Film

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…

If there’s one thing we can rely on Jason Statham for, it’s B-movie cheap thrills that epitomise the term “guilty pleasure”.  Escapism in its purest, bloodiest form, The Beekeeper (Statham took the B-movie memo a little too literally, it would seem) is a ridiculous actioner from proven genre director David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury,…

After the misstep that was 2017’s ambitious Downsizing, writer/director Alexander Payne returns to more familiar territory in The Holdovers.  Familiar in the sense that the high-school setting brings to mind his biting 1999 black comedy Election, his lead, Paul Giamatti, is a pitch-perfect educator, like his 2004 standout Sideways, and the dialogue peppered throughout is…

Like many a millennial, the original Mean Girls from 2004 holds a special place in the depths of my queer, quote-filled heart.  It’s why there was sense of trepidation in coming into the new iteration of Tina Fey and Mark Waters’ high-school comedy.  Now, I was actually fully aware that this particular version was a…

The Holdovers reunites Sideways’ director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti in a holiday story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school over winter break in 1970.  Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly instructor who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with…

The Holdovers reunites Sideways’ director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti in a holiday story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school over winter break in 1970.  Giamatti, in his Golden Globe Award-winning role, stars as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly instructor who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to…

In the same week that Ferrari arrives in Australian theatres, Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia hits American multiplexes, digital and On Demand (an Australian release is yet to be determined), showcasing a more accessible racing story and the men driving such to fruition. Creative licence and enhanced melodrama are unavoidable in telling this particular…

Plastic is forever! To celebrate the release of MEAN GIRLS, with thanks to Paramount Pictures and Superdream, we are giving away 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the fetch new comedy from Tina Fey, based on the MEAN GIRLS stage musical, and starring Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho, Reneé Rapp, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika, Bebe…

There’s nothing wrong with a movie being nice, but George Clooney‘s old-fashioned drama The Boys in the Boat is a little too sweet and tropey for its own good.  Based on Daniel James Brown‘s best-selling nonfiction novel of the same name, the 1930s set tale feels as if it’s been made in that era through…

Given the calibre of horror talent on board with Night Swim (between them, producers Jason Blum and James Wan have such genre treats as the Halloween series, The Conjuring films, M3GAN and Malignant), as well as the fact that the short film it’s based on earned critical acclaim upon its release a decade ago, one…

Following his interviews with executive producer Ryan Turek and writer/director Bryce McGuire, Peter Gray wrapped up his talks for the forthcoming Night Swim with the film’s lead actors, Wyatt Russell and Academy Award nominee Kerry Condon. Based on McGuire’s acclaimed short film, Night Swim stars Russell as Ray Waller, a former major league baseball player…

Compared to the other “exceptional man” biopics of the last year (Oppenheimer, Maestro, Napoleon), Michael Mann‘s Ferrari is, sadly, the least interesting.  Whilst it doesn’t take an entirely traditional narrative – the film only shows us a certain chunk of the man’s life – and Adam Driver does his best with his showy role, to…

Based on his own acclaimed 2014 short film, Night Swim high dives into the deep end of horror as it takes the most banal pleasure of suburban life and transforms it into a wellspring of demonic evil in a movie that combines the style, impishness and wicked world-building that audiences have come to expect from …

A backyard swimming pool. A symbol of youth, status and wish-fulfillment, quintessentially American yet universal in its shimmering appeal. A life-enhancing luxury to those who can afford the cost, an absolute necessity for those poor souls who live in the most hellishly hot of places. A heavenly playground for people of any age, a devilish…

If you browse long enough on Twitter, sorry, X, you’ll note that there’s still chatter and self-diagnosed “hot takes” regarding Taika Waititi‘s 2019 outing Jojo Rabbit.  The film already had its share of detractors in the immediate aftermath of its release, but an Oscar win for Best Screenplay and the general good word for its…

And just like that, the DCEU comes to a close with a droplet rather than the splash we were expecting a decade ago. In 2013, when Man of Steel premiered, there was the promise of an exciting future of storytelling to be told for the variety of characters within the DC lore.  There was rousing,…

There’s been a lot of chatter around Wish and the fact that its release celebrates Disney’s centennial, where the major theme across a heft of the studio’s films – that of wishes being granted – would be tied together.  It’s a sweet notion, without question, but it would appear that the creatives behind the film…

In a year that was ruled by Barbenheimer and mortally wounded the once-unstoppable superhero genre, 2023 definitely saw audiences shift their minds (and money) towards more original content.  Perhaps an indication as to where the industry should place its focus, The AU’s best of list similarly echoes the sentiment that bigger doesn’t always mean better,…

Like his previous works that celebrate their fantastical, absurdist nature with a certain gravitas, Yorgos Lanthimos grounds Poor Things, an undeniably wild, oft-offensive, sexually liberated black comedy, with a stirring sense of emotion and topical commentary. In 19th century London – or what such a time period looks like within Lanthimos’ vivid imagination – the eccentric…

Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell may be generating plenty of heat throughout their new romantic comedy Anyone But You, but there’s some distinct Australian flavour ready to challenge the duo in the form of one Joe Davidson. The Queensland-born actor, who looks as if he’s a long-lost brother to the famed Hemsworth clan, has snared…

Even if Anyone But You isn’t the type of film that would ordinarily interest you, it’s difficult to not know about Will Gluck‘s frisky romcom due to the “Are they/aren’t they” chemistry of stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, two impossibly gorgeous actors who leaned into their own sex appeal during the filming in Sydney…

Given that Migration, the latest animated offering from the Illumination collective (the production company behind such successes as Despicable Me and the inexplicable Minions), is penned by White Lotus creator Mike White, it makes sense that the film manages to make us care about its characters, rather than just be mildly amused at their comedic…

Whilst Dermot Mulroney won’t exactly see a career shift in the same manner as Liam Neeson did as an action-heavy persona in the wake of Taken, his rough and ready stature as a vigilante wrestling coach in Ruthless certainly works in his favour, and proves the film’s only true saving grace. Directed by Art Camacho…

This holiday season, Illumination, creators of the blockbuster Minions, Despicable Me, Sing and The Secret Life of Pets comedies, invites you to take flight into the thrill of the unknown with a funny, feathered family vacation like no other in the action-packed new original comedy, Migration. The Mallard family is in a bit of rut….

This autumn, for the first time in almost a decade, comedy icon Jack Black returns to his role as Po, the world’s most unlikely kung fu master, with a hilarious, butt-kicking new chapter in DreamWorks Animation’s beloved action-comedy franchise: Kung Fu Panda 4. After three death-defying adventures defeating world-class villains with his unmatched courage and…

Given how important a person’s online presence (or persona, even) is in this age of social media, and that “influencer” is now apparently so prime that it can be considered a career, it’s not surprising that such a topic is readily explored in other forms of media.  In the case of Alex Haughey‘s Under the…

From Atlantis to Waterman’s Cove, Warner Bros. Pictures’ Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will preview footage from the film on 9m high wall of water, as the character’s own 7m gold trident sets for display in Sydney’s Barangaroo from the 14th to 17th of December, 2023, ahead of the film’s release on Boxing Day. The…

Hot? Yes. Bothered? Also yes. Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the sexy new romantic comedy Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, set to steam up cinemas exclusively from Boxing Day, December 26th, 2023. Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) look like…

There’s something rather ironic in Paul King‘s Wonka being deliciously, inoffensively sweet, given that the character at its core has done plenty to unnerve (however slightly) young audiences across the near six decades of his existence. As written by Roald Dahl in 1964’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and then brought to life by the…

In the wake of her husband’s devastating accident, a devoted wife becomes consumed by a mysterious portrait that resembles him in his happier days. However, as her obsession intensifies, the painting starts to unleash terror upon her life, leading her to question whether it is possessed by a malevolent force or if she is losing…