Film

WARNING: May contain excessive amounts of puns. Another week, another film set in the snowy terrain. This week, we have The Snowman, a serial killer thriller starring Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson and a embarrassment of talent. But unlike the prior film, The Mountain (of Cheese) Between Us, this film has achieved quite a negative reception…

It’s a hard fought ninety-seven minutes for the protagonists in An American in Texas, but it’s a fight they could never really win. In Anthony Pedone’s latest, it’s the early 90’s and the U.S has its sights set on a war in the Middle East. As the effects of the conflict settle across the States,…

Mythopathy (Notias) is a film about a boy. Except he’s not just any old kid. This child is one that experiences heartbreak in a novel way. When it happens, he looks towards ancient Greek mythology and stories and he changes aspects of these to suit his own narrative. This coming-of-age story is emotional and imaginative…

That Good Night is a film that could be been called “The Last Night.” This is because it’s a drama about second chances and forgiveness. This handsome film is the last one that the late Sir John Hurt acted in and while it has some intriguing moments, it ultimately suffers from being a play that…

A Family Man is a film about an ambitious, corporate-type who is forced to reassess his priorities. Sound familiar? It’s because this road to redemption is a well-trodden one. A Family Man continues along this journey of clichés without offering anything particularly original or endearing through the process. Gerard Butler (300) stars as Dane Jensen…

Beginning its streaming season on the rather appropriate date of Friday the 13th, Netflix’s nasty, bloodied The Babysitter proves a suitable entree for the feast that is the Halloween film season. Playing with the conventions of an 80’s style slasher whilst simultaneously maintaining an air of modern self-referential wit, McG‘s splatter comedy is a quick…

As varying subsets of the horror genre have forged ahead in 2017 as some of the year’s biggest successes (Split, Get Out and It remain three of the most fruitful ventures), it only makes sense that the slasher genre attempt the resurgence it so desperately deserves. It simply isn’t enough however to let a film…

WARNING: This review may contain heavy traces of cheese. Before I start off this review, let me just make this one thing clear. I do like romantic films. This year alone, we have great films like Their Finest, The Big Sick, Our God’s Country and Call Me By Your Name. As much as I cannot…

Breathe is a love letter from producer, Jonathan Cavendish to his inspiring parents. The film is a bio-pic that chronicles the enduring love that this couple shared for each other as well as their refusal to give up in the face of a devastating disease. This story is an important one that is a testament…

While its numbers weren’t quite as strong in the US as was expected, Blade Runner 2049, the follow-up to Ridley Scott‘s 1982 film, sits comfortably in  its opening week in Australia at no. 1, earning $4.52m, with a screen average of $9,093 across 498 screens.  It’s a fan favourite for both cinema-goers and critics alike – we’ve already…

Until the day when Pixel Buds are so finessed that we no longer need those streaming lines of text, subtitles will be (for most of us) our one entry to foreign films. It’s rare though for subtitles to impact the film in any other way, but in Yannis Sakaridis’s Amerika Square, those flashing words do…

If a relationship break-up has ever left you questioning, “Why?” or “What’s next?” then Afterlov is the film for you. This Greek dramedy sees its main protagonist grappling with these questions to the point of obsession. So what is this leading man to do but confront these things as well as his ex. The only…

School holiday cinema viewing has been kind to Kingsman: The Golden Circle, where it sat at no. 1 for the second straight week, following its strong debut last week.  This weekend, it made $3.60m, and has already made $12.08m to date nationally.   Another strong school holiday performer was The Emoji Movie.  This week it made $2.18m, bumping it up from…

When the original Blade Runner was first released in cinemas in 1982, it made waves for its stunning cinematography and special effects, moody and now iconic soundtrack from Vangelis, and its truly innovative adaptation of a short story from sci-fi writer Philip K Dick; the rare instance where a film has outdone its source material….

We meet Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush) in a state of supreme boredom – another day, another exhibition. With his hair sticking up, and a cigarette hanging eternally from his lips, he looks like a crumpled echidna whose snout is on fire, but who cares. It’s James Lord (Armie Hammer) who bothers to bring us this…

Acclaimed writer/director Noah Baumbach is back with his latest character centric story focusing on a dysfunctional family who put their quarrels aside to come together and celebrate their ageing father’s artistic work. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), a drama/comedy, boasts an all-star cast from Emma Thompson to veteran actor Dustin Hoffman and comedic giants…

Wakefield is a long, drawn-out rendering of a short story. It shows one man’s descent into madness and how he becomes a voyeur of his own family. The film is a dramatic one and while the central idea seems original enough, it’s something that was better in the written format than in a full-length, feature…

When a film isn’t pre-screened for media or has its review embargo lifted on the same day of release, you know that the studio isn’t confident in the quality of their product. And this is what happened with the latest remake (although, in recent reports, it is claimed to be a sequel) of Flatliners. At…

Kingsman: The Golden Circle made a phenomenal debut at the box office, taking in $5.71m and sitting in top spot this week.  This cinema debut was the best since It opened with $7.46m.  Kingsman: The Golden Circle also managed a screen average of a whopping $14,116 across 405 screens. Still hot over the weekend was It, earning $2.41m and sitting in 2nd place. …

Despite its 1973 setting, Battle of the Sexes is very much a film for the now with Billie Jean King’s story appearing just as relevant today as it did back then.  Stances on sexuality and the pay parity between genders as depicted here is likely to strike a chord with many an audience member, but…

DreamWorks Animation is back with a new film, and what can we say about this little animation company, soon to celebrate a successful 20-year run? They’ve come an exceedingly long way since their first animated feature, Antz, in 1998, a film that felt so forced to catch up with Pixar (who released A Bug’s Life around the…

It turns out that Aussies like having the crap scared out of them, as for the second week in a row, It sits at no. 1 at the box office, this week taking in $4.99m.  It has made $14.71m since it’s opening week, the best double weekend earnings since Spider-Man: Homecoming. Having said that, it looks like…

Villainess doesn’t waste any time, giving the audience exactly what they came for; a full on, bloody action movie. And boy does it deliver exactly what it promises. The whole premise – a story about an assassin out for revenge – comes with big expectations of huge action sequences and lots of knives, and with…

Riding on their wave of festival success, filmmaking couple Alice Foulcher and Gregory Erdstein’s debut feature film That’s Not Me shows just what you can achieve with a low budget and bucket loads of passion. Shot on a budget of $60,000, That’s Not Me follows the day to day slog of Polly (Alice Foulcher), a…

Although I am a fan of all film genres, I have an affinity for the human-fantasy friendship trope. Whether it’s between a human and a horse (War Horse), a human and a robot (The Iron Giant), a human and a mutant super-pig (Okja) or a human and a Totoro (My Neighbour Totoro), a strong bond…

When Kingsman: The Secret Service debuted in 2015, it became a critical darling and surprise commercial hit due to strong word of mouth, and a truly original and exciting approach to the spy (and in many respects, the superhero / comic book) genre. Funny, irreverent and wholly memorable, it stands apart as one of the…

America has long been a country divided, afflicted by the separation between white and black men and it still continues to this day. I Am Not Your Negro is a unique documentary that is an analysis of the civil rights movements of the 50’s and 60’s right through to the current Black Lives Matter movement….

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A loose cannon who doesn’t play by the rules, but dammit if he doesn’t get the job done, is recruited by the CIA to assist in taking out some “very bad people who plan on doing some very bad things“… American Assassin is not the type of film…

After some pretty dismal weeks in earnings at the box office, cinemas nationwide are welcoming this week’s no. 1 film, the remake of Stephen King’s classic novel (and reason why so many kids in the 80s hated clowns), It.  Opening on  548 screens nationally, it made a phenomenal $7.46m in its opening weekend, and was the biggest…

Where does one even begin to describe the demented deliciousness that is mother!?  Despite the film’s rather studio-heavy calibre of talent on board, Darren Aronofsky‘s latest cinematic insanity is anything but an audience-friendly affair.  The mysterious marketing campaign has wound up viewer interest (and rightfully so), and I would wager many will be entering theatres…