Author: Peter Gray

Seasoned film critic and editor, music reviewer, occasional lifestyle collaborator. Gives a great interview. Penchant for horror. Unashamed fan of Michelle Pfeiffer and Jason Momoa. Voter for the 84th Annual Golden Globes. Contact: [email protected]

Prime Video tease YA series adaptation Off Campus with first-look trailer

There’s a new college drama on the way – and if you’re into messy relationships, elite sports culture, and emotionally unavailable hockey players, this one’s already shaping up to be a binge. Call it “straighted rivalry,” if you like, Off Campus taps into that same appetite for high-stakes love stories set against the hyper-masculine world…

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Deadloch Season 2 goes tropical gothic: Inside the sweaty, savage return at the red carpet premiere

At Sydney’s Hoyts Entertainment Quarter, the red carpet for Deadloch Season 2 felt a little less like a premiere and a little more like a warning. The global hit crime-comedy is back – but this time, it’s sweatier, stickier, and far more dangerous. Created by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, the new season trades the…

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Series Review: With Season 2, Deadloch remains one of the most distinctive and exciting series on Australian television

There’s something quietly miraculous about how Deadloch manages to be so many things at once without collapsing under the weight of it all – and in its second season, it somehow gets even more ambitious. Shifting the action from Tasmania to the Top End is more than just a change of scenery; it’s a smart…

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Album Review: Naomi Scott’s soulful pop record F.I.G is a statement of intent

There’s a quiet confidence running through F.I.G that immediately reframes expectations. This is not the glossy, hyper-engineered pop pivot some might anticipate from a former Disney Channel breakout, nor is it a continuation of the darker, urban-leaning textures flirted with as Skye Riley in Smile 2. Instead, Naomi Scott delivers one of the most assured…

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Opinion: 20 years on, She’s the Man is still that girl

Twenty years on, She’s the Man remains one of those rare teen comedies that didn’t just survive its era – it quietly outgrew it. Released in the US on March 17th, 2006, the film arrived at the tail end of a very specific wave: glossy, high-concept teen comedies built around identity swaps, social hierarchies, and…

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Film Review: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a bloodier, messier expansion pack of the twisted original

There’s a certain chaotic magic to 2019’s Ready or Not that felt lightning-in-a-bottle – a savage, tightly wound satire wrapped in a gleefully bloody game of survival. So walking into Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, I wasn’t necessarily convinced a sequel was needed. And yet, while it doesn’t quite recapture that original bite,…

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Tom Holland is still your friendly neighbour in first-look Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer

After days of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teases, the wait is finally over — the first full trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day has arrived, ushering in a bold new era for Peter Parker. Following the record-breaking global success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the next chapter doesn’t just pick up the pieces – it reinvents them. Set…

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Interview: Miley Tunnecliffe on weaving addiction and grief into her supernatural horror film Proclivitas

There’s a particular kind of horror film that doesn’t just aim to scare you – it lingers, quietly burrowing under your skin by tapping into something far more recognisable than any monster. That’s exactly what Proclivitas achieves, weaving together grief, addiction, and memory into something as emotionally raw as it is unnerving. At its centre…

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Stop handing the microphone to influencers: An open letter to the Oscars and Vanity Fair

There’s a quiet erosion happening on the red carpet, and it’s time someone said it out loud. To the Academy Awards and Vanity Fair: stop asking influencers to cover your most prestigious cultural events. This isn’t about snobbery. It’s about standards. The red carpet has long been a strange hybrid space – part journalism, part…

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Film Review: Pretty Lethal is a lively, blood-splattered little thrill ride

There’s something immediately appealing about the gleefully ridiculous premise of Pretty Lethal: take a troupe of young ballet dancers, strand them in the middle of nowhere after witnessing a violent crime, and then let them fight their way out using a very particular set of skills. It’s the kind of concept that sounds like a…

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Film Review: Arco is a colourful children’s adventure that trusts young audiences to grapple with big ideas

In an animation landscape still crowded with sequels and recycled brands, Arco feels like a small but refreshing gust of imagination. Directed by French animator Ugo Bienvenu, the film plays like a gentle throwback to the kind of children’s adventure that once trusted young audiences to grapple with big ideas – while still delivering colour,…

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Same Same But Different is a buoyant ensemble comedy that’s as warm-hearted as it is mischievous: SXSW 2026 Review

There’s a particular kind of comedy that thrives on chaos: a ticking clock, a doomed plan, a gathering of people who should absolutely not be in the same room together. Same Same But Different gleefully embraces that tradition, then complicates it with something far more interesting – the messy, contradictory puzzle of cultural identity. The…

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Melanie C announces Australian tour dates for her 2026 World Tour

Melanie C is heading back to Australia in 2026, bringing the euphoric dancefloor energy of her new album Sweat to stages across the country this November. Best known to millions as Sporty Spice from the Spice Girls, Melanie C has carved out one of the most enduring careers in pop. With over 85 million records…

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Interview: Drew Goddard on adapting Project Hail Mary for the big screen; “The soul of the story is empathy and communication.”

When Andy Weir published Project Hail Mary, the author once again proved he had a knack for turning dense scientific problem-solving into compulsively entertaining storytelling. It was perhaps inevitable that Hollywood would come calling – and just as they did with “The Martian”, the task of translating Weir’s meticulous, deeply internal prose to the screen fell…

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Interview: The Madison stars Elle Chapman, Patrick J. Adams and Amiah Miller on grief, Montana, and the movies that make them cry

Grief sits quietly at the heart of The Madison, Taylor Sheridan’s new drama following the Clyburn family as they leave New York City for the wide, untamed landscapes of Montana’s Madison River valley after a devastating loss. For the cast, that emotional terrain wasn’t just something to perform – it was something many of them…

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Interview: Director Christina Alexandra Voros on shaping the emotional canvas of The Madison

Grief has a way of reshaping not just the people who carry it, but the spaces they inhabit. In The Madison, the latest Taylor Sheridan television production set against the sweeping beauty of Montana’s Madison River valley, the Clyburn family leave behind their life in New York City in search of something quieter – and…

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Interview: Ben Schnetzer and Rebecca Spence on playing the outsiders in Taylor Sheridan’s The Madison

Created by Taylor Sheridan, The Madison trades the sweeping ranch rivalries of his earlier work for something more intimate: a character-driven drama about family, grief and reinvention set against the vast landscapes of Montana. The new Paramount+ original series follows the Clyburn family — led by Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell as Stacy and Preston…

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Series Review: The Madison; Michelle Pfeiffer is phenomenal in Taylor Sheridan’s most intimate, emotional series yet

Created by Taylor Sheridan, The Madison may have been born from the creative orbit that produced Yellowstone, but it ultimately emerges as something far more intimate: a quietly devastating family drama wrapped in the sweeping visual language of the American West. Rather than leaning on the operatic power struggles that have defined Sheridan’s other series,…

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Rising star Charlotte MacInnes releases debut single Struck

Today, rising Australian singer, songwriter and actress Charlotte MacInnes steps into the spotlight with the release of her debut single “Struck,” an electrifying and emotionally charged first offering out now via Atlantic Records, accompanied by a striking visualiser. The track marks the beginning of a new chapter for MacInnes, and the first release under her…

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Film Review: Reminders of Him is a familiar tearjerker that still finds its pulse

There’s something quietly fascinating about the way the Colleen Hoover cinematic universe has begun to take shape. What once seemed like purely BookTok-bound melodrama has, somewhat improbably, found a foothold on the big screen. The first adaptation arrived under a cloud of off-screen drama that ultimately overshadowed its success, but it also proved that unapologetically…

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Opinion: Why Melanie C is pop’s most underrated dance icon

When people talk about pop reinvention, the conversation almost always circles back to names like Madonna or Kylie Minogue. Artists who continually reshape their sound, their image, and their relationship with the dance floor. But there’s another pop icon who deserves to be part of that conversation: Melanie C. As she releases “Undefeated Champion”, the…

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Interview: Chrissy Metz on the humour, heart, and humanity of her new comedy Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger

In Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger, Chrissy Metz steps into the role of Jessica, a sharp, New York journalist whose job is to observe the world – but whose heart is transformed by the people she meets. Our Peter Gray spoke with the actress about stepping into communities different from her own, finding…

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The Pussycat Dolls are back! Club Song, a tour, and the promise of more

It’s official: the Pussycat Dolls have returned. After years of speculation, legal drama, and solo projects, Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberly Wyatt, and Ashley Roberts are reunited, and they’re kicking things off in style with a new single, “Club Song“, and a massive international tour. “Club Song” is everything you’d hope for from a PCD comeback: brassy,…

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Film Review: Project Hail Mary; Ryan Gosling anchors exhilarating, heartfelt adventure that’s as funny as it is awe-inspiring

Ryan Gosling has built a career on playing men caught between intellect and emotion, but in Project Hail Mary he delivers one of his most engaging performances yet. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (ever the inventive duo), and adapted from the beloved novel by Andy Weir, the film turns a deeply scientific premise into…

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Interview: Joel Edgerton on The Plague, bullying, and the horror of adolescence

Few environments capture the fragile hierarchies of adolescence quite like summer camp. Friendships form quickly, loyalties shift overnight, and the unspoken rules of belonging can be as ruthless as they are invisible. The Plague taps directly into that volatile world, following a 12-year-old boy who becomes entangled in a cruel camp tradition targeting an outcast…

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Film Review: The Plague is a psychological drama that carries the uneasy weight of a horror film without ever needing traditional genre scares.

Cruelty has always been a rite of passage in coming-of-age stories, but few films capture the quiet terror of adolescent social hierarchies as vividly as The Plague. Set at a water polo summer camp in the summer of 2003, writer-director Charlie Polinger’s striking debut transforms the awkward, anxiety-ridden world of early teenage boyhood into something…

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Interview: Jenna MacMillan on her directorial debut The Snake, premiering at SXSW, and celebrating imperfect heroines

For producer Jenna MacMillan, stepping behind the camera for the first time wasn’t about abandoning what she already knew, it was about trusting herself to lead the story. With The Snake, her offbeat directorial debut premiering in competition at this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival, MacMillan brings writer-star Susan Kent’s sharp, darkly funny script…

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Interview: Peter Warren on finding humour in the darkness of his own personal story with Kill Me

A murder mystery usually begins with a body. In Kill Me, it begins with a question: what if the detective and the victim were the same person? Blending a darkly comic whodunit with an unexpectedly candid exploration of depression, the film follows Jimmy (Charlie Day), who begins investigating his own attempted murder, unsure whether he’s…

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Win a double in-season pass to the Oscar nominated animated adventure Arco

Thanks to Kismet Movies, we have 3 double digital in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the Academy Award-nominated animated adventure Arco, in Australian theatres from March 12th, 2026, featuring the voices of Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Flea and Andy Samberg. A magical and beautifully animated journey through time, ARCO is a…

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Blacktown Mayor backs Western Sydney as ideal home for new film studio

Blacktown City Mayor Brad Bunting has welcomed the NSW Government’s decision to begin the search for a second major film studio in Greater Sydney, saying Western Sydney is perfectly positioned to help drive the next phase of Australia’s screen industry growth. The NSW Government has committed up to $100 million towards the development of a…

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