In his final days, Sigmund Freud, a recent escapee with his daughter from the Nazi regime, receives a visit from the formidable Oxford Don C.S. Lewis (author of “The Chronicles of Narnia”). On this day, two of the greatest minds of the twentieth century intimately engage in a monumental session over the belief in the…
After the underperformance of both Dracula: The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield last year, the vampire-centric subsect of storytelling – especially within the horror genre – seemed, quite fittingly, void of life with audiences. But seeing as how much new life they injected into the once-dormant Scream series with their one-two punch of…
Children can be such monsters. After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting…
Children can be such monsters. After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting…
Children can be such monsters. After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting…
Going into Challengers, I think it needs reiterating for unsuspecting audiences that, as much as this is being advertised as “a sexy tennis movie” (which it absolutely is), it’s a Luca Guadagnino feature. So don’t be at all surprised that the director of the lush and tragic Call Me By Your Name, the oft-unnerving Suspiria…
Lady and Gentlemans… Academy Award-winning mastermind George Miller will unveil his highly anticipated action adventure, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, in Sydney on Thursday, May 2, before he and the film’s stars begin their global publicity trek, travelling to Mexico City, the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, London, Miami, New York, Toronto and Los Angeles. Golden Globe…
From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, Challengers stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy-turned-coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must…
At the core of Demise, Yara Estrada Lowe‘s debut feature film, is a messy love triangle that allows the erotic thriller to lean into the campy, oft-unhinged sensibilities the genre can so continually give way to. Subtlety is disregarded and melodrama is heightened, making for one helluva wild time. At the core of the film…
Comparisons to John Krasinki’s A Quiet Place will be inevitable when viewing Arcadian, but, despite the familiar ground covered across the family-versus-insurmountable-odds-in-a-dystopian-future narrative, director Benjamin Brewer (a predominant music video director who also served as the lead visual effects artist for Everything Everywhere All At Once) and screenwriter Michael Nilon (who’s produced a heft of…
Have you ever pondered what a robot would dream of? Well, in Pablo Berger‘s gorgeous, wordless animated tale they dream in surreality and colourful psychedelics. But in the case of Robot Dreams‘s protagonist, simply named Robot, he dreams of Dog, his owner and best friend, who he is cruelly separated from in a circumstantial situation…
In 2015, director Asif Kapadia let us in on the life and legacy of the genius, tragic existence that was Amy Winehouse with the documentary Amy. Using archival footage spanning 14 years and over 100 interviews with those that knew her best, it truly gave us an insight into the singers’ meteoric rise and brutal…
There’s an apoliticality that director Alex Garland adheres to within the framing of Civil War, a film that’s inherently political as it tackles the division of the United States. Here in a modern day USA where an alternate landscape is explored (although, chillingly, you could imagine such unrest escalating to the type of environment flexed…
After breaking out at last year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival, where our own Peter Gray heralded the film as one that “enjoys melding the modern sensibilities of the found footage genre with the bold mentality of horror movies gone by” (you can read the full review here), Late Night With the Devil is finally…
“Before we continue I’d like to apologize to anyone who might be upset or offended by what you saw before the break. It’s not every day you see a demonic possession on live television.” Not the most typical sentence you’d expect to hear from a late night host, but such is the statement made by…
The world will know her name. After his homage to the psycho-biddy subgenre of horror with the critically acclaimed X and its follow-up Pearl, a demented Disney-like prequel, across 2022, Ti West is closing out his unexpected slasher trilogy with the release of MaXXXine. Once again headlined by Mia Goth, MaXXXine follows her titular character,…
Released only months after the George Floyd protests that swept the United States in 2020, and garnering further attention throughout that year’s Election, Isabel Wilkerson‘s “Caste: The Origins of Out Discontents” was an impactful success that spent over a year on The New York Times’ nonfiction best seller list. Successful as the book was, its…
From Spanish director Pablo Berger, the Academy Award nominated film Robot Dreams releases in Australian cinemas on April 11, and to celebrate, thanks to Madman Films, we have 5 double in-season (Admit 2) passes to giveaway. Dog lives in Manhattan and he’s tired of being alone. One day he decides to build himself a robot, a…
Based on real life war diaries, Before Dawn is an epic retelling of one of Australia’s biggest victories during WWI. Jim Collins, a young man from the outback, leaves his family-run sheep station to join the ANZAC and fight on the western front with hopes of making a difference. Soon, the realities of the muddy, ruthless,…
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Dev Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meagre living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of…
For the majority of his career, Dev Patel has played – for lack of a better word – the “nice guy”. Or at least a variation of that archetype. In Monkey Man, the actor is gleefully – and, occasionally, gorily – taking no prisoners and reclaiming his image as an all-rounded creative, announcing himself as…
Celebrating its 22nd year, Queensland’s most exciting celebration of cinema is back, from April 17th to 28th 2024, with the Gold Coast Film Festival (GCFF) at its Gold Coast home, HOTA (Home of the Arts). As guests prepare to immerse themselves in the glamour and discover the new stories the festival has to offer, the…
Though it’s less of a shock practice now, the idea of a classic literary figure that became a household name under the umbrella of Disney being transformed into something adult and horrific rightfully broke – and angered – the internet when it was announced that Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey would be made off the back…
A film like Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is what one might call “critic proof”. I mean, it’s ultimately a near-2 hour over-indulged CGI fest based around two giant creatures and their evident animosity towards each other. But, rather ironically, these two titans are battling each other at the tail-end of a cinematic universe…
Director Matteo Garrone has often flirted between reality and fantasy when telling his stories on screen. His 2008 mafia drama Gomorrah and the crime-infused Dogman (2018) were steeped in a violent truth. His English-language fantasy Tales of Tales (2015) and a live-action adaptation of Pinocchio (2019) allowed him to delight in the whimsical. For Io…
Longing for a brighter future, two Senegalese teenagers embark on a journey from West Africa to Italy. However, between their dreams and reality lies a labyrinth of checkpoints, the Sahara Desert, and the vast waters of the Mediterranean. And much like the characters at the centre of Io Capitano, director Matteo Garrone experienced a case…
Kaylee Hottle made sure she announced herself in the grandest way possible when she made her feature debut as Jia in 2021’s monstrous success Godzilla Vs. Kong. Returning to the series for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, the actress reunites with her on-screen bestie (that would be one, mighty Kong) as they face a…
Having survived the spectacle of Godzilla Vs Kong, Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry were no strangers to the atmosphere of Adam Wingard‘s wrangling of the titanic cinematic beasts that are Godzilla and King Kong. But what about Dan Stevens? As Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire storms into theatres, Peter Gray spoke with the…
The epic battle continues! Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new adventure that pits the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delves further…
Whilst it was a film that saw a critical slaughtering at the time of its release – it currently holds a 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is oft-considered now one of the worst films ever made – there’s no denying that Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a low budget horror recount of A.A. Milne’s classic…
