When a mysterious young woman washes up on the bank of a local river, both the feisty twelve-year-old-girl who discovers her and her overprotective father are forever changed by both the arrival of this stranger into their home, and the ruthless drug lord who will stop at nothing to kill her once and for all….
With a more sizeable budget, one could imagine a film like Hunting Season being the perfect vehicle for an action figure like Jason Statham. It utilises a simple premise, indulges in a certain neo-Western mentality, remains remarkably asexual, and ultimately culminates in a violent shoot-out where murky good triumphs over pure evil. Except Statham isn’t…
Though a richly textured performance from George Clooney (even if he is essentially playing himself) and some warm support from Adam Sandler (though his overuse of the word “Papi” starts to grate) help bolster Jay Kelly, it’s difficult to entirely find a way into the universality writer/director Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, White Noise) hopes to…
Judgement is coming. The Allies, led by the unyielding chief prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon), have the task of ensuring the Nazi regime answers for the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust, while a US Army psychiatrist (Rami Malek) is locked in a dramatic psychological duel with former Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (Russell Crowe). Based on…
Whilst he has proved his weight in popcorn comic book efforts (The Amazing Spider-Man), indulgent actioners (Ambulance), and self-aware slashers (2022’s requel Scream and both its sequels, Scream VI and next year’s Scream 7) over his career, writer/director James Vanderbilt has also expressed a certain fascination with the morally grey areas of history (see David…
Samara Weaving is back, and just as blood-soaked as ever, in the first-look trailer for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the long-awaited sequel to 2019’s sleeper smash horror-comedy Ready or Not. Once again helmed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, the filmmaking duo who go by Radio Silence and are also known for…
From the opening of Oh. What. Fun., director/writer Michael Showalter and his co-writer Chandler Baker very much express both the importance of mothers during the festive season and how, in the realms of cinematic ventures, they’re an under valued character. As the film’s loving focal point, Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer, always a treat to see…
Come for the presents. Stay for the baggage. It wouldn’t be a Christmas comedy without some familial dysfunction, and, in 2025, the Clauster clan are delivering such in Oh. What. Fun., a new seasonal laugher from director Michael Showalter (Spoiler Alert, The Idea of You). Flipping the script on classic holiday movies to remind us…
With Stranger Things entering its long-awaited final season, the first half of Season 5 wastes no time throwing fans back into the chaos of Hawkins. Over a year has passed since the town was torn open and the Upside Down spilled into reality. Hawkins is now under military lockdown, tensions are high, and Vecna’s threat…
There’s something rather amusing about what constitutes an “A24” movie. There’s an expectation placed upon the studio as of late regarding the type of film it releases into theatres, and within its own genre, the A24 comedy has rarely been as wholesome as what Eternity projects. Between the the darker fare of Sorry, Baby and…
Eternity is an imaginative and bittersweet romantic comedy about the afterlife, where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity. For Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) it’s a facing of an impossible choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) and her first love (Callum Turner), who died young and has waited decades…
AACTA, Sanctuary Pictures, Umbrella Entertainment and the Wake in Fright Trust today announced The Harvest, written and directed by emerging filmmaker Darcy Conlan, as the 2025 recipient of the Wake in Fright Development Initiative. Conlan will receive $30,000 in funding and dedicated development support to take the project toward production; the Wake in Fright Development Initiative honours the…
Tropfest – the world’s largest short film festival – is set to make its spectacular return to Centennial Park, Sydney, on Sunday 22 February 2026, with internationally acclaimed and Academy Award nominated actor and producer Margot Robbie leading the charge as Jury President; she joins a prestigious list of fellow Australian and international celebrities, such as…
Director Brian Kirk manages to set quite the tone within the first minutes of his icy thriller Dead of Winter, with Emma Thompson‘s Barb navigating the snowy environment in the isolated Minnesotan wilderness she has ventured into to spread the ashes of her recently deceased husband. The emotionality conjured through Barb’s motivation offsets the terrifying…
Gurinder Chadha is one of Britain’s most distinctive filmmakers, known for telling stories that reflect the rich diversity of modern life. She broke through internationally with Bend It Like Beckham, and has since directed a string of much-loved films, including Bride and Prejudice, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, and Blinded by the Light. Her work is marked by warmth,…
One of the most poignant lines of Eleanor the Great is “Talk about the things that make you sad,” and it’s with such a notion that Scarlett Johansson‘s affecting dramedy takes it on as a throughline. A film that so easily could have been about deception becomes something far greater and more profound, transforming itself…
When Ghosts: Australia was announced, it might be fair to say that the idea was met with some trepidation. There have been numerous examples of comedy hits in one country failing to impress when adapted for another – anyone remember when they tried to do an American version of Kath and Kim? Yet Ghosts, based on the…
Produced by Jungle Entertainment with major production investment from Screen Australia, He Had It Coming is an odd couple comedy-drama of two women accidentally entangled in a murder mystery when their spontaneous feminist art activism is co-opted by a killer. Now streaming on Stan Australia, where it’s immediately raced into the Top 10 current most-streamed series,…
They often say actions speak louder than words. So it’s entirely fitting that the dialogue is minimal in Sisu: Road to Revenge, Jalmari Helander‘s brutal, gloriously implausible follow-up to 2022’s surprise success Sisu. Following relatively the same structure as its predecessor, the sequel (Sisu is a Finnish word-blend of strength, resilience, willpower, and grit) once…
When we think of coming-of-age stories, so often is it pictured as a teen or young adult navigating their life towards a sense of maturity. The truth is though, such a term can really be applied to anyone who is experiencing a reset in their life – whether it’s emotional, professional or psychological – which…
When Jane Messina returns home to visit her two sisters and her ailing father, she’s forced to re-evaluate her life, and to wonder what could have been. Blue Eyed Girl is a coming-of-age story at forty-something, not fifteen. It’s about midlife and marriage, chasing dreams, letting go of regrets, and most of all, reconciling who…
They’re not just at Freddy’s anymore. In 2023, Blumhouse’s box-office horror phenomenon Five Nights at Freddy’s, based on the blockbuster game series by Scott Cawthon, became the highest-grossing horror film of the year. Now, a shocking new chapter of animatronic terror begins in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. One year has passed since the supernatural…
They’re not just at Freddy’s anymore. In 2023, Blumhouse’s box-office horror phenomenon Five Nights at Freddy’s, based on the blockbuster game series by Scott Cawthon, became the highest-grossing horror film of the year. Now, a shocking new chapter of animatronic terror begins in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. One year has passed since the supernatural…
Prime Video Australia are the gift that keeps on giving this festive season, with the streamer announcing their December slate to ensure their viewers will be entertained all the way into the new year. From anticipated series returns to Christmas comedies, NBA championships to some modern classics, here’s a look at everything you can stream…
After two years of being off Aussie screens, BritBox is bringing back the long-running UK soap and fan-favourite drama Casualty, much to fans’ delight. Leading the cast is Charles Venn (EastEnders, The Dark Knight), who returns to the drama as Jacob Masters, the direct, confident, unconventional former army medic-turned-nurse who, for over a decade now, has proven one of…
“And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend…” And in that one line of lyricism, songwriter Stephen Schwartz perfectly encapsulates the bittersweet mentality of Wicked: For Good, the suitably thrillifying conclusion to last year’s cultural phenomenon, Wicked. With a large subsect of audiences somewhat uninitiated in…
Inspired by true events, Deadly Vows is a gripping thriller about love turned lethal. After fleeing the Iran Iraq war, Darya (Shiva Negar) begins a new life in Los Angeles and is swept off her feet by the charming Sam Lebon (Peter Facinelli). But behind his promises of safety lies a violent darkness. As their…
Despite the fact that it’s directed by Michael Dowse (Stuber) and comes from a story credit by Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and the Furious), Trap House manages to not entirely fall into the familiar action genre tropes both creatives have expressed before. It isn’t shaking up the ground in any manner, but its blend…
El Paso DEA Agent Ray Seale (Dave Bautista) and his team infiltrate a drug trafficking operation run by notorious cartel boss ‘Guzman’. But things go wrong and one of his team is shot and killed. In the aftermath, the slain agent’s son, Jesse (Blu del Barrio), is devastated and struggles financially having to move back…
El Paso DEA Agent Ray Seale (Dave Bautista) and his team infiltrate a drug trafficking operation run by notorious cartel boss ‘Guzman’. But things go wrong and one of his team is shot and killed. In the aftermath, the slain agent’s son, Jesse (Blu del Barrio), is devastated and struggles financially having to move back…