Film

Love is Now is ultimately a testament to DSLR film making, with striking photography and some superb production coming together to ensure the film never dips below a certain visual standard, playing out as something photographers the world over will herald as a marvel achievement. Backed by Nikon Australia, the film succeeds at capturing the…

Ridley Scott’s latest shot at epic storytelling Exodus: Gods and Kings as is as grand as one would expect, making full use of cutting edge visual effects and immersive, atmospheric set pieces to ensure the film is never dull to look. In terms of plot, the other side of the coin is balanced much better…

Serena is an adaptation of a Ron Rash novel that at times is considered even too strange to be fiction. This period drama starts off as a sumptuous, romantic tale set in North Carolina during the Depression. It is a slow burn to begin with but in the final act it turns into a bizarre…

In the last decade society has experienced an enormous upheaval with technology and the effect of that on people and their social relationships has also changed drastically. In Men, Women & Children we take a stark look at the interactions between parents and their kids and how the digital age is both a help and…

By Alexandra Donald Jimmy’s Hall, the latest from veteran filmmaker Ken Loach, is a stately portrait of a struggle for justice that’s a delicately executed, picturesque film and a charming watch – if not a particularly memorable one. Based on the life of Irish political activist Jimmy Gralton, the film charts the titular character’s return…

The Mule marks the Directoral debut of Angus Sampson and Tony Mahony, starring Sampson as Ray Jenkins alongside Leigh Wannell (Gavin) as “brothers in life”, with Gavin roping Ray into becoming a heroin mule following a trip to Bali. After getting nervous at Sydney Airport, he gets taken away by the police for suspicious behaviour and in…

The film Imaginaerum is like opening the doors of perception and entering a music video by Finnish metal band, Nightwish. The movie is based on their seventh studio album and concept record. Imaginaerum seems to have the same trappings as most rock operas once they are adapted for the screen. That is that while the visuals…

You may be feeling your patience wearing thin while watching The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1; that is, if you’ve only come on board for the tense wheel of brutality in which two tributes from each district are forced to kill each other until one remains. No, there’s no such hunger games here as compared…

The Captive proves to be a deeply disturbing experience, tackling the stomach churning subject of paedophilia and its resulting organisations/rings. Director Atom Egoyan has accompanied clever scriptwriting with a stellar cast, ensuring a continually spine tingling undercurrent throughout, which no doubt has cemented the film’s contention for the Palme d’Or award at Cannes Film Festival…

Maps to the Stars is sickening, soulless, horrifying, and one of the most entertaining rides to be had in a cinema this year. David Cronenberg’s (The Fly, Eastern Promises, Videodrome) latest film is a no holds barred Hollywood satire, spitting venom at the vacuous, self-important microorganisms writhing around in the Petri dish that is Tinseltown….

My Old Lady is a family melodrama that proves there’s no such thing as a free lunch. When a down-and-out American inherits a large apartment in Paris from his late father he thinks all of his pay days have come at once. But the residence comes with some strings attached, namely an old lady, her…

The Way Of The Wicked is the film version of a dead-end. At first glance it offers some promise as it’s a story about a satanic, teenage boy who has telekinetic powers. But it’s not long before the proceedings go from haunting to staid and the drama becomes predictable and forgettable. The story begins with…

Let’s be white chicks! Wait, we already did that… okay let’s be cops! Damon Wayans Jr. (from films including Dance Flick and The Other Guys) and Jake Johnson (from TV ‘s New Girl) team up as best buds and roomies, Justin and Ryan, pretending to be policeman, for a good old fashioned comedy caper. These…

Stephen Lance continues showing love for the unexpected in his first foray into a full length feature, My Mistress, dabbing an angsty coming-of-age story with just enough difference to keep things interesting, drawing upon his own teenage experiences to make for a semi-autobiographical exploration of pain, distraction, and healing in a young kid. In this…

Imagine The Inbetweeners if they were an aspiring jangly rock quintet living in Manchester in 1990. The result would be Spike Island.The film tells the story of a gang of lads who just want to get off with girls, be in a band and meet their idols, The Stone Roses at the latter band’s Spike…

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…

By Erica Enriquez Based on the novel by Cecelia Ahern (who also wrote P.S I Love You), Love, Rosie is a British film directed by Christian Ditter, about two best friends, Rosie Dunne (Lily Collins) and Alex Stewart (Sam Claflin), who, despite their mutual attraction for each other, go their separate ways after high school,…

Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed is a Spanish film inspired by the iconic lyrics from “Strawberry Fields Forever”. I stumbled across at the cinemas last week and attended on title alone. As a Beatles fan I wasn’t disappointed, but how about as a film fan? It just so happened that in my spontaneous choice…

The James Brown biopic, Get On Up captures the very essence of the legendary, Godfather of Soul. It is a frenzied account that goes through story arcs like some people change clean clothes. But first and foremost is the amazing music by a true vanguard and the electric and infectious performance by Chadwick Boseman (42)….

Based on a true story, it’s 1984 and mining communities across Britain are in crisis. The Thatcher government had announced mass pit closures and thousands of miners would lose their jobs. As a result, the miners went on a yearlong strike causing many families to struggle financially. Seeing similarities between this struggle and the one…

The last major film Keanu Reeves starred in was the abysmal 47 Ronin, a project which took Keanu out of his element and demanded from him more than he could actually give. David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s John Wick is an entirely different story, playing to Reeves’ strengths and giving him his best role in…

Nicholas Sparks’ books – just like the film adaptions of his novels – are really only for hopeless romantics. They often require a suspension of disbelief and cynicism. But if the viewer can set these things aside then they’ll often find a pleasant yet predictable romantic drama and tearjerker. The Best Of Me is the…

In a world dominated by sensationalist news, Kill The Messenger is part biopic part political thriller part ethically charged drama, that follows the story of investigative journalist Gary Webb and his attempts at uncovering the US Government and CIA’s involvement with Nicaraguan drug cartels. Adapted from the book of the same name by Nick Schou…

This Is Where I Leave You is the new dramedy from Director Shawn Levy, who many not be a name most are familiar with, but chances are you’ve seen one of his films. Through his massive hits like Night at the Museum, Just Married, Cheaper By The Dozen, Pink Panther and their sequels, his films have…

It is 1945. WWII is coming to an end and an American army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) is leading his tank crew (Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal) through Germany. After one of their gunners is killed in battle, they are given a desk clerk named Norman (Logan Lerman) as his replacement. Terrified…

Apparently the world of jazz musicianship is particularly vicious if Whiplash is anything to go by, a “Full Metal Jacket at Julliard” type thriller that comes courtesy of producer Jason Blum, whose credits include such scarers as Insidious, Paranormal Activity and Sinister. Though it seems strange that a producer best known for his work in the horror…

When you realise South Park is on its eighteenth season, it kind of boggles the mind. Not just because it makes you feel old – but because (at least in my case) you realise that you’ve actually been watching it for the last eighteen years. A show that started out full of little more than…

“Do you suffer from optimism?”  The Wipers Times asks in its distinctly and irreverently British portrayal of the First World War and ‘The Wipers Times’, a satirical newspaper created in the trenches.  Contrasting the humour of the paper with the ugly reality of fighting in Ypres and the Somme, this unique BBC film captures the…

What would it be like to wake up each morning not knowing who you are? What if you could not recognise your loved ones? How would it feel to completely forget over a decade of your life? These are the very intriguing questions posed by the central concept of Before I Go to Sleep. This…

Australian film Son of a Gun looks at a number of different themes, primarily it’s a heist movie but it also examines the desire for a stable family life and the father/son and brother/brother relationships that can evolve in prison. Loyalty, honour and morality are all tested and questioned and all served up with a…