Film

Now in its fifth year running, the First Nations Film Festival (Formally known at the Virtual Indigenous Film Festival) is returning with a new name and, once again, as part of National Reconciliation Week. The festival runs from the 30th of May to the 3rd of June, 2023, and features a selection of award-winning films,…

Over 22 years and 10 films (thus far), the Fast & Furious franchise has defied all expectations – and physics – and driven its players to constant peril, but ultimate safety, all in the name of family. With Fast X now riding high in cinemas across the globe (you can read our review here), in…

Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia we have 5 digital double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult in the vampiric new comedy Renfield, in cinemas from May 25th, 2023. Evil doesn’t span eternity without a little help. In this modern monster tale of Dracula’s loyal servant, Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury…

Given how attached John Farnham is to the song “You’re The Voice”, it’s hard to believe that it almost didn’t make the cut for his 1986 signature record, “Whispering Jack”.  His 12th album at the time, “Whispering Jack” reignited Farnham’s solo career, and off the back of the aforementioned single, it drove itself to 25…

The Fast & Furious films live in the ridiculous – or, at least they have predominantly for the last decade or so – and, at this point, that’s practically a compliment to call so.  Whether you think they have evolved or devolved over time from their humble 2001 beginnings of car-jackings and street races is…

There’s a distinct lack of energy and unfortunate fizzle present throughout Neil Jordan‘s Marlowe.  It’s stylish, has an impeccable cast, and certainly isn’t lost on narrative potential, but the titular character as played by Liam Neeson – based off Raymond Chandler‘s famous detective – feels like they’d much rather be sipping a cuppa than solving…

With Gerard Butler‘s name attached, and the most simplistic of titles on hand, you’d be right in thinking such a film as Plane is going to deliver on the bare minimum; It’ll be big, loud, non-sensical, heavy on testosterone and light on narrative. And whilst aspect of those expectations aren’t far off the mark, Jean-François…

Watching Hypnotic and noting its mid-2000 mentality makes all the more sense when you know that Robert Rodriguez wrote the screenplay back in 2002, with the filmmaker calling it one of his favourite stories that he’s created.  It may have been written in 2002 but the film very much lives in the shadow of Christopher…

Love Again tells the story of two intrepid, lovelorn strangers who find themselves back into the spotlight of love. Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) is a talented children’s author/illustrator who is undergoing a time of grief after the untimely passing of her loving fiancé John (Arinze Kene). She becomes inconsolable that her grief affects her work…

The wealthy whites and their easy skewering is a narrative mentality that we have been witness to in a variety of practices as of late.  But unlike The White Lotus and The Menu, two of the most recent examples of such a temperament, Brandon Cronenberg‘s Infinity Pool pushes further past being just a little wicked…

Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia we have 5 digital double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the Furious new action sequel Fast X, in cinemas from May 18th, 2023. The end of the road begins. Fast X, the tenth film in the Fast & Furious Saga, launches the final chapters of one of cinema’s most storied and popular global…

“A film festival is a gathering of diverse perspectives that offers a collective snapshot of the global zeitgeist, allowing us to delve deeper into our present reality,” said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley as he unveiled this year’s stellar line-up of programming, running from June 7th – 18th. “For 70 years, Sydney Film Festival has…

Eldritch, USA wears its miniscule budget and make-shift mentality with a gleeful pride over the course of its 108 minutes.  Its limitations are obvious, but there’s a certain scrappy charm to it all that you can’t help but be a little taken by its ambition and camp B-movie mindset; there’s a certain Little Shop of…

When Bill Holderman and Erin Simms wrote the script for 2018’s Book Club they envisioned both Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda in their respective roles; now you know why Keaton’s character’s name is Diane! Such was the power of their own determination, both Keaton and Fonda signed on, with fellow industry titans Candice Bergen and…

Only a few weeks after Jane Fonda navigated pedestrian, older-skewered comedy in 80 For Brady, the legendary actress is working with similar, though admittedly better material in Book Club: The Next Chapter, an unnecessary, but serviceable laugher that reunites Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen for another round of mostly safe, occasionally suggestive…

Thanks to Madman Entertainment we have 10 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Liam Neeson, in his 100th film, take on the underbelly of 1930’s Hollywood in Neil Jordan‘s mystery Marlowe. When private detective Phillip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamourous heiress, it looks to be an open…

Based on the 2012 New York Times best selling self-published novel by Jamie McGuire, Beautiful Disaster is a sexy, modern-day romance film from the director of Cruel Intentions and After We Collided, Roger Kumble. Detailing the “will they/won’t they” between Abby Abernathy (Virginia Gardner), a college freshman eager to focus on her studies and start…

Even though the title of Johnny & Clyde may indicate that writer/director Tom DeNucci has gender-flipped the classic criminal couple of Bonnie & Clyde – which could actually be quite a fun, progressive angle – audiences are in for no such change; at least from a gender point of view. DeNucci, unfortunately adopting an “everything…

Since Avengers: Endgame – arguably the last great Marvel movie to be created – the cinematic universe of Kevin Feige‘s box office-conquering superheroes has been creatively rocky.  Sure, they’re still bringing in considerable bank, but the audience enthusiasm has seriously waned in the wake of too many cooks in the kitchen, and their served dishes…

Teenage girls the world over would be familiar with author, Judy Blume. The Jewish-American writer has published 29 books and sold over 82 million copies. This includes the famous, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which has recently been adapted for the big screen and winning fans some fifty-plus years since its release. Blume…

Fresh from its first-look premiere for attendees at this year’s CinemaCon Convention in Las Vegas, 20th Century Studios have released the unsettling teaser for A Haunting in Venice – the latest mystery from Kenneth Branagh, reprising his role as the famed detective Hercule Poirot, following both Murder on the Orient Express and last year’s Death…

Inspired by a true story – that pretty much actually happened – from the Academy Award losing director of Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi, Next Goal Wins tells the story of the American Samoa soccer team, who suffered the worst loss in World Cup history, losing to Australia 31-0 in 2001. With the 2014 World Cup…

Just when you thought the Transformers films couldn’t get any wilder, they bring in an Autobot shaped as a gorilla! Where do we sign up?!?!? Returning to the action and spectacle that have captured moviegoers around the world, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and the…

64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes tells us of the legendary game’s beginning and how one legend changed everything we know. The odds may not necessarily be everyone’s favour here, but long-running franchise…

You have to hand it to writer/director Nida Manzoor for mashing up genres so bombastically in Polite Society and still managing it to make sense when our lead heroine finally lands with her feet planted on the ground. And that’s meant quite literally, as Polite Society‘s lead energy charge – Priya Kansara‘s Ria – has a…

Given the absolute decorative nature given to the four leading ladies of 80 For Brady – there’s 5 Oscar wins between them for starters – it’s a shame that such a throwaway, consistently silly comedy is what has brought together the powerhouse quartet that is Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field. It’s…

After being Taken in the Liam Neeson thriller of the same name, surviving the wrath of a seasonal serial killer in Black Christmas, but succumbing to the killer instincts of Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare On Elm Street, Katie Cassidy‘s film career may not have always seen her make it to the final credits, but…

Beau is Afraid tells the story of Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix), a taciturn, socially-awkward middle-aged man who is the son of renowned and wealthy businesswoman Mona (Patti LuPone). He currently lives a broken existence, with a dilapidated apartment, constant therapy sessions (led by Stephen McKinley Henderson) and sleepless nights due to the barrage of sounds…

Following on from 2020’s most watched documentary on Australian television – Freeman, about the life and career of Cathy Freeman – co-directors and life partners Laurence Billiet and Rachael Antony have collaborated for The Giants, a stunning film that celebrates the life of environmental folk hero and gay icon Bob Brown. As the film arrives in…

Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia we have 5 digital double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the Sundance Film Festival hit action-comedy Polite Society, in cinemas from April 27th, 2023. Ria Khan practises martial arts in order to become a stuntwoman. But when her sister drops out of art school and gets engaged, Ria decides she and…