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]

Nicole Kidman and her Nine Perfect Strangers are back for Season 2 in first look trailer

Following the star-studded intrigue of its first season (you can read our review here), Prime Video’s Nine Perfect Strangers has finally returned for a second helping of a gloriously accented (and wigged) Nicole Kidman and her questionable methods of therapy in the first look trailer for the anticipated new seasons. In the latest episodes, nine…

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Film Review: Thunderbolts*; Have these anti-heroes finally saved the MCU?

Not unlike its DC counterpart the Suicide Squad, Marvel have assembled an anti-hero-minded crew of degenerates to lead the charge for the greater good in Thunderbolts*, one of the MCU’s strongest efforts in a recent phase of mostly underwhelming, middle-ground entries that have all largely failed to live up to the expectations of a post-Endgame…

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Interview: Everything we learned from Kevin Feige, Florence Pugh and the cast of Marvel’s Thunderbolts*

Marvel are being careful with who they assemble with Thunderbolts*, an unconventional team of anti-heroes who, after finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their past. As the Thunderbolts – Yelena Belova, Bucky…

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Film Review: Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock ‘n’ Roll is a wild mockumentary that revels in its divisive nature of madness

Unhinged was the first word that came to mind when viewing Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock ‘n’ Roll, a British rock mockumentary (rockumentary?) that very much submits to a level of madness that is likely to prove incredibly divisive. Writer/director Mitchell Tolliday and co-writer Neil Rickatson adopt a more-is-more type mentality across…

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Damulgarra Stories, a new First Nations initiative, launches to redefine community engagement in the screen industry

Launching at Screen Forever next month, the new First Nations initiative, Damulgurra Stories, is set to redefine respectful, holistic engagement with First Nations communities in the screen industry. Founded by Larrakia man Cian Mungatj McCue, of Moogie Down Productions, and award-winning casting director and producer Sarah Price of Castaway NT, Damulgurra Stories aims to transform…

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Film Review: Neighbourhood Watch is a low-key thriller that works best when it lets Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid’s chemistry loose

Basic, comedy-inclined title aside, Neighbourhood Watch proves to be more than just a mismatched buddy effort thanks, in large part, to the winning chemistry between Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid, who, against their characters’ best efforts, find a sense of kinship in their respective societal outcasts. There’s a bit of clumsiness to their exposure…

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Film Review: Until Dawn is a surprisingly fun, oft gory survivalist horror effort that honours its gaming source material

As someone who hasn’t played the video game upon which this film is based, and is only vaguely familiar with its plot outline, I’m coming into David F. Sandberg‘s adaptation with horror movie eyes.  And in that regard, the Lights Out director – returning to the genre that made him a name after dipping his…

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Interview: Michael Cimino on new horror film Until Dawn, surviving gameplay and projecting fear; “I feel like this will honestly bring a new audience to the game.”

Derived from the interactive survivalist horror game, Until Dawn is an original standalone story that expands upon the game series’ mythology, focusing on Clover and her friends, who head into the remote valley where Clover’s sister vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor centre, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and…

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Film Review: The Accountant 2; Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal’s winning chemistry elevate amusing action sequel

It’s been nearly 10 years since Ben Affleck debuted as Christian Wolff, aka The Accountant, in the same-name actioner that Gavin O’Connor pushed to a sizeable box office haul ($155m) despite tepid-ish reviews.  That being said, average reviews have never stopped a sequel from being brought to fruition before, and the creation O’Connor, Affleck and…

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Interview: Ben Affleck, director Gavin O’Connor and the cast of The Accountant 2; “I just wanted to make a movie that was fun and entertaining and put people in the seats and go to a movie theater.”

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) has a talent for solving complex problems. When an old acquaintance is murdered, leaving behind a cryptic message to “find the accountant,” Wolff is compelled to solve the case. Realizing more extreme measures are necessary, Wolff recruits his estranged and highly lethal brother, Brax (Jon Bernthal), to help. In partnership with…

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A new generation learn the truth doesn’t stay buried in first I Know What You Did Last Summer trailer

With legacy sequels working in the favour of classic horror titles like Halloween and Scream, it only makes sense that another staple of the slasher genre gets its due, with the 1997 teen chiller I Know What You Did Last Summer getting a 2025 revisit; and if Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell can face…

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Interview: Ashley Greene and Shawn Ashmore on their new horror film It Feeds, the emotional challenges of the genre, and their own personal ghostly encounters

It Feeds follows the harrowing story of a young girl who insists that a malevolent entity is feeding on her. Ashley Greene (Twilight) stars as a clairvoyant therapist who must confront her own past traumas to save the girl before it’s too late, with Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) as the anguished father desperately fighting to protect his daughter…

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Series Review: The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a towering achievement that revels in its atmospheric brutality

Though there’s usually always a sense of unflinching violence that laces the filmic work of director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Nitram, The Order), his debut detour into episodic television, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, is considerably more blunt in its brutality.  Perhaps because the prose at the series’ center – Richard Flanagan‘s winning novel…

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Interview: The Narrow Road to the Deep North writer Shaun Grant and producer Jo Porter on bringing the acclaimed novel to the screen

Based on Richard Flanagan’s acclaimed 2013 novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a savagely beautiful five-part series charting the life of Dorrigo Evans (played by Jacob Elordi as a young man and Ciarán Hinds as the older iteration), through his passionate love affair with his uncle’s wife (Odessa Young), his time held…

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Should you stream Netflix’s Ransom Canyon this Easter weekend?

The type of show where the melodrama is ripe, the ranch settings are lush and the aesthetically pleasing cast go by such names as Yancy and Staten, Ransom Canyon has the right temperament to be the next easily digestible Netflix streaming obsession.  The type of generic show people put on to not pay attention to,…

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Why you should know Lisa: The Coachella stage stealer who’s so much more than what you saw in The White Lotus

Going into last weekend’s Coachella (the first of its two planned weekend events), it seemed that Lady Gaga was inevitably going to steal all the expected focus.  And, certainly, the Grammy-winner did the most, with a near-20 song set that largely celebrated her new album (Mayhem), but served as a memory lane stroll for her…

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It’s Colman versus Cumberbatch in biting first trailer for The Roses

The War of the Roses, a 1989 satirical black comedy from Danny DeVito which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a warring married couple and the bitter, fatal divorce that followed, never seemed like the most obvious choice to garner a remake.  But here we are, over three decades later, with Benedict Cumberbatch and…

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Film Review: Warfare is an immersive, panic-inducing film experience

As much as Warfare is detailing a true story during the events of the Iraq War in 2006, Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland‘s panic-attack of a movie goes beyond merely being “based on true events.”  Instead, it’s noting itself as a film based on “the memory of the people who lived it.” With that, the…

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Interview: Luke Arnold on returning for Scrublands: Silver; “It’s about making the inevitable conclusion not too obvious.”

In the brand new season of Scrublands, it’s been a year since the life changing events of Scrublands and award-winning investigative journalist Martin Scarsden (Luke Arnold) has returned to his coastal hometown, Port Silver, WA, to set up a new life with partner Mandy Bond (Bella Heathcote). When he arrives to find his childhood friend…

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Everything we learned from director Ryan Coogler, star Michael B. Jordan and the cast of Sinners from the global press conference

“You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” Written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler, Sinners presents a new vision of fear.  Starring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role, Academy Award nominee Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo, Li Jun Li, and Wunmi Mosaku, the film details…

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Interview: Richard Roxburgh and Peter Greste on bringing The Correspondent to the big screen; “There has to be some deeper understanding of what it is, or was, that journalists actually did before the world changed.”

While covering the news desk in Cairo for a colleague over the Christmas holidays, Australian journalist Peter Greste was arrested and accused of terrorism. He became a pawn in the middle of a deadly game full of corrupt officials and ancient rivalries.  The subject of his own worldwide news story, where only his wits and…

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Interview: Director Kriv Stenders on bringing Peter Greste’s true story to the big screen with The Correspondent; “If the film makes us think for a moment, it’s done it’s job.”

While covering the news desk in Cairo for a colleague over the Christmas holidays, Australian journalist Peter Greste was arrested and accused of terrorism. He became a pawn in the middle of a deadly game full of corrupt officials and ancient rivalries.  The subject of his own worldwide news story, where only his wits and…

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Film Review: The Correspondent is a stark Australian thriller grounded by the understated work of Richard Roxburgh

Having already carved out a sense of the absurd regarding the legal system with their work on the TV series Rake, star Richard Roxburgh and writer Peter Duncan take on a far more serious aspect of such risibility in The Correspondent through the incarceration of Australian journalist Peter Greste and the dubious charges of terrorism…

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Film Review: The Comic Shop; Independent dramedy has charm, but needs a little fine-tuning

A sweet film with a talented cast and an evident love for the aspiring creative, The Comic Shop is well-meaning in its temperament, but a little less confident in its execution as it injects a dramatic streak that doesn’t flow with its initial personality. The titular comic shop is Mike’s World, a small venture that…

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Interview: Christopher Landon on directing Drop, calibrating thrills, and inverting the damsel in distress trope

First dates are nerve-wracking enough.  Going on a first date while an unnamed, unseen troll pings you personal memes that escalate from annoying to homicidal? Blood-chilling! Returning to the thriller genre with the playful, keep-you-guessing intensity he perfected in the Happy Death Day films, director Christopher Landon delivers an of-the-moment whodunnit where everyone in the…

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Film Review: Drop; Cat-and-mouse thriller easily maintains its sense of entertaining tension

However far fetched Drop proves to be with its wild, pulling-the-wool-over-our-eyes premise, director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky) and screenwriters Jillian Jacobs (Fantasy Island) and Chris Roach (Non-Stop) maintain a sense of unpredictable fun across the film’s tight 95 minutes as it presents a cat-and-mouse thriller ripe for the digital age. After opening with…

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Film Review: Sinners is a gory, horny, relevant reflection on Black culture and artistry in the guise of a vampiric chiller

Delivering his first essentially original screenplay since his 2013 breakout Fruitvale Station, filmmaker Ryan Coogler basks in the glory of a post-Creed/Black Panther space with the liberating Sinners, a gory, horny, relevant reflection on Black culture and artistry. Set in 1930s Mississippi in the midst of Prohibition, Coogler’s gradually escalating gonzo horror effort finds its…

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Fireflies in the Dusk is a melodramatic romp of a comedy: Cleveland International Film Festival Review

In the same manner as to how Netflix’s Bridgerton blends its English Regency with a modernised mentality, Jonathan Hammond‘s Fireflies in the Dusk takes that notion and dials it to 11, enhancing its sense of absurdity and random humour to create a truly witty, daft comedy in the process. The short film’s comedic temperament is…

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Pro Wrestling Australia’s best friends turn enemies set to explode at Sydney’s Factory Theatre

Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA) is bringing its most personal and high stakes battle yet to The Factory Theatre with CHEVS VS TROY. This highly anticipated main event will see PWA Heavyweight Champion Jessica Troy defend her title against her former best friend turned bitter rival, Charli Evans, in a Last Wrestler Standing match on Friday,…

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Film Review: The Amateur; Rami Malek is the anti-Jason Bourne in charming throwback thriller

Between last month’s spy thriller Black Bag and this week’s release, The Amateur, adult audiences are finally finding reason to go to the theatres again.  To enjoy smart, almost understated genre features that delight in dialogue and a forward narrative over the spectacle of tentpole cinema feels almost archaic in this day and age, so…

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