Getting a release on Hulu today in the US is the hilarious documentary Becoming Bond, which screened at SXSW earlier this year. It takes a look at the life and times of Australia’s only Bond, George Lazenby, in his own words. The film takes the spirit of Drunk History to deliver an original and entertaining…
It’s no surprise that the highly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 performed so well. The first film, which opened in 2014, became the 6th best grossing film of its year. The sequel took in $8.61m in this week, but advance screenings went way back to the Anzac Day opening last week, so its actual total…
Films based on true events are often met with a mixed response; audience left to question the validity of the liberties its filmmakers have taken. Though it can render some films as potentially predictable or even unbelievable, others can be inspiring and heart-wrenching. In the case of The Innocents, we find cinema that belongs to the latter camp; quietly powerful,…
The opening moments of Out Of The Shadows are among its best. The first scene, a tracking shot through a murder scene with grievously damaged bodies, an upset detective and an unsettling atmosphere set by the colour grade and sound, promises a clever indie horror that for the most part, the film fails to deliver….
In ninety-five minutes, The Osiris Child recreates the past twenty years of sci-fi. It’s a fast blend of genre styles new and old, reaching screens in the format of a graphic novel and touching bases with every ‘humanity in crisis’ story ever told. While never profound, The Osiris Child achieves its vision, but the lack of…
My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea is a psychedelic trip through four storeys of a floating high school. About as bad of a place as someone would want to take a transcendental journey, but for the main characters it’s an edifying one, filled with colour, strange visuals and awkward relationships. Dash (Jason Schwartzman)…
Fresh off the writing table of comedy sketch duo Key & Peele, Jordan Peele tackles his solo directing/writing debut in this racially-fueled thriller determined to leave you with a bad taste in the mouth in the most wonderful of ways. Peele is without a doubt best known for his comedy, so his new project was…
Put in simple terms, Below Her Mouth is a story about a girl meets a girl except that the latter is engaged to a boy. It’s a tender lesbian romance that showcases the sexual awakening of one of its lead characters. But it’s also one that could do with a lot more conversation and a…
Proving to be the master of quiet filmmaking, Kelly Reichardt has established quite a name for herself within the independent cinematic industry. With slow-burning, patient films like Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, her newest picture follows the style of her preceding work. Certain Women, an adaptation of short stories by Maile Meloy, shows Reichardt…
It seems there’s no roadblocks for The Fate of the Furious, which remains in the top spot at the box office for the second week in a row. This week, it earned $4.96m, down considerably from its opening week last week when it earned $10.07m. This is also due to the overlap of the school holiday period, and…
With the forthcoming release of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 in cinemas, the hotly anticipated sequel sees a bunch of mischievous criminals saving the galaxy, yet again. One of those criminals happens to be Drax The Destroyer, played by Dave Bautista. In the next installment of our interview we discuss what he’s been learning…
Just like starting over. That’s the name of a John Lennon song but it’s also a line that could be used to sum up the French film, Things To Come (L’avenir). The story is a subtle character study about a middle-aged woman and how she negotiates a bunch of set-backs with a kind of understated…
The films by British director Ben Wheatley have all been incredibly distinct from another and are all very well-done. Whether going through the genre of crime, psychological horror, dark comedy, dystopian drama or historical surrealism, you can never accuse Wheatley of doing the same trick twice. But the crucial through-line through all his films is…
Australia is not widely known for its family fantasy films. But with a plot replicating that age-old story of a boy befriending and protecting a mythical creature from the government, surely this film would fit safely into the same mould, right? Unfortunately and somewhat unsurprisingly, the answer is, in the case of Matt Drummond’s new…
Whilst the general consensus is that the Marvel cinematic universe as a whole is one of the more consistent entities for audiences and critics alike, their track-record for delivering underwhelming sequels (at least compared to their predecessors) is hard to quarrel against. Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World, and Avengers: Age of Ultron are all…
It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s Supergirl! The documentary, Supergirl is a film about an American girl with superhuman strength. It’s an inspirational story that is about kicking down barriers and achieving the impossible in the competitive world/sport that is powerlifting. This documentary is the debut feature length film by director Jessie Auritt. The story focuses…
After more than thirty years, the amber Mini has once more made the journey from tip to tip in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Pork Pie brings the 1981 New Zealand classic Goodbye Pork Pie into the 21st century, and it returns with more than just the mini. Goodbye Pork Pie played a…
In the last several years Paris-born Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki has had a near overnight rise to success in her acting career. A lucky break thanks to Baz Luhrmann and being cast in The Great Gatsby has resulted in a number of other large scale Hollywood productions to cast her also. However her latest project…
Before there was Loving there was Sophie & The Rising Sun (well, sort of). Sophie & The Rising Sun is a romantic story and like Loving it is one that’s all about a bi-racial couple. The film is ultimately a beautiful but fictional love story where you can really sit back, relax and get lost…
Praise Jeebus, the muscles won over the Easter long weekend, as The Fate Of The Furious, the latest film in the Fast and the Furious franchise (and the first since Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift that doesn’t feature Paul Walker) took in $10.07m in its opening week at the box office. The film has…
Wendy & Lucy is a film that could be renamed “A Street Dog Named Lucy.” I tells the story of a homeless and nomadic American woman and her faithful companion, a dog named Lucy. The story is a slow character study that is lacking in characterisation, drama and detail. The story is directed by Kelly…
In some ways, it feels like Zach Braff’s involvement with Going In Style is the most interesting thing about it. Braff, now almost a decade after his tenure on Scrubs, hasn’t exactly had a perfect hit rate on the big screen. It’s not that he’s not an untalented filmmaker, it’s just his previous movies have…
After watching Guardians of The Galaxy the day it hit cinemas in July of 2014 (yes, I feel older and did you know Justin Bieber is 23 now?), I said to myself “I want more, this is going to be pretty massive, I reckon that Groot Tree might be a hit as well”. My mate…
The name Henrietta Lacks may not mean an awful lot to some people but in reality it should be one of the most famous names in history. Lacks is responsible for revolutionising modern medicine and contributing to every recent major medical breakthrough from vaccines for polio, HPV and the flu-shot; to IVF and treatments for…
Lone Scherfig is a filmmaker who has always frustrated me, delivering a mixed bag of films amongst her career. Her Dutch films were great, but apart from An Education, her films were ultimately flops, especially the turgid One Day. So I have to admit that I wasn’t looking forward to Their Finest, but when I…
An impressively persistent beast of sorts, the Fast & Furious franchise has become one of the most lucrative commodities of today’s industry, despite an initial series of less-than sequels that threatened to burn the title out before it had a chance to properly compete. Whereas most sequels fail to maintain momentum (especially when dealing with the…
Not surprising that the great reviews, great publicity and release around the school holiday period for Beauty And The Beast has earned this another no. 1 spot for this week. Generating $4.96m, it has also made a total of $34m since its premiere. It’s already the biggest release of the year so far, and has even beaten Disney’s biggest earner…
Nacho Vigalondo has always been an exciting filmmaker for me. Ever since I saw his first feature film Timecrimes, I’ve always wanted to see more of this work. His handling of genre film and melding it with themes of humanity or topical themes has always fascinated and thrilled me. Timecrimes was a great time-travel film that…
The question a film critic often wants to ask, but is discouraged from for fear of offending someone, is why make this film? The answer is, more often than not, “because now was the right time.” And for Denial, this is most certainly true. In a world of newly termed ‘disenfranchised voters’ that are seemingly comfortable…
Naoko Yamada’s A Silent Voice is an authentic and delicate coming-of-age story exploring a tale of romance and redemption. The animation is based on the manga series of the same name from 2013-2014 by Yoshitoki Ōima. A Silent Voice provides a fruitful outlook on the future of Japanese anime, and its success in western markets,…
