Reviews

Though it’s less of a shock practice now, the idea of a classic literary figure that became a household name under the umbrella of Disney being transformed into something adult and horrific rightfully broke – and angered – the internet when it was announced that Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey would be made off the back…

A film like Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is what one might call “critic proof”.  I mean, it’s ultimately a near-2 hour over-indulged CGI fest based around two giant creatures and their evident animosity towards each other.  But, rather ironically, these two titans are battling each other at the tail-end of a cinematic universe…

Director Matteo Garrone has often flirted between reality and fantasy when telling his stories on screen.  His 2008 mafia drama Gomorrah and the crime-infused Dogman (2018) were steeped in a violent truth.  His English-language fantasy Tales of Tales (2015) and a live-action adaptation of Pinocchio (2019) allowed him to delight in the whimsical.  For Io…

Before the internet gave way to the keyboard warriors of the world, if there was a bystander of sorts that you wished to give a piece of your mind to (however warranted or not), one had to put pen to paper and post such. In the early 20th century these were the days of the…

Nostalgia undoubtedly has its place within the realms of IP revisitation, but there are certain ways to utilise such a notion without completely falling back on them.  2021’s Afterlife, the 3rd Ghostbusters , chronologically, following 1984’s debut and its 1989 sequel – or the 4th iteration if counting Paul Feig’s much maligned, but vastly underrated…

Given Sydney Sweeney‘s dedication to Immaculate as a production, it makes sense that the actress gives her all across the 89 minutes of Michael Mohan‘s disturbing, occasionally blackly comic, religious horror film. A decade-or-so ago, Sweeney, who was still mainly working in C-grade film fare at the time, read the Andrew Lobel-penned script and knew…

Whilst some of the beats are the same between Doug Liman‘s surprising take on Rowdy Herrington’s resilient 1989 trashy actioner of the same name, Road House 2024 proves removed enough to justify its existence as a similarly-themed junky piece of escapism that revels in its own dirty masculinity. Jake Gyllenhaal shares the same name as…

If her prominent post-Twilight work hasn’t convinced you to join the Kristen Stewart appreciation club, then may I suggest signing up in the wake of Love Lies Bleeding, a deliciously wild, brutal noir crime comedy that gleefully breaks your jaw in the process. And there’s a reason I specified a breaking jaw in that analogy,…

Whilst The Nut Farm undeniably goes for simple, perhaps obvious humour over the course of its brisk 80-ish minutes, audiences looking for clean(ish) humour and a sense of family fun should have an easy time digesting Arj Barker‘s absurd, well-intentioned comedy. Barker, an American comedian whose very much made Australia his second home over the…

Towards the beginning of the creepy and ambiguous Kryptic, a tour guide overseeing the Cedar Springs Women’s Walking Club explains what cryptozoology is.  “It means the study of the hidden,” he states as he details Barb Valentine, a cryptozoologist who went missing in the very same British Columbia hinterland the group is currently hiking through….

Men behaving badly is at the core of Annick Blanc‘s Hunting Daze, a surreal visualisation of toxic masculinity that refuses to ever pigeonhole itself into one category.  It’s horrific without ever devoting itself entirely to that genre.  It’s blackly funny, though never satirical.  And it’s always engaging, even if the extreme manner in which Blanc…

Though there’s an enjoyable “Robin Hood”-like mentality to the narrative of Cutter Hodierne‘s always watchable thriller Cold Wallet, this cryptocurrency-heavy tale takes a less jovial approach to the world of tech talk and monetary scams than last year’s similarly themed Dumb Money.  But, despite opting for a more intense, oft-violent approach, the emerging filmmaker has…

Though there was a certain sense of the story coming to a natural close in 2016’s Kung Fu Panda 3, the powers that be at DreamWorks deemed another go-around with the loveable Po (once again voiced with vigour by Jack Black) necessary, and so families are gifted with the effortless joy that is Kung Fu…

After finding Oscar glory as a solo filmmaker – with arguably one of the more controversial Best Picture wins in the Academy’s history (see Green Book) – there’s a nice sense of coming back home in the case of Peter Farrelly helming Ricky Stanicky. Now, it does pale in comparison to the comedy works he…

Given that the promotional material for Imaginary has highlighted a certain stuffed teddy bear, one would be right in assuming that the film – boasting its from the studio that brought us Five Nights at Freddy’s and M3GAN – would be taking inspiration from those two successful properties.  Unfortunately, despite such promise, a committed turn…

There very easily could’ve been an air of farce and faux suspense about The Great Escaper.  A true story centring on Bernard Jordan (Michael Caine) – a near-90-year-old who staged a “great escape” from his retirement home in 2014 in order to join his fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy to commemorate their…

Given the absolute majestic, expansive nature of Frank Herbert‘s 1965 novel, it makes sense as to why director Denis Villeneuve insisted that his story be told across a necessary 5 hour split.  No doubt using David Lynch’s ambitious failure as something of a cautionary tale – the auteur continually rejecting his association with his own…

After five years of hype and construction, no less than 54,000 m2 of LED on its exterior, and space for some 20,000 punters, the ambitious venue known simply as Sphere opened in Las Vegas last September, immediately becoming one of the world’s most recognisable structures. As the largest spherical building in the world, enjoying an…

“What is this fucking girl’s problem?” As Jennifer Lopez states in the opening moments of The Greatest Love Story Never Told, she’s highly aware of what the media has pondered about the multitude of marriages (4, to be precise) she’s partaken in over the course of her resilient career. And it’s that self-awareness and hopeful…

The opening imagery of Mark Leonard Winter‘s The Rooster is a nightmarish depiction of a body swinging in the wind.  It suggests a darker film than what transpires over the following 101 minutes, even though Winter’s script does indeed indulge in devastating themes. At the centre of The Rooster is Dan (Phoenix Raei, leaving no…

An idyllic family life juxtaposed with the genocidal holocaust horrors next door has made for one of the most gripping and intellectual cinematic gems in years.  The Zone of Interest is by far the most haunting and arresting depiction of Nazi family life and Holocaust bureaucracy you’ll get all year.  Directed by Jonathan Glazer, his…

If there was ever an indication as to how separately the Coen Brothers think when they’re left to their own devices, one only needs to look at what Ethan Coen has concocted with Drive-Away Dolls.  Miles apart from Joel Coen’s ahistorical thriller The Tragedy of Macbeth, Drive-Away Dolls, a collaboration with Ethan’s wife, Tricia Cooke,…

Baghead – and for those deep-cut aficionados, this isn’t connected to the 2008 indie horror flick of the same name that starred Greta Gerwig and was directed by the Duplass brothers – leans into the trusted genre narrative of the boundaries between life and death being somewhat fluid.  Arriving several months after the similarly-themed Talk…

A brutal war film that opts to forego any “true story” inspiration and commit wholly to undistinguishable-terrorists-are-picked-off-by-fictional-soldiers-with-crowd-rousingly-violent-results, Land of Bad transcends its Queensland-filmed locations and predominant Australian cast to deliver on shockingly tense and neatly executed thrills. Largely an action vehicle for Liam Hemsworth, the sweet-faced, imposingly-figured star leads the charge as Kinney, quickly dubbed…

“Have you ever heard the story of Alida and Taroo?…” So begins Jennifer Lopez‘s semi autobiographical musical experience This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, a narrative accompaniment to her latest album, This Is Me…Now, an urban pop record that celebrates her reunion with now husband Ben Affleck, following their original romance some two decades prior….

With all that Bob Marley achieved before his passing at only the age of 36, it makes sense that his life be served the biopic treatment, and with King Richard helmer Reinaldo Marcus Green as a director, there’s perhaps even more of a sense of how emotionally impactful such a tale could be.  But seemingly…

Leading up to the release of Madame Web it’s safe to say that the word hasn’t exactly been overtly positive.  The usage of a certain line of dialogue regarding Dakota Johnson‘s character’s mother’s profession of working with spiders in the Amazon cemented the film’s meme status from the get-go – for the record, the line…

There’s a lot of blunt symbolism and are-they-too-clever-for-their-own-good?-plot twists abound in Marmalade, the feature debut from actor-turned-writer/director Keir O’Donnell (the Australian-American talent known for his roles in Wedding Crashers, American Sniper, and The Dry).  It’s an ultimately zippy, enthusiastic caper that probably puts a few too many of its eggs in its culminating basket, but…

Whilst much can be said about how so much of The Dry‘s success was in large part to it opening at a time when cinemas were still battling the pandemic-stricken productions that were halted, it can’t be denied that Robert Connolly‘s tight thriller was a fine genre film in its own right.  The fact that…

The promise of a trilogy based off a series of books that have yet to be released.  A planned spy-centred universe of films that is set to crossover with the similarly themed Kingsman and a yet-to-be-named franchise.  Taylor Swift theorists believing she’s the real mastermind behind it all.  And don’t forget the heavily marketed feline…