Film

A multi-faceted performer who has amassed a career across film, television and stage that has spanned over four decades, Lou Diamond Phillips is an industry legend.  But in speaking to our Peter Gray to celebrate the release of his new film, Et Tu – a dark comedic thriller about an unhappy director watching his awful…

How To Train Your Dragon is flying into your home! And to celebrate, The AU Review have an exciting prize pack to giveaway to one lucky Sydney resident thanks to Organic PR and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. To celebrate the launch, Universal are partnering with the St George Illawarra Dragons for a takeover on their 2nd…

It feels inevitable that something like Together will earn comparisons to last year’s The Substance, purely off the fact that the horror it indulges in – that would be the body variety – escalates considerably leading into its wild climax.  Sure, The Substance being a great example of body horror is all well and good,…

Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country, abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their…

Set over the course of one day in a dysfunctional office setting, Another Day in America – as much of a generalisation as it may appear as a title – is an apt description for Emilio Mauro‘s commentative dark comedy, which blends situations both mundane and exaggerated across its 112 minutes, resulting in an oft-uncomfortable,…

The Toronto International Film Festival is set to dazzle this September as it celebrates its 50th edition with a red carpet–ready slate of Official Selections from its Gala and Special Presentations programmes. As part of its full list, TIFF is presenting world premieres including Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune, Maude Apatow’s Poetic License, Isabel Coixet’s Three Goodbyes, Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice, David Michôd’s Christy, Yeon Sang-ho’s The Ugly, James…

This week, Australia was just that much more fantastic as Sydney played host to Marvel’s First Family in the lead-up to the anticipated release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960’s inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue…

In the grand design of 90s horror movies that could manage a certain 2025 resurgence, I Know What You Did Last Summer would, arguably, be not placed too high on a list of likelihoods.  Thank the lords then that writer/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) pitched her version to Sony Pictures, as the filmmaker defies…

TIFF is preparing to welcome the world this September for its 50th Festival, announcing 11 more Official Selections in the Gala and Special Presentations programmes. Reflecting TIFF’s commitment to champion new perspectives and cinematic excellence to its diverse international public audience, these films — Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral, Agnieszka Holland’s Franz, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, Paul Greengrass’ The Lost Bus,…

Tonight, the 73rd Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) unveiled an outstanding program of over 275 screen works and announced the 10 Bright Horizons films screening in competition and vying for MIFF’s flagship prize. From the 7th to the 24th of August, cinephiles across Melbourne, regional Victoria, and throughout the country online can explore a diverse…

If you’ve seen the marketing for the latest Smurfs film – which is serving as a soft reboot of the series, disregarding the live-action features from 2011 and 2013, and the animated retooled “sequel” from 2017 – you would notice that they’ve been very much banking on the voice casting of Rihanna as Smurfette.  There’s…

A friend coming group together is a tried and true concept when it comes to situational comedy, and whilst writer/director Deena Kashper isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel with her ensemble laugher Nuked, she gives enough of her reflective humour and narrative hook a distinct personality that we’re happy to go along for the ride; which,…

It’s Jack and Gill’s 40th birthdays, so they invite their college friends to a rented mansion for a weekend away. Phones are confiscated for an “unplugged” dinner party, but to ease the tension, Jack and Gill reveal the five-course meal is fully cannabis-infused. That does the trick – until someone sneaks a peek at their…

Karma is a killer. Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see I Know What You Did Last Summer, the new horror legacy sequel from Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, and starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell,…

Similar to fellow DC Comic mainstay Batman, the character of Superman has had his share of big screen iterations (one could argue too many at this point) over the years, with no less than four different actors across as many intended franchises; disregarding the Superman serial series of the late 1940s and early 1950s with…

The story we know, but told not as we’ve seen it before. Coming only a few months after Disney’s controversial musical live-action adaptation, Snow White is given a dark, violent makeover in The Death of Snow White, director Jason Brooks‘s unique take on a classic, with a decidedly gory twist. In the film, Snow White,…

Meet the Cat in the Hat you don’t know! In the wonderfully whimsical tradition of Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat comes to the big screen in his animated theatrical feature film debut – an all-new, epic adventure with an edge, where mischief, magic and mayhem reign supreme. Doing what he does best, the…

There’s a whole lot of familiarity going on with Heads of State.  It’s a tested premise – that of mismatched partners in an action landscape – but screenwriters Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query don’t try to pretend it’s anything otherwise, and so with a capable genre director in Ilya Naishuller (Nobody) and both…

Bleeding follows Eric, a 17-year-old grieving the death of his brother. When his cousin, Sean, the hot-shot son of an alcoholic cop, gets pulled into the lucrative, deadly world of using and selling Blood, Eric will do whatever it takes to save him from the same fate that swallowed his brother whole. With a debt…

In a near-future society, The Running Man is the top-rated show on television – a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, with every move broadcast to a bloodthirsty public and each day bringing a greater cash reward. Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class…

The Rose Byrne-led dramedy, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, has been announced as the official Opening Night film of the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), with tickets now on sale. The blistering second feature from US writer-director Mary Bronstein will make its Australian Premiere this August, hot off a rapturous reception at…

Despite the general consensus very much being that the last two Jurassic World features – 2018’s Fallen Kingdom and 2022’s Dominion – were vastly underwhelming in the manner in which they pushed the story forward, audiences pushing each film to over a billion dollars each at the box office meant that they ultimately didn’t seem…

Following our chats with both director Gareth Edwards and the trio of Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda, The AU Review’s dino-sized coverage of Jurassic World Rebirth wraps up with Rupert Friend and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. Ahead of the film’s release in theatres this week, Peter Gray spoke with the actors – Friend stars as…

As The AU Review’s coverage of Jurassic World Rebirth continues, Peter Gray spoke with rising stars Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda about their entrance into the iconic series; you can read our interview with director Gareth Edwards here. Starring as siblings Teresa and Isabella Delgado, Blaise and Miranda spoke of building their sisterly…

A new era has been born. Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a…

AIDC and Screen Queensland, with the support of Sunshine Coast Council and in association with Sunshine Coast Screen Collective, are proud to reveal the full session program and speaker line-up for this year’s Regionality Sunshine Coast documentary and factual industry event, taking place at Mantra Mooloolaba Beach on Monday 28 July 2025. The very special one-day program…

Director Hariharasidhen Nagarajan and writer Anghus Houvouras couldn’t accept “the new normal” of shootings in the United States.  Such mass attacks as the Parkland High School shooting and the Pulse Nightclub incident were part of a grim reality that the two weren’t willing to become accustomed to. They thought of not only the victims whose…

Given that Stealing Pulp Fiction very much wears its Tarantino affection openly, you’d be forgiven for expecting director Danny Turkiewicz to have the same kind of flair as the very filmmaker he’s adoring.  No, Turkiewicz isn’t replicating that same QT magic, but it would be a heavy ask to expect so, and on its own…

TIFF is sharing the first five Special Presentation titles of its Official Selection set to have their World Premieres at the Festival’s 50th edition this September. Alejandro Amenábar’s The Captive, Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers, Sung-hyun Byun’s Good News, Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, and Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks serve as the first round of announced titles. …

M3GAN 2.0 is hyping up its central battle of A.I. killbots as “This Bitch versus That Bitch.” But which bitch is which? The anticipated sequel brings back the the murderous doll who captivated pop culture in 2023, and this time around M3GAN has to contend with AMELIA, a military-grade weapon and the ultimate killer infiltration…