Film

After missing out on the SXSW screening experience in 2020 with her feature The Golden Arm, director Maureen Bharoocha is even more grateful to be screening her latest film, The Prank, in person this year.  As the dark comedic thriller premiered (you can read our festival review here) our Peter Gray spoke to both Maureen…

Whilst he never exactly went off the grid to warrant this a “comeback”, Channing Tatum certainly reminds us just why his likeable, some may say limitedly ranged persona was such a staple in the mid 2010’s with Dog.  Not only does it see the actor step back into leading man territory – somewhere he hasn’t…

For such a scrappy little feature, Eli Horowitz‘s The Cow has some impressive calibre that will no doubt help earn it some extra eyes beyond the unique indie crowd this seems tailor made for. Headlined by Winona Ryder (always a treat to see taking charge these days) and a suitably disarming Dermot Mulroney, The Cow…

A somewhat standard high-school comedy and a campy dark mystery are fused together in Maureen Bharoocha‘s ambitious offering The Prank.  Whilst much of the film rides on the fact you have to root for unlikeable archetypes – either outcast students Ben (Connor Kalopsis) and his feisty bestie Tanner (Ramona Young) or their evil-incarnate teacher (a…

A pandemic story without exclusively being as such, Everything Will Be Alright has an everyman-type quality to it in how it presents the dilemmas the Coronavirus inflicted upon the world.  Director Farhard Pakdel fuses his narrative with a heightened sense of drama though, injecting a potentially triggering additive that further highlights how people’s realities were…

When watching Kestrin Pantera‘s Pretty Problems, if such titles as This Is 40, Wanderlust, The Invitation, White Lotus, and/or Schitt’s Creek come to mind, you can sit comfortably knowing that was somewhat deliberate.  Though there’s evident inspiration from such vast titles, Pretty Problems is still very much its own being; it just helps it has…

Whether we like them (or follow them) or not, influencers – sorry, “content creators” – are a cultural mainstay in our society that often extends beyond the environment of social media.  In Australian horror effort Sissy, co-writers/directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes seem all too aware of the faux importance influencers place upon themselves, a…

Unless you’re already an established name in the industry – and even then, to some degree, getting a film off the ground can have its challenges – the process of seeing a film through its production stages is never without its hurdles.  So you can only imagine how it was for a first-time director like…

Premiering at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, Radical Honesty is a new short feature from director/photographer Bianca Poletti.  In the lead-up to the film’s premiere, our own Peter Gray spoke with her about the inspiration behind its unconventional take on relationships, her own personal attachment to the idea of non-monogamy, and which filmmakers she personally…

If it wasn’t for the fact that she turns into a giant red panda, the life of Turning Red‘s protagonist Meilin Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) would be considered normal.  She gets good grades at secondary school, has a trio of respectable besties, helps her mother, Ming (Sandra Oh), in running the family temple –…

“It was so long, I wish I’d watch paint dry instead!” Not the most encouraging way to open a review.  Though, thankfully, I’m referring to the book “The Sensible Heart”, the novel-within-the-movie that Book Of Love‘s main character has written, and not Analeine Cal y Mayor‘s film itself. Said writer is Henry Copper (Sam Claflin,…

Have you ever had an experience or an idea that would make a great movie?  A first of its kind film competition open to everybody is hoping to turn your creativity into reality. Never been done before in Australia, Feature30 is a competition with a difference.  Not only will it reward its winner with a…

Screening as part of the 2022 Transitions Film Festival, First We Eat delves into the story of a family who decides to go totally off the grid and eat locally after a landslide blocked off access to their town and led to the discovery that no food is produced locally. The film is headed up by…

One of Australia’s finest, and hardest working, exports, Radha Mitchell is a homegrown success story, having graduated from the local screens of the sitcom All Together Now and the institution that is Neighbours, to such international box office successes as Pitch Black, Phone Booth, and Silent Hill. As her latest film, the darkly comedic revenge…

When detailing delicate subject matter – in this case, sexual assault and the most toxic of masculinity – some films have the insight and intelligence to do so with a certain nuance.  Asking For It is not one of those films!  No, this is as subtle as a sledgehammer, ripping through its surfaces with a…

With only just over a week away until SXSW 2022 (March 11th-20th), the festival has revealed Keynotes and Featured Speakers made up of prominent industry leaders and creative visionaries from the world’s of tech, film, music, and beyond. The Keynotes announced include three-time Grammy Award-winning artist Lizzo; 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee…

Arriving in cinemas this week (you can read our review here), The Batman is arguably one of the year’s most anticipated films.  Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and fronted by Robert Pattinson, the film is gearing up to deliver a version of the Dark Knight we have…

If there’s one thing director Paul Verhoeven loves to do, it’s poke the bear.  As he has so gleefully outraged audiences and critics across his career, his latest exploitive project – the “based on a true story” nunsploitation drama(?) Benedetta – could easily be dismissed as blasphemous, but there’s also an alarming sincerity to his…

As easy as it is to wax lyrical on the fact that we have yet another iteration of the Dark Knight, The Batman, from director Matt Reeves, is unlike any we have experienced on screen thus far.  Sure, the fact that Reeves has adopted a dark temperament to lace his narrative may not be viewed…

Another day, another Bruce Willis direct-to-DVD effort that continues the odd, sad decline of his career.  Keeping in tune with the last dozen or so efforts he has sleepwalked his way through (that is if he decides to actually show up for filming that day), Willis barely registers in Gasoline Alley, the fourth collaboration with…

Dr Phil Kennedy initially seems like such a quiet and unassuming character. The maverick neuroscientist was born in Ireland and spent time working with the homeless before moving to the U.S. But as the film, The Father of the Cyborgs shows, that is really Dr Kennedy during the daytime. After hours, he has experimented with…

Once upon a time financial literacy involved little more than individuals hitting up their local bank manager for a mortgage. These days the global financial system is a confusing web of interconnected elements: shares, derivatives, energy and taxes. Hot Money is a documentary that aims to demystify this complex subject matter. Susan Kucera directs this…

The core narrative of The Desperate Hour (previously screened as Lakewood at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival) is one that is ripe with tension and despair.  It’s every parent’s worst nightmare come true.  It’s a true shame then that Phillip Noyce‘s initially well-intentioned thriller devolves into absurdity, taking its serious subject matter and exploiting…

Though there’s nothing particularly original about No Exit, the sheer commitment from lead Havana Rose Liu serves the film enough benefit that its genre simplicities and narrative lunacies are somewhat forgiven. Initially, Australian filmmaker Damien Power (Killing Ground) aims for a dramatic temperament, introducing Liu’s Darby as an addict in recovery who has all but…

Films dealing with queer thematics are few and far between in mainland China.  Due to the government’s strict regime on censorship, stories detailing the LGBTQ communities are a rarity, which is why a feature like Moneyboys is all the more curious.  Though set in China, it was filmed in the neighbouring Taiwan, co-financed with European…

Fitzroy North residents can enjoy Aussie classics under the stars, with a free open air cinema program launching at Linear Park next month. Running on Fridays throughout March, the project – dubbed Neighbourhood Watch – is a collab between film distributor Umbrella Entertainment and Yarra City Arts. Locals will be able head to Linear Park…

Thanks to Warner Bros. Pictures we have 5 double passes (Admit 2) to give away for the upcoming release of The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz and Colin Farrell, set for release in Australian cinemas from March 3rd, 2022. Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman (Robert Pattinson), striking fear into the…

In Polish-Swedish film Sweat, audiences meet social media influencer Sylwia. Fit, pretty, and young, Sylwia (Magdalena Kolesnik) motivates her 600,000 followers to work out and be healthy. But this dramatic character study is about more than just a pretty face; it’s a subtle look at the opposing forces between our public and private personas in…

When it was announced that the Foo Fighters made a comedy horror movie in lockdown, it didn’t feel much of a surprise to those of us who grew up watching the band make quirky music videos or Devilish cameos in a Tenacious D movie. But a music video this is not – so the question…

The Pit, directed by Dace Pūce, Latvia’s submission to the 2022 Oscar’s for Best International Film is something of a contradictory affair; at once a rich and nuanced coming of age story, but also an almost brutalist portrayal of life in small-town Latvia.  Based on a series of stories by Latvian writer Jana Egle, the…