Fans of Downton Abbey shouldn’t be disappointed with the end of the series. After all, it ended on a high note. Now you can add the DVD to your collection and have an elegant marathon. The complete sixth and final season begins in 1925. Life continues to change at Downton with servants including the ones […]
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A film that manages to be both reserved yet personal, Youth is a realistically surreal film experience existing on its own plane thanks to the brave direction from Paolo Sorrentino. Gorgeous imagery and a restful pulse compliment the stunning, oft self-indulgent performances from an excellent cast of performers all masters at their craft. Set in […]
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If nothing else, Victor Frankenstein succeeds in its efforts to retell the story of the titular figure, and not the monster he’s so often conflated with. This re-imagining of the horror classic sees Frankenstein and his assistant Igor take center stage over the pair’s iconic creation, playing less a horror flick and more of a character-driven period […]
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Given both our own and the upcoming American elections, Our Brand is Crisis feels maybe a little too topical for its own good. Based on the documentary of the same name, the film follows Jane (Sandra Bullock), a talented political strategist who is coaxed out of early-retirement to help revive the election hopes of a Bolivian presidential candidate […]
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Taking anthologies like True Detective, Fargo and American Horror Story off the table, it’s hard to imagine a modern cable drama that’s reinvented itself as thoroughly as The Leftovers has with this second season. The return of Damon Lindelof and Tom Perotta‘s existential drama sees the action move from the suburbs of Mapleton to the […]
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There’s a special kind of infuriation one harbors for a bad film made by a talented filmmaker starring proven talent. Rock The Kasbah evokes this feeling. Originally set for an Australian theatrical release in the last quarter of 2015, its abysmal performance in the United States ($3.3m from a $15m budget) rendered it unworthy of […]
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Based on the live stage play by Alex Lykos that has toured around the country since 2006, Alex & Eve is a romantic comedy about a Greek Orthodox boy and a Lebanese Muslim girl who, against all odds, fall in love. This Aussie feature shows off the many cultures that live and breathe in Oz […]
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Sylvester Stallone has been playing Rocky Balboa for forty years. It’s a credit to the almost-70-year-old actor that he has found a way to breathe new life into the iconic character in Creed, the seventh film in the Rocky franchise. In fact, his efforts even earned him an Oscar nomination this year, the third of […]
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If Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) was never diagnosed with terminal cancer, she may never have come out. With 20 years of service for the New Jersey State Police, being a woman was hard enough. Now, she wants to make sure her pension goes to her spouse, Stacie Andree (Ellen Page), so she can stay in […]
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Or, as I like to call it, Special-K. Terrence Malick and his editors have modeled their film on the time and space bending properties of a psychoactive trip. One second you’re in a swanky Los Angeles apartment, the next on the ruins of a burnt-down gas station. Sometimes it’s Rick’s (Christian Bale) voice whispering contemplative […]
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Not that it wasn’t already, but by the end it’s fifth season HBO’s phenom of a TV show Game of Thrones had shot straight up to the front of the list for most talked about television shows of all time. Memes, references, and general fandom surrounding the show become embedded in pop culture all around […]
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Despite its incredibly generic title and direct-to-DVD status, No Escape is a surprisingly effective thriller elevated by its above-average cast and fuelled by its ability to maintain tension from start to finish. Director John Erik Dowdle is no stranger to lacing his films with palpable tension (the found-footage horror outing Quarantine and M. Night Shyamalan […]
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Spectre is the 24th James Bond film, 52 years into a franchise that has defined and redefined espionage thrillers, showing absolutely no signs of stopping both financially and creatively after Skyfall’s overwhelming success in 2012. Sure Daniel Craig’s iteration of Bond has given us some dull moments (see Quantum of Solace), but the 47 year […]
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If there is one thing I have always been upfront about, it’s that despite Marvel’s undeniable domination at the box office with their live-action films, DC have always had the animation sector locked down. Since 2007, DC’s stable of ‘Animated Original Movies’ have retold timeless stories first seen in comics (Superman’s death in Doomsday; Batman’s origins […]
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The Intern is an expression of contemporary norms and a challenge towards gender behaviours and expectations through societies’ transition to a more equal way of life. Written and directed by Nancy Myers, this feel-good comedy is set in Brooklyn New York. The film follows Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro), a seventy-year-old widower whom is struggling […]
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Season 4 of Luther sees the titular British detective (Idris Elba) return for a two-part adventure that, while all too brief, does a fantastic job of picking up the ball and running with it. It’s every bit as dark, moody and drenched in grey-morality as previous seasons and the slick production values behind the series […]
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Leave it to David Simon, the creator of The Wire, to turn a story about housing developments into the one of the richest miniseries television has seen in years. Show Me A Hero is a six-episode miniseries that adapts the real-world story behind the enforcement of federally-mandated public housing in the American city of Yonkers. […]
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When the BBC brought us Sherlock in 2010 it was a fresh updated consulting detective Sherlock Holmes with his partner Dr John Watson taking on some complex mysteries and solving crimes. With Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson, we were taken on a revival of some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories […]
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N.W.A have, is, and always will be integral to hip hop and it’s status as one of the most unique, and accessible, forms of self-expression in music. Birthed in the excessively rough neighbourhood of Compton, California, the group became a reference point for hip hop as a channel through which youth can make sense of […]
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There has been enough fuss over Johnny Depp going into Black Mass that the commercial reception of the film is pretty much locked in; the trailers released in the lead up have all signalled a substantial turn for Depp, whose biggest role in recent times has been as a highly exaggerated and energetic pirate. Any doubts […]
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The Martian is the much anticipated adaptation of Andy Weir’s acclaimed debut novel of the same name – a book which is as fascinating in its rise to notoriety as the content itself. Released in 2011 as a self-published, free-to-download ebook by the author (he released it chapter by chapter on his website before sticking it […]
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Another month, another found footage horror film. Well, ostensibly. You see, Jeruzalem approaches the sub-genre with (credit where it’s due) an interesting new take, but still manages to completely cock it up by the end. Which isn’t anything new for these films but seeing the opportunity unfurl and then burn right in front of your […]
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Joel Edgerton has already proved himself indispensable to Australian cinema, particularly with Animal Kingdom and The Rover, both films with an atmosphere and scope much larger than The Gift. For his directorial debut, Edgerton, who plays Gordon “Gordo” Moseley, brings a much more insular focus in both character and environment and it helps him deliver […]
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It happens far too often. Someone decides that a franchise that was mediocre in the first place, needs to continue despite losing its lead and competent director. I’m not saying that Transporter: Refueled is a work of incompetence, it is certainly polished enough to stand among it’s predecessors, but it lacks virtually any of the redeeming […]
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Hollywood hasn’t had the greatest track record when it comes to translating video games into films. There’s been but a handful that have been worth watching, the Resident Evil series, Lara Croft Tomb Raider and cult classic Mortal Kombat all rank amongst the good ones. With Hitman: Agent 47 this is actually a reboot and […]
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“Oh look it’s a boxing movie, cinema hasn’t seen that before,” is a cynical thought that would have gone through most minds whenSouthpaw was first announced. Having it directed by Antoine Fuqua, who brought us Training Day and The Equalizer, and written by Kurt Sutter, a man who worked extensively on Sons of Anarchy inspired […]
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Shocking, humorous, provocative and purely interesting, Ondi Timoner’s latest documentary Brand: A Second Coming looks at the life and rise of one of Britain’s most unique comedians, Russell Brand. The film takes us, in particular, through his journey to produce a changed spiritual mind-self and his motivation for a socialist way of life. Brand, a self-defined narcissist, […]
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In this origin story but not quite an adaptation of the beloved J.M Barrie book Peter Pan this film takes us on a journey that seems to have no real rhyme or reason other than Peter trying to find his mother, accidentally stumbling into an adventure and ultimately discovering his destiny. Peter (Levi Miller), a […]
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Given that at some point everything that is old becomes new again, it makes sense that the National Lampoon Vacation series would be on the reboot agenda. A surprisingly durable series that has spanned over three decades, the latest in line acts as a semi-reboot-come-sequel with enough sly nods to pay tribute to the original without […]
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To celebrate the shiny, sparkly, glittery special DVD release of Broad City Season 1 we decided to revisit the dynamic duo known as Abbi and Ilana. From their interesting methods of transporting drugs to trying to deal your taxes, this show deals with what every 20-something is truly thinking. The DVD gives you all kinds […]
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