Film

Oh, look! We have another Berg-er joint coming in cinemas! Mile 22 is the fourth collaboration between actor Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg after the three dramatic films that were based on true stories i.e. the biographical war drama Lone Survivor, the disaster film Deepwater Horizon and the crime drama Patriots Day. All of…

A film like Crazy Rich Asians is a long time coming. For the past 25 years, since the release of Wayne Wang‘s expansive drama, The Joy Luck Club, there haven’t been a lot of films in the Hollywood system that featured Asian-Americans in substantial roles; let alone managed to assemble a talented ensemble cast. Whilst, the…

It takes quite some time before Kin ramps into its intergalactic promise, with Aussie directors Jonathan and Josh Baker stretching their indie short Bag Man into an odd hybrid feature to try thin the chunky line between on-the-road family drama and sci-fi. And while the uneven plot can be frustrating to witness as it slowly…

Ziad Doueiri’s Oscar nominated film, The Insult (L’insulte) could be called Pride & Prejudice. This isn’t because this Lebanese drama has anything to do with Jane Austen. Rather, it is because this film is all about how one minor conflict between two men escalates because of a combination of hubris and hatred. It seems that…

Six Australian films have been chosen for the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). As one of the biggest publicly attended film festivals the TIFF has close ties to the US film industry. This poses a good chance of expanding the range of Australian film making to a world-wide audience, like former Toronto premieres (e.g….

After its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, the new feature Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Boy was released on 220 Australian cinema screens last week, making it the biggest documentary release since Michael Jackson’s This Is It back in 2009, and the biggest ever release for an Australian documentary. From acclaimed director Mark Joffe (Jack…

Jane Fonda is a legend of the small and big screen with a career spanning 60+ years. From Barbarella and Klute and The Dollmaker to her one woman fitness empire to championing the #MeToo movement, Fonda has earned her iconic status. Jetting in to Australia to promote the release of her new film Book Club…

Before Melissa McCarthy’s involvement essentially fast-tracked The Happytime Murders into production, the dark comedy had languished in development limbo for the good part of decade with both Cameron Diaz and Katherine Heigl attached at various moments as potential headliners.  With the final product now upon us, McCarthy’s penchant for vanity-free comedy feels like the most…

Production has officially begun on Disney’s live-action adaptation of the 1998 animated classic coming of age story, Mulan. This marks yet another live-action adaptation for Disney, which found massive success in the recently adapted Beauty and the Beast. The film will shoot in various locations in New Zealand and China and will open in cinemas…

Aussie Chasing Comets stars Dan Ewing, Stan Walker, Rhys Muldoon, Beau Ryan, Kat Hoyos and George Houvardas and Producer/Writer, Jason Stevens walked the red carpet of the the former NRL star’s highly-anticipated NRL/AFL comedy drama, which is in cinemas now. Nathan Atkins hit the premiere and brought us back these photos:

You can imagine the meeting. “We need a film for the grey-dollar à la Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” “How about a story involving a book club? Older women like those.” “Sure, but let’s make it into a rom-com.” “We need to include sex because that sells.” “But they might be a bit old for Sex…

In cinemas next week, the new film KIN will hit cinemas in Australia and the USA; continuing the trend of underdog sci-fi that has returned to popularity thanks to Stranger Things (the producers of which also produced this project). The film is the debut feature from NYC-based Aussie directors Jonathan and Josh Baker, whose short film…

After two seasons chasing the notorious Cali Cartel leader Pablo Escobar the DEA finally caught up with him. The rules have changed and now they’re after his successors. With Escobar out of the way business is booming for the cartel, on their way to becoming the biggest cocaine trafficker in history. Follow Agent Pena’s (Pedro…

The coming-of-age story, Breath is based on the acclaimed, Tim Winton novel of the same name. It is about two adolescent boys named Pikelet and Loonie who learn to surf thanks to a chance meeting with a former professional named Sando (Simon Baker). The film has just been released on Blu-ray and features several hours…

The secret’s out about the excellent drama/thriller series, Mystery Road. It’s actually a gripping, Australian detective story that sees the character, Jay Swan reprised from Ivan Sen’s films, Mystery Road and Goldstone. This time around the crime takes place in the small outback town of Patterson where the locals are elusive and tight-lipped about what…

Mandy is a crazy two-hour LSD trip led by a totally unhinged Nicolas Cage performance. The film follows Red (Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) who live a peaceful life in the Pacific Northwest, that is until a religious cult barge in and rob Red of the love of his life, sending the man on a…

6 years after The Hunger Games lead the charge of YA dystopia book to film adaptations, a new contender has appeared in an attempt to revive the genre. Adapted from the Alexandra Brooks’ series of the same name, The Darkest Minds combines young adult fiction dystopia with superpowers. When a disease wipes out 90% of…

Spike Lee is quite clearly fired up as he scatters sharp, defiant dialogue all through BlacKKKlansman, his first feature film since 2015’s good-but-uneven Chi-Raq and without a doubt one of his best works to date. That is no overstatement either, with Lee directing a big middle finger to the racism both explicit and implicit, by…

You don’t really need to know much about The Meg aside from that it is entertaining enough to justify it’s spot on the box office. That’s the most we could ask from a movie about a gigantic prehistoric shark unwittingly released from the depths of the ocean by hapless scientists who are stationed over the…

From the producers of Stranger Things, and Arrival comes Kin a gripping crime thriller with a sci-fi twist. Chased by a vengeful criminal and a gang of otherworldly soldiers,​ a recently released ex-con and his adopted teenage brother are forced to go on the run after finding a futuristic super-weapon of mysterious origin as their only…

Director X has already built a reputation for his stylish and inventive music videos, churned out over two decades with an impressive portfolio that overflows with mega-successful acts like Drake and Justin Bieber as well as beloved hip hop titans like Ice Cube and JAY-Z. It was only a matter of time before he crossed…

The feel-good film Book Club stars Diane Keaton as Diane, recently widowed after 40 years of marriage, Jane Fonda as Vivian, who enjoys her men with no strings attached, Candice Bergen as Sharon, who’s been working through a decades long divorce, and Mary Steenburgen as Carol, whose marriage has hit a bit of a slump…

As we edge ever closer to the end of the year, the Christmas film releases are starting to come to the fore, and The Nutcracker And The Four Realm is leading the pack. Today, Disney has dropped its first full trailer for the star-studded release. The impressive cast includes Mackenzie Foy, Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman, Helen…

The average woman is said to criticise herself around eight times each day. It is in this headspace and society that a rom-com like I Feel Pretty exists. The film had the best of intentions and tries to tackle some complex topics like how hard we women can be on ourselves and the feelings of…

Whilst no one is going to go out of their way to suggest The Spy Who Dumped Me is here to reinvent the wheel in its chosen hybrid genres, Susanna Fogel’s kinetic spy caper does a bloody good job at delivering on its advertised packaging.  An action-comedy that proves both consistently amusing and alarmingly crazed…

Based on JP O’Donnell’s ‘Gallagher’ novels, and directed by Bobby Moresco the action-packed crime thriller Bent was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray. Here’s a bit more about the film: Upon his release from prison, disgraced former detective Danny Gallagher (Karl Urban) makes a plan to seek revenge for a drug bust that went horribly…

On Chesil Beach may be a boy-meets-girl story but this one doesn’t play as you would typically expect. The film is an adaption of an Ian McEwan novella and is a heart-wrenching, domestic drama. Set in 1962 in the period between the lifting of the ban on Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the release of The…

Screen Australia has announced that celebrated Australian actor Hugo Weaving (Lord of the Rings, The Matrix) will star in M4M, a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure. Set within Melbourne’s commission flats, M4M tells the unlikely love story of a Muslim woman Jaiwara and a local loner musician Claudio. While their relationship develops, local…

Screen Producers Australia (SPA) has announced they are now partnering with airline Virgin Australia in order to create a new offers and opportunities for Associate Members, now allowing a whopping 64kg of checked baggage per member, when traveling domestically within Australia. This partnership hopes to address the ongoing issues that crew members and productions alike…

You Were Never Really Here is a gripping psychological thriller, and a dark and disturbing character study with Joaquin Phoenix putting in a thrilling lead performance. The film follows Joe (Phoenix), a veteran living with PTSD, who spends his time finding and rescuing missing girls. On this job, however, he stumbles into a larger conspiracy…