Film

You may not be familiar with the name, Dr. Mahinder Watsa but to many people he could be “Dr Love.” This nonagenarian is a former gynaecologist turned sexologist and author of a daily column in the Mumbai Mirror. Ask The Sexpert is an intimate portrait of this charming, progressive and wise old man who will…

You get the feeling that the story of The Church has enough in it to fill up several movies. But the documentary, Something Quite Peculiar doesn’t try to be a definitive guide to the band. Instead, it lays its focus squarely on front man, Steve Kilbey and adapts his 2014 memoir of the same name….

Unrest is a documentary that was difficult to make and a challenging one to watch. The film is the debut feature by journalist, Jennifer Brea who chronicles her life with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or chronic fatigue syndrome. She also speaks to others that have this condition by conducting interviews from her bed via Skype. ME…

Whilst not opening to as much as last week’s no. 1 film, War For The Planet Of The Apes, the third in the franchise, managed to wipe out last week’s top flick in only its 2nd week in cinemas. War For The Planet Of The Apes earned $4.07m in its opening week, which just pushed last week’s no. 1…

Proving that the no-hold barred mentality he so masterfully captured as co-director of the original John Wick was no flash in the pan, director David Leitch ventures as a soloist for the excessive Atomic Blonde and manages to collate enough action, sensuality, and humour to deem it a project worthy of one’s attention. It doesn’t…

It sometimes feels like today’s romantic-comedy films have become a little of out of sync with the rest of the modern blockbuster landscapes. You just don’t see as many being made these days. There’s an easy argument to be made that the audience for these kinds of stories have largely migrated to TV shows like…

Love At First Child (Ange et Gabrielle) is a film where a baby brings a man and woman together. And we’re not talking about its parents. This film is a light, French rom-com that is a little like eating a sweet soufflé, it’s fluffy and nice at the time but utterly forgettable shortly afterwards. The…

The Trip To Spain follows the same route at the previous instalments. Not literally. This time around Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon traverse Spain in a film that does not hold any real surprises but it does make for one funny and entertaining trip. This film is directed by Michael Winterbottom who also helmed the…

David Lowery is a filmmaker whose work I have enjoyed due to thenrestrained approach to his direction, his way of humanizing his characters and his sincere, honest approach to storytelling. Whether it be a small-scale story like Ain’t Them Bodies Saints or a commercial film like the recent Pete’s Dragon, his directorial and screenwriting touch is…

In the third and final film of the rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy, we pick up not long after where the previous film left off. The apes are here to stay and it’s only when they come up against a battalion of soldiers that the tentative truce between humans and apes is destroyed and…

Director Christopher Nolan’s eagerly awaited WWII epic, Dunkirk, shot to the top of the box office charts in its debut week.  It earned $6.0m, and got rave reviews from our reviewer.  It’s currently screening across 292 theatres nationally, including six 70mm screens and 1 IMAX screen, where it grossed $234k and $180k, respectively.  Dunkirk takes over the top…

It would be a mistake to write A Monster Calls off as ‘just another one of those’ modern young adult bestsellers that’s gotten the Hollywood treatment. Sure, the narrative of the film is propelled forward by the on-screen performance of an emerging child actor (Lewis MacDougall) and the CGI-performance of a big established figure (Liam…

When the name Christopher Nolan is attached to a film, you know you’re in for a blockbuster by any standards. Whether it’s a big budget sci-fi epic (as in Interstellar) or a comic book trilogy (The Dark Knight) to rival any of the genre, Nolan’s work has been virtually unmatched by any of his contemporaries….

When it comes to names in the film industry, none are more venerable than that of the Coppola’s. Illustriously crafting some of the greatest films in history, from Francis exalting works such as Apocalypse Now to The Godfather and more recently with his daughter’s Sofia success at Cannes with The Beguiled, the name brings an…

It’s been a good fortnight for Spider-Man: Homecoming.  Debuting in cinemas last week, it remains at the top of the box office ladder for the 2nd week in a row.  This week it has posted $4.92m in earnings.  Although it’s about half of what it opened with last week (a little over $10m), it still screened…

Tom Holland takes over the spidey suit from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield and it seems the world loves him for it. In its box office debut, Spider-Man: Homecoming made a whopping $10.13m, earning almost double the last Spider-Man’s opening week take (The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014). It earned $2.8 million on its opening day alone. To put it into…

Films containing subject matter of death or disease, particularly the ones that aim for a teenage audience, tend to be sappy (like My Sister’s Keeper), melodramatic and even deeply misguided, if done wrong. I tend to cringe whenever I hear about another film tacking such subject, but in the case of Netflix’s To the Bone…

It’s obvious that great care and thought was put into Baby Driver; we should have expected nothing less from visionary Director Edgar Wright, he who has brought us incredibly unique films like Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Shaun of the Dead in the past. With the idea snowballing in his head for decades, road-tested…

If you have never heard of The Orb before I would recommend listening to their 1989 hit A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld. Even just reading that title would be enough to vaguely understand what The Orb is about and what they continue to represent. Mixed in…

It’s been more than forty years since Emperor Mao Zedong passed, yet the events of the Revolution remain a foreign subject to much of China’s youth. Beneath the doctored history, propaganda and piecemeal curriculum, the impact of Mao’s leadership remains present in the generation that survived it. This is the heart of Nick Torrens’ documentary,…

It would be easy to expect a horror film from the trailer of It Comes At Night, but those familiar with Trey Edwards Shults’ debut feature Krisha should know better. Though he may not be quite skilled at the in-your-face scare, Shults is clearly an intelligent and unique voice for those who love to mix…

Placebo have always been a band that proudly sit outside of the mainstream. So it’s not a giant leap for this group of alternative musicians to want to seek out like-minded individuals when they are on tour. Placebo Alt.Russia is partially an arts and political documentary and part travelogue as the band traverse through different…

In the film, The Wizard of Oz Dorothy taps her ruby red slippers and says, “There’s no place like home.” But have you ever wondered where was home for those striking shoes? The documentary, The Slippers is a fascinating film that covers what became of this beloved slice of movie history in a story that…

By the conclusion of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the character and lore behind it had lost all sense of vigour on screen. The film was tired, painful and offensively deplorable, so much so it managed to master what many would consider near impossible — it made the promise of future instalments as something to dread…

Seems that you can’t keep a good Gru down, as Despicable Me 3, last week’s 2nd place title on the box office ladder, has regained its no. 1 spot, making $3.42m in the process. Earnings slipped this week by 3%, but was added to 10 more screens nationally for the school holiday period. As a result, last…

Artists like Madonna, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are some of the biggest names in the music industry. But in the shadows of these successful women you will see lots of men. When you look behind-the-scenes at the music business it is one big old boys’ club but does it have to be this…

Breathtaking and magical, Monsieur Chocolat (directed by Roschdy Zem) is one to watch if you want to experience a Parisian night. Immerse yourself in the world of 19th-century French circus and follow the biopic story of Chocolat (Omar Sy). He journeys from a performer acting as the “cannibal” to a more respected position as a…

It’s a sign of the times that the school holidays (and the USA’s summer blockbuster season) are upon us, as Transformers: The Last Knight tops the chart this week, making $4.46m in the process. It’s not a particularly impressive sum, however – the amount is the smallest opening weekend for a #1 film since King Arthur: Legend…

Netflix’s new film Okja hits the streaming service this Thursday, a film whose director Bong Joon-Ho has citied George Miller’s Babe: Pig in the City amongst its influences. With the acclaimed Korean director in Sydney for the Sydney Film Festival, where Okja sat as the closing film, I caught up with the man himself (and…

Like it’s Tsotsitaal namesake meaning “to go”, Vaya, Directed by Akin Omotoso, literally begins on the move. Opening on a train bound to Johannesburg Vaya follows the intertwining paths of three young South Africans journeying from their rural homes in Kwazulu-Natal to eGoli, the city of Gold. All three are tasked with their own promises…