival. How she survived as a refugee, twice. How she survived on the tennis court to become world No. 4. But most importantly, how she survived her father, Damir Dokic, the tennis dad from hell. A tragic, raw, though ultimately uplifting tale of resilience, Unbreakable: The Jelena…

A character losing themself to nature in order to find solitude or correct the course of their life is not a road seldom travelled on screen.  And in the case of The Outrun, it’s the windswept Orkney Islands off the northeastern coast of Scotland that serve as a place of rejuvenation for Rona (Saoirse Ronan,…

Even though something like The Problem with People is a film that very much plays by a certain rulebook, you can’t help but still feel the charm of Chris Cottam‘s dramedy across its breezy 100 minutes. Co-written by Paul Reiser, the Mad About You alum layers a certain American view to the Irish countryside that…

For a movie centred around the festive season and attempts to drive home the importance of joy, there’s very little on offer when it comes to the unnecessarily long 122 minutes of Red One. Less outright bad than it is bland – which can often be worse – Jake Kasdan‘s potential-filled holiday actioner creates a…

The mission to save Christmas is on. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Red One is a must-see action-comedy event that delivers a fresh twist on Christmas for the holiday season. Directed by Jake Kasdan, who has previously teamed with Johnson on the blockbuster Jumanji movies, this multigenerational global spectacle features such megawatt stars as Chris Evans teaming…

There’s a certain period-piece sexuality billowing through Widow Clicquot that brings to mind other such similarly-set efforts as Atonement and Pride & Prejudice.  And given that those films’ second-unit director, Thomas Napper, is at the helm here, it makes perfect sense that such detail and intimacy is adhered to; fittingly, Joe Wright, director of the…

Whether you actually want to admit it or not, there’s something admirable about a comedy that revels in the fact that it doesn’t play well with others.  Audrey is very much that bitch. It delights in being psychologically grotesque, and despite the fact that it features the type of teen mean girl embodiment that would’ve…

After impressing festival audiences with its acerbic humour, Audrey is a twisted, razor sharp film, both gloriously absurd and strangely relatable. Its black comedy at its best, inspired by modern classics like Muriel’s Wedding and Jennifer’s Body. With New Zealand’s funniest export leading the charge, alongside Australian screen veterans and emerging stars, Audrey is far from your average mother-daughter…

Known primarily for his dramatic work across our screens for over three decades now, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor is embracing a new comedic persona in the audacious Audrey, a twisted, razor sharp film, both gloriously absurd and strangely relatable. Its black comedy at its best, inspired by modern classics like Muriel’s Wedding and Jennifer’s Body. As a husband and…

To celebrate the home digital release of The Wild Robot, thanks to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Organic. we have an exclusive piece of framed concept art to give away to one lucky reader, as well as a Digital Access Code so you can view the film at home. The film comes from a new…

Following on from our red carpet chats with the cast and creatives of Gladiator II at the Australian premiere, Connie Nielsen sat down with our own Peter Gray to further discuss her return as Lucilla after over 2 decades, if she saw a change in Ridley Scott’s directing after this time, and if she could…

Ushering in a new generation of heroes, legendary director Ridley Scott continues the epic Gladiator saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome with Gladiator II. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his…