Horror has long been a genre built around fear, but in Adrian Chiarella‘s debut feature Leviticus, terror is rooted in something far more intimate: desire itself. Fresh from a breakout Sundance premiere that sparked a fierce bidding war before being snapped up by NEON, the latest film from Causeway Films (Talk to Me, Bring Her…
In Gabe Klinger‘s quietly affecting Isabel, success is never quite as simple as opening the door to your dream. Following a fifty-something sommelier determined to break free from a suffocating professional life and carve out a space of her own in São Paulo’s vibrant natural wine scene, the film becomes something far richer than a…
In Blair Moore’s Badland Rising, Jake Ryan isn’t playing the kind of action hero who charges headfirst into danger. His character is a man running from it. A former soldier turned construction worker, Ryan’s Dave dreams of nothing more than returning to his wife, son and the quiet life they’ve built together. But when a…
Few filmmakers have done more to redefine the zombie genre than Yeon Sang-ho. Nearly a decade after Train to Busan transformed a familiar horror concept into a razor-sharp reflection of modern society, the South Korean filmmaker returns to the infected with Colony, an ambitious new thriller that asks a far more unsettling question: what if…
Grief is rarely a straight line, and neither is Honeyjoon. Equal parts heartfelt, hilarious and unexpectedly romantic, the film follows June and her Persian-British mother, Lela, as they journey to the breathtaking Azores Islands to mark the anniversary of a devastating loss. What begins as an act of remembrance soon becomes something far messier, funnier…
Heartbreak is universal. So too is the tendency to tell ourselves we’re ready to move on when we’re anything but. In General Admission, writer Sarah Adina channels one of the most vulnerable chapters of her own life into a sharply observed comedy about a woman who attends a support group hoping to heal, only to…
With How To Talk Australians, comedian and actor Danielle Walker joins a proudly eccentric comedy that turns the Australian national character into both the joke and the punchline. Expanding on the viral web series that amassed more than 12 million views, the film follows a group of Indian call centre workers who find themselves stranded…
As one half of the delightfully deadpan police duo who cross paths with the stranded travellers in How to Talk Australians, Rick Davies brings a uniquely Australian flavour to the film’s affectionate send-up of life Down Under. Though his screen time may be limited, his outback police officer leaves a memorable impression, embodying the kind…
With more than 12 million views behind its viral web series, How to Talk Australians makes the leap to the big screen with a warm-hearted and sharply observed comedy about culture, identity and the misunderstandings that often bring people together. As Shani, an ambitious student from the Delhi College of Linguistics whose carefully planned Australian…
What begins as a simple story about a kid leaving his homework until the very last minute becomes something far more poignant in Last Minute. Set in 1989, before smartphones, Google, and instant answers, writer-director Michael Cusumano‘s charming short follows a single mother racing against the clock to help her son complete a major school…
In an age where a single unread message can trigger a full-blown existential crisis, Drew van Steenbergen‘s Buckets taps into a painfully familiar modern phenomenon. The sharply observed short follows a man whose life begins to unravel after a late-night dating app match leaves him waiting for a follow-up text, spiralling through anxiety, self-doubt, and…
With her feature debut Lucy Schulman, writer, director and star Ellie Sachs has crafted a charming, painfully relatable comedy about the dangers of building your identity around other people. Following a devastating breakup, Lucy returns home to live with her eccentric father and begins the messy process of figuring out who she is when she’s…
Neon lights, sweaty dancefloors, dangerous attraction, and a hero caught between duty and desire – Body Blow proudly wears the DNA of the classic erotic thriller. Yet beneath its stylish noir exterior lies a deeply contemporary exploration of queer identity, masculinity, and the institutions that shape both. Ahead of the film’s Sydney Film Festival premiere,…
Seven years after her last studio album, Sara Bareilles returns to the recording studio surrounded by the friends and collaborators she trusts most. What begins as the creation of a new record soon reveals itself as something far more profound. In Sara Bareilles: Good Grief, director Josh Alexander captures an artist confronting loss in real…
Most aspiring filmmakers spend years imagining the moment someone finally says “yes.” For Australian filmmaker Anthony Frith, that moment came courtesy of The Asylum, the notorious studio behind Sharknado and countless mockbusters. What followed was an offer to direct a dinosaur adventure in suburban Adelaide with just six days to shoot it. On paper, Mockbuster…
The toys that once fuelled Masters of the Universe director Travis Knight’s imagination as a child have now become the foundation for one of the year’s most ambitious fantasy spectacles. In Knight’s live-action reimagining, Prince Adam returns to Eternia after 15 years away to find his kingdom shattered under Skeletor’s rule, forcing him to embrace…
A doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom, but what lies beyond it in Backrooms is far more unnerving than a simple descent into another space. Expanding on the internet-born phenomenon that has fascinated audiences for years, filmmaker Kane Parsons transforms familiar environments into something deeply alien – endless corridors of fluorescent-lit emptiness…
There’s a moment early in Finding Emily where sensitive musician Owen locks eyes with a stranger across a crowded student union, and suddenly the world feels charged with possibility. It’s a feeling director Alicia MacDonald spends the entirety of her warm, witty and deeply heartfelt romantic comedy chasing – that intoxicating blur between adolescence and…
Romantic comedies have always thrived on grand gestures, chance encounters and impossibly perfect timing, but Finding Emily is more interested in the messy uncertainty that exists between those moments. Produced by Working Title Films, the warm and disarmingly sincere new film follows sensitive musician Owen (Spike Fearn), whose attempt to reconnect with a girl he…
There’s a haunting contradiction at the centre of Life Could Be A Dream. On the surface, Sarah has everything: beauty, privilege, a handsome husband, an elegant home, and the kind of curated life that resembles a glossy magazine spread. But beneath the designer clothes and glass walls sits something far more fragile – a woman…
The housing crisis has become such a relentless part of modern conversation that it’s often reduced to statistics, market forecasts, and political finger-pointing. But in Birthright, writer-director Zoe Pepper turns that anxiety into something far messier, darker, and deeply human. The film follows Cory (Travis Jeffery) and his pregnant wife, Jasmine (Maria Angelico), after they’re…
After four successful seasons on Prime Video, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War marks the franchise’s leap from streaming series to full-scale feature-length thriller. Directed by Andrew Bernstein, the film finds Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) reluctantly pulled back into the world of espionage when a covert international mission spirals into a deadly conspiracy involving a…
Endurance stories are often framed around the finish line – the record broken, the impossible conquered. But In Pieces Together reframes that idea entirely. What begins as Blake Johnston’s attempt to break the world record for the longest continuous surf – a gruelling 40-hour effort – quickly reveals itself to be something far more profound….
There’s a moment in In Pieces Together where the scale of what Blake Johnston is attempting stops feeling physical and starts feeling deeply emotional. On paper, surfing continuously for 40 hours to break a world record sounds almost impossible. But beneath the exhaustion, saltwater and spectacle lies something far more personal: a son trying to honour…
The Gold Coast turned into Earthrealm this week as fans, gamers and cosplayers packed out the Official Australian Preview of Mortal Kombat II at Event Cinemas Pacific Fair on Tuesday night, welcoming the stars of the blood-soaked blockbuster back to the place where much of the film was brought to life. The event marked something…
As Earthrealm prepares for its most brutal battle yet in Mortal Kombat II, director Simon McQuoid returns with a sequel determined to go bigger, bloodier and far more ambitious than its predecessor. Bringing the long-awaited tournament to the screen, the film introduces Karl Urban’s swaggering Johnny Cage into a sprawling war against Shao Kahn, while…
In Mortal Kombat II, Earthrealm’s champions return for a bloodier, louder and far more chaotic showdown against the forces of Shao Kahn – this time with Karl Urban’s swaggering Johnny Cage entering the arena. Leaning fully into the outrageous spirit of the iconic video game franchise, the sequel embraces brutal fatalities, self-aware humour and the…
Set almost entirely within the confines of a luxury penthouse, PH-1 unfolds over one harrowing night as rising politician Payton Burnham watches his carefully constructed public image disintegrate in real time. Held hostage by an unseen force, he’s trapped not just physically, but within a media ecosystem that thrives on speculation, spin, and viral outrage….
In The Sheep Detectives (read our review here), a delightfully offbeat mystery led by Hugh Jackman’s well-meaning shepherd George, it’s not just the sheep quietly observing – it’s also the humans scrambling to keep up. Enter Tim Derry, the endearingly outmatched small-town cop played by Nicholas Braun, who might be more afraid of his own…
Dirty Hands is a bruising, tightly contained crime thriller that turns a botched drug deal into something far more emotionally volatile. On paper, the story is simple: the Denton brothers, Danny and Richie, have one night to survive after everything goes wrong. But writer-director-star Kevin Interdonato is less interested in the mechanics of survival than…
