Film

Kenny Rogers so famously told us “You gotta know when to fold ’em”, and in The Card Counter writer/director Paul Schrader seems unsure as to which hand he wants to confidently play.  It’s not that this film is poorly made, nor is his commitment to the representation of desolation anything other than pure, but it’s…

A writer and director known for his predominant television work, helming episodes for such lauded series as The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and Game of Thrones, Alan Taylor is returning to the gangster-fuelled environment of David Chase’s Sopranos with The Many Saints of Newark, the anticipated prequel to the award-winning show.  Ahead of the film’s Australian…

After thirteen years and twenty-five films, it only makes sense that the standard formula for what makes a Marvel movie earns something of a deviation from the expected.  The tightly choreographed fight sequences, the amusing quips, the CGI-heavy climactic battle…all ingredients that, to the testament of such an institution, have been recycled in a variety…

There’s a certain challenge one takes on when adapting a secondary story (for lack of a better word) to a televisual project.  Whether you continue the narrative as a sequel, take the premise in a more comedic fashion, or simply re-imagine the original, fans of the original property are always going to be the audience…

As Halloween Kills slices its way through Australian cinemas (you can read our review here), series scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and fellow cast-members Andi Matichak, Anthony Michael Hall and Kyle Richards participated in a global press conference – which our own Peter Gray was invited to attend – to discuss the character dynamics formed in…

To coincide with the release of his horror film Lair, now available to rent or buy on DVD and digital in time for the spooky season, writer/director Adam Ethan Crow spoke with our own Peter Gray about his love of horror films, attempting something different to please the genre fans, and the rough seas travelled…

In the opening minutes of Adam Ethan Crow‘s Lair, a masterful sense of tension is introduced that near-immediately puts its audience on guard.  An eerie musical score, an unseen force, a bloodied body…nightmarish additives that deliberately only tell fragments of a whole story. From here we are introduced to Steven Caramore (Corey Johnson, having an…

A gorgeously rendered, lovingly crafted, maybe slightly messy, giallo tribute drenched in 1960’s London culture, Last Night In Soho is the type of film one wishes to dissect and divulge in intimate detail.  But that would entirely undo any service to writer/director Edgar Wright, who has implored audiences the globe over to keep their mouths…

After months of theatres sitting dark in NSW, Victoria, and the ACT, cinemas are now open again in every corner of Australia. As expected, the lockdowns brought those painful release date delays most thought we’d left behind in 2020. That means November is stacked with several big releases to encourage Aussie audiences back to the…

One of many 2020 titles that saw its original release delayed due to the pandemic, and one of the few that held its nerve and opted out of a streaming alternative, Antlers, from director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass) and producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water), proves its bold mentality…

As the flashing lights of fire brigades speed past a bruised and bloodied Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the opening moments of Halloween Kills, it becomes all too evident that the haunting figure that is Michael Myers is far from vanquished; her desperate screams of “Let him burn” practically beg the oft-called ‘boogeyman’ to…

After pushing 2018’s sequel-cum-reboot Halloween to record breaking statistics, it only made sense that writer/director David Gordon Green was handed a sequel to continue revelling in Michael Myers’ carnage. Not only granted a sequel – Halloween Kills – but a trilogy (Halloween Ends, set for a 2022 release) to boot, Green expanded on the violent…

Comparisons between Ron’s Gone Wrong and 2014’s Big Hero 6 seem inevitable, yet, apart from the central relationship between a young adolescent boy and an operated robot, the two share little DNA, so it’s probably best that’s put to bed before going any further.  Much like the titular Ron, the Sarah Smith/Jean-Phillipe Vine-directed feature is…

  When Lucas (Pedro Correa) learns that his father has passed away and subsequently left him an entire apartment complex in Los Angeles, he’s emotionally perturbed, to say the least.  Learning of such tragic news and such a vast inheritance in the one sitting would be enough for anyone to re-evaluate their existence, but given…

Spooky season is well and truly upon us, and the team here at The AU Review are firing up the popcorn maker and getting ready to enjoy our favourite scary movies. If you’re looking for some ideas for that horror marathon you’re planning this weekend, here’s a few films had us checking under our beds…

In these pandemic-driven times, the idea of inhabiting another planet sounds more and more appealing.  And with space travel now becoming somewhat generally accessible – sure, you have to be filthy rich, but it’s still a step up from it being exclusive to astronauts only – it stands to reason that such a concept could…

A descent into grief and an examination on the affects of re-opening old wounds, Time Now, from writer/director Spencer King, is a tragic thriller that implements an unreliable narrator to maintain a certain intrigue as it navigates its central tragedy. Jenny (Eleanor Lambert, daughter of Diane Lane and Christopher Lambert) is feeling secluded and alone…

Kenny Rogers so famously told us “You gotta know when to fold ’em”, and in The Card Counter writer/director Paul Schrader seems unsure as to which hand he wants to confidently play.  It’s not that this film is poorly made, nor is his commitment to the representation of desolation anything other than pure, but it’s…

German character actor Udo Kier is so synonymous with villainy that his role in Swan Song appears all the more revelatory.  But given the actor’s own queer identification and penchant for theatrical performances, a character like his at the centre of Todd Stephens‘s gentle dramedy feels quite in tune with the actor’s aesthetic. Based on…

Immigration is a topic that’s quite intensely debated across the world, particularly in the United States.  And in Blue Bayou, a spotlight is shone on a specific group of immigrants, those that come to a country as infants with little to no recollection of their homeland and, quite often, had no other choice. Such is…

“While the events of this story are fictional…These. People. Existed.” These words hit harder than any bullet or bass snare experienced in The Harder They Fall as they sprawl across the screen in the opening seconds of Jeymes Samuel‘s Black Western fantasy.  Perhaps, in a way, an almost spiritual sequel to Mario Van Peebles’ genre-breaking…

Lending an air of femininity to the western genre – one so often entangled with a masculine temperament – without compromising its rooted personality, Leah Purcell‘s The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson is the cinematic incarnation of her penned 2016 stage play and 2019 novel, all inspired by Henry Lawson‘s short story, “The…

Given their status today it’s difficult to think of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as anything other than substantial stars in their field.  But, back in 1997, neither was well-known, and their collaborative efforts as screenwriters brought them to the forefront of the industry thanks to a shared Oscar win for Good Will Hunting. Though…

The Medium tells the story of a Thai documentary team who are travelling to the region of Isan to follow the life of the local medium Nim (Sawanee Utoomma). She claims that she was possessed by the spirit of Ba Yan, a deity that the people of Isan worship and a significant presence in Nim’s…

To coincide with the trailer launch of The Black Phone, the latest horror film from Blumhouse, detailing the abduction of a young boy who learns he is able to communicate with the voices of his captor’s previous victims through a disconnected black phone, Peter Gray chatted with the film’s director, Scott Derrickson, discussing the origins…

“What’s your favourite scary movie?” 25 years ago it was a question posed to Neve Campbell in Wes Craven’s now genre classic Scream, and come January 2022 a new generation of fresh blood will have their knowledge similarly tested in, well, Scream. Less a sequel and more a reinvention, Scream will pay homage to Craven’s…

William Friedkin’s classic The Exorcist is so ingrained in the demonic possession sub-genre of the horror field that every feature that has come since can’t help but feel like a recycled take on a head-spinning narrative we’ve come to know so well.  So, with that, there’s all more the reason to celebrate something like The…

As the spooky season creeps towards its hallowed end, horror-centric streaming service Shudder is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving for genre fans the globe over.  With the recent release of the  supernatural scarer Seance (you can read our review here), our own Peter Gray got to chat with the film’s writer…

Similar to how Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, Jennifer Kent, and Ari Aster all secured their place in the annals of genre cinema with their debut offerings, Julia Docournau‘s bold cannibalistic horror effort Raw cemented the French filmmaker as a name to pay consistent attention to.  And just as those aforementioned auteurs all swung big with…

True Things is the sophomore effort from filmmaker Harry Wootliff, whose first film was Only You (not the film with Marisa Tomei); a romantic drama about the trials and tribulations of a couple who have to contend with adulthood, parenting and generational differences due to their distance in age. For her latest film, Wootliff is…