Film

Comedy and tragedy go hand-in-hand in The Dressmaker, a larger-than-life, heartbreaking laugher that benefits from its brave cast and stellar wardrobe selection.  Not the warm and fuzzy dramedy some may be expecting based off its trailer, Jocelyn Moorhouse’s adaptation of Rosalie Ham’s novel is a considerably dark affair with vibrant brushes of eccentricity to keep…

Can a few dating wrongs allow you to find Mr. Right? That is the question that is asked in the British rom-com, Man Up. The film is simply one zany night stretched out to feature length. It’s an evening filled with mishaps and misadventures and it’s all madcap fun that is uncomplicated, funny and silly….

The final film in what has been one of the most epic film franchises of the past few years is almost upon us. Part 2 of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay will be in cinemas in less than a month and to celebrate Lionsgate has released a new TV spot with an even closer look at…

Going into the Vin Disel-fronted supernatural action film The Last Witch Hunter, I wasn’t quite certain what to expect. Sure, the idea of Vin Diesel as an immortal witch hunter who saved humanity from hidden supernatural threats is dumb – but as everyone familiar with horror movies knows, dumb doesn’t have to mean bad. In…

A lot of people want to live in Utopia but not many would want to work there. Or at least the “Utopia” that’s depicted in the eponymous TV show by the Working Dog production team. The series is a comedy one that feels so real it could have been a documentary if it wasn’t so…

On October 28th, the highest grossing British documentary of all time, Amy, will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Australia. The film chronicles the life – and tragic loss – of UK singer Amy Winehouse. Earlier this year, writer Carina Nilma headed along to the Sydney Film Festival to witness the first Australian screening…

Paranormal Activity has become a huge moneymaker over the years, requiring a modest budget and commanding endless profits despite quality – as if with most horror franchises – slipping fast. The film’s formula of night-vision cam jump scares quickly defined the genre in the 21st century right alongside the other big franchise of the times,…

In Frances Ha, co-writers (and real-life couple) Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig brought to the screen this generation’s twenty-something creative; simultaneously spoilt and burdened by choice. Their Frances, played adorably by Gerwig herself, was lively and resourceful, optimistic yet melancholic in her struggle to achieve some level of “success” and establishing a career post-college. Mistress America,…

If you’re the kind of person who loves, without a doubt, the idea of work-life balance, this is not the film for you. If you’re easily upset at the sight of workplace bullying, or stress caused by an unstable manager and a professional environment that breeds unhealthy well being choices, this is not the film…

It was a treat to re-live the glorious and sophisticated historical drama Vikings Season 3 in HD, while the thoughtful extras helped bring a better understanding to what creator and writer Michael Hirst was trying to achieve, leading to a greater appreciation of the show’s production and newest characters. Vikings, as many Australians will know,…

The Martian is still rolling despite a handful of new entries at the box office last week. Pulling in another cool $3.1 million, The Martian is well on its way to becoming Ridley Scott’s most successful film. Sitting on US$143 million in the USA, it sits behind Hannibal (US$165 million) and Gladiator (US$187 million). It…

Watching Bridge of Spies, I couldn’t help picturing Steven Spielberg hopefully pressing his tuxedo. Along with Lincoln (2012), it is set in shadowy rooms with windows of blinding white light, like a Polaroid of American democracy in the process of development. Again, the themes are highly relevant today, despite taking place at the height of…

Yorgos Lanthimos’ first English-language feature film is a brutal and confronting dark comedy with a touch of surrealism. In a community that is fixated on couples, a man called David (Colin Farrell) checks into a hotel where he must either find a suitable partner in 45 days, or be turned into an animal of his choice….

The trailers released for Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak make the film look like a horror-infused haunted house type film. In actual fact it’s not; well not entirely anyway, since Del Toro has instead crafted a gothic romance film that harkens back to story-telling styles of yester-year – it just so happens to be set…

In The Road Within, writer and director Gren Wells makes her Directorial debut; an adaptation of the Italian film Vincent Wants to Sea. She brings us the story of three patients at a mental wellness centre in Nevada, who escape to travel to the beaches of California to scatter the ashes of Vincent’s (Robert Sheehan, best known for this role…

In 1978, Meir Zarchi’s film I Spit On Your Grave shocked the world. It was condemned by some as ‘depraved’ and praised by others as the ‘ultimate feminist movie’. In 2010, a remake of the cult classic took revenge to a new level, before a sequel delivered twice the terror. Now, the controversial movie series…

The Martian has settled in nicely at top spot, earning a cool $4.5 million last week. The space flick is currently sitting on a $232 million worldwide gross but it still has some catching up to do to beat Gravity, its space brethren released in October of 2013. Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway have…

After seeing the trailers for Joseph Gordon Levitt’s new film The Walk,I was anticipating a complete and utter disaster that would make me wonder what I ever saw in the actor. The preview entailed horrible French accents and what appeared to be incredibly unnecessary 3D. It seemed to be Hollywood gone wild; but oh, how wrong I was….

Many gangster movies have come before that have been considered great, The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Untouchables, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and all of these have depicted the highs and lows of the lifestyle. Where Legend differs, by utilising its lead to play both main characters, by taking an American spin on the British…

I have a strange passion for trash cinema and ‘so bad-it’s good’ movies. Toss me a copy of Sharknado or a Troma film any day of the week and I’ll gladly watch it purely for the shits/giggles. But Pernicious is neither of those things. It takes itself far too seriously and is too polished to…

Just like starting over. Danny Collins is a film about an aging rocker who is strongly influenced by John Lennon. This dramedy is a predictable and formulaic film but it is redeemed by some great performances and its pleasant foray into the world of music. The film marks the directorial debut of Crazy, Stupid, Love…

The Rewrite is a film that should heed its own advice. It’s a derivative and forgettable rom-com that is in desperate need of a re-working or two. The film is redeemed in part by a strong and likeable cast of actors that will be familiar to audiences, but this is not enough to get it…

It’s been 22 years since Jurassic Park, and long have us fans of that very first film waited for a sequel that was worthy and lo we finally have it in Jurassic World. We can now safely relegate those other two films into extinction and rest assured that this is now an honourable contender for…

Spy reunites Feig with Melissa McCarthy, who plays Susan Cooper, a desk bound CIA analyst who dreams of being an active agent. A series of circumstances play out and we find Cooper on her first assignment, chasing down Rayna Boyanov (Australia’s Rose Byrne, another to reuinte with Feig for this production) to find out what…

Surely NASA and Fox are in cahoots here. First the earth shattering announcement that they have found water on Mars and now The Martian, Ridley Scott’s newest has done some amazing numbers in the box office. I’m probably a nut, but conspiracy theories aside, Mars is getting all the spotlight lately as the space drama…

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 signaled a substantial turn for Depp, whose biggest role in recent times has been as a highly exaggerated and energetic pirate. Any…

Despite a couple of debuts and perfectly timed family films, Everest has stemmed the tide and held onto top spot. The adventure flick made $2.2 million in its second week in Australia and $13 million in The US. It sits on a comfortable worldwide gross of $98 million – an achievement due to its relatively limited…

There have been plenty of adaptations of the Shakespeare play but this one from Australian director Justin Kurzel is a powerfully intense and brutal take on the tale of the Scottish warrior. This interpretation takes the baseline story of Macbeth and sets it in a dramatic re-imagining of ancient war-times in the Scottish highlands. After…

It’s a pretty common trope for movies to ask ‘how far would you go’, but it’s not all that frequent that I’m faced with a movie that asks how far I would go for a painting. The Woman in Gold is a fascinating, if a little unambitious and conventional, film that tackles the true story…

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…