Film

What do you get when you put one perpetually optimistic scientifically curious teenager with one former boy-genius now middle aged man jaded by disillusionment on a mission to find a mysterious place in time and space? A quintessential Disney film that somehow manages to be an action-adventure-secret joyride with a surprisingly funny cast that tries…

During World War II, the painting The Woman in Gold by renowned painter Gustav Klimt was illegally taken from the home of Adele Bloch-Bauer by the Nazis, and would eventually end up in the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna. It was a practice that went on throughout the war, when many Jewish homes were ransacked, their…

While not exactly a shot-for-shot re-make, Gil Kenan’s version of classic supernatural-horrorPoltergeist sticks fairly close to the original, at least when it charges into the brunt of the action. The 1982 original, from horror masterminds Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg, has been cemented into popular culture so the story should be familiar to most. You…

Earlier this year Larry Heath checked out Paul Feig’s action-comedy film Spy that got a showing at the SXSW Film Festival in Texas. An unorthodox approach for a mainstream comedy however with the film set to release in Australian cinemas this week, we take a look back at Larry’s review from then. Spy reunites Feig…

Blackhat opens with exhilarating paranoia. The camera soars, impossibly, through a computer chip, where tiny lights flicker with an ominous trill. We are watching a hack that triggers the overheating of a nuclear plant in China and nullifies the warning signs. People die because of a series of numbers. A similar but harmless breach is…

There will be many adjectives thrown about when it comes to describing Mad Max Fury Road and I can guarantee you that all of them will be accurate. Breathtaking, explosive, relentless, spectacle, intense, awesome, mind-blowing, and even epic. This film lives up to all of those and quite possibly does the impressive job of surpassing…

Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story is a food documentary that will leave you being unable to look at your fridge and food in the same way again. Documentary filmmakers, Jenny Rustemeyer and Grant Baldwin have put together a tight and informative look at the issue of food waste. It offers some eye-opening statistics…

Girls just wanna have fun. Except that in the film, A Royal Night Out, those two ladies are Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret at ages 19 and 14, respectively. The film is a fun and warm-hearted historic romp that does feel like it’s being played a little too safe at times. On V.E. Day (8…

In the bustling city of Sapporo, Anna (Sara Takatsuki) sits alone and silently sketches the other, happy girls. Presumably they don’t have asthma, their parents are alive and, unlike her foster parents, they don’t keep them just for the tax benefit. After she has an attack that asthma cannot fully explain, her foster mother, Yoriko…

The century is the 23rd and the world’s population is, for the most part, impoverished. In an effort to escape the rat race, the poor take jobs in dangerous extraterrestrial industries, of which even the commute, via a process of data transmission known as slipstreaming, is treacherous. Whit Carmichael (Daniel MacPherson) is one such worker….

They are back, pitches. Whether you invited them or not. As Pitch Perfect 2 opens, the Barden Bellas are at the zenith of competitive acapella group achievement, having dominated the scene imperiously since capturing the national title for the first time three years prior. However, a wardrobe malfunction of Janet-Jackson-circa-Super-Bowl-XXXVIII proportions during a televised performance,…

We’ve all had bad days, and on the eve of Alexander’s twelfth birthday he has had one of the worst days ever. To make it hurt just that little bit more, it seems his entire family is riding a wave of positivity and enjoying all the good things in their lives and unaware of how…

Charlotte Campbell-Stephen is one incredible and inspiring Australian woman. She’s also the subject of the raw and gritty documentary film, I Will Not Be Silenced. This tells the story of Campbell-Stephen’s steely resolve and determination in pursuing justice in a flawed legal environment. The film is written and directed by veteran filmmaker, Judy Rhymer. It depicts Charlotte’s…

It would be hard to deny Unfriended as an imaginative and innovative film; Director Levan Gabriadze takes an initially uninspiring concept and makes it work with admirable attention to detail and a genuine sense of tension. However, in the film’s pursuit of as much realism as possible, the viewer is left unable to escape from…

It was a huge weekend at the Australian Box Office, with Avengers: Age of Ultron raking in $15.7 million at the top. This makes the film the third biggest opening in Australia of all time, behind the final Harry Potter film and the second Twilight, knocking Fast and Furious 7 off its perch, where it had…

Between trying to give Tom Brady a handjob and suing the government, Seth MacFarlane’s Ted and Mark Whalberg’s John promise a worthy sequel in Ted 2. Universal Pictures have just dropped another trailer ahead of the June release date, and this time it leaves little doubt to whether or not this will be as raunchy…

There’s a lot that worries us today. Whether it be terrorism, the rising cost of living, disease or the scary advances in technology, the threat of a dystopian world has been explored in countless films and television programmes. This is the jumping off point that director Denis Hennelly presents us in Goodbye World, where old…

Initially, St. Vincent may seem like a rather bland story, and it’s far from the most original idea. Take a grumpy, cynical aging man who lives on his own and gradually dig into his heart by way of teaming him up with the endearing 10 year old boy who he is roped into babysitting. A…

It’s always easy to fetishize the final performance of a late, great actor – especially one as towering and impressive as James Gandolfini. Whilst other recent tragic losses, like that of Robin Williams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, have yielded a range of so-so posthumous performances, this is thankfully not the case for the final chapter…

Ask most people what the term ‘Northern Soul’ means to them and there’s a very good chance you will be met with a blank expression. This movement, that grew from a love of American Soul music in England’s north, sprang into being in the late 60’s. With the British Mod scene on the wane, the…

Testament of Youth begins with a fleeting glimpse of the crowded streets of England on Armistice Day in 1918. Amidst the celebrations, we catch sight of the pained visage of Vera Brittain (Alicia Vikander). Overwhelmed by the crowd, she seeks refuge in a nearby church and, finding solitude in an alcove, loses herself in a…

In 2011, during the aftermath of the GFC and in the wake of what would become the Occupy Movement, Hollywood gave the world three unlikely heroes, who were well and truly part of the 99%, and created a plot that would allow this trio – Dale (Charlie Day), Nick (Jason Bateman) and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis)…

Australian audiences will be some of the first in the world to see the new The Avengers: Age of Ultron film courtesy of global positioning, time zones and release dates. All of these things combined plus the constant hype surrounding this film will no doubt ensure its rampage through the box office like an enormous…

It’s easy to write about a film that was a bit more average than you’d expected; it’s much, much more difficult writing about a film like this, without making it sound like you are just gushing through a stream of superlatives between cast names and plot points. What Christopher Nolan has done with Interstellar is…

An Invisible Sign paints with numbers in the worst possible way. This quirky film could have been an engaging look at a young woman who grapples with her father’s illness. But instead it has an unlikeable lead character and is an unrealistic and confused movie that meanders and plods along. The film marks the feature…

Indie horror It Follows is simple in it’s execution but a bit complicated in it’s innovative idea, combining the sexual angst of teens with a ridiculous premise and somehow making it work through director David Robert-Mitchell’s atmospheric and effectively creepy style. Shifting the focus to the viewers’ imaginations and curiosity, using our own minds to…

The quest for the fountain of youth is always fraught with danger but did anybody ever stop to think of the possible other outcomes of remaining eternally young? Perhaps there’s something inherently beautiful in the notion of growing old. Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) born near the turn of the 20th Century suffers a near fatal…

As the days shorten, and autumn bleeds into winter, the chill temperatures are enlivened by the start of the 2015 Spanish Film Festival, running in Sydney exclusively at Palace Verona and Norton Street from 21 April until 10 May, opening at staggered dates in other cities subsequently. Amongst its offerings are the multi-Goya winning Marshland,…

While We’re Young has one shot where Josh (Ben Stiller) and Jamie (Adam Driver) are cycling towards us. Josh strains something in his back, forcing him to stop in the middle of a busy New York street. He manages a yelp to his younger friend, though Jamie hears nothing and keeps on pedaling, no hands,…

This is the next bad sci-fi that you need to see. Critics have spurned it as “the science fiction that even science fiction fans won’t like”. That’s a pretty harsh call. Let’s assess why Survivor did not survive the heat of film reviewers. It has a splash of sci fi favourites like Kevin Sorbo and Rocky Meyers. It…