Reviews

Despite being headlined by Seann William Scott (best known as Stifler from the American Pie films) and advertising itself as an action-comedy, Michael Diliberti‘s Bad Man leans into more of a sense of seriousness overall.  It isn’t without its chuckles, but it doesn’t have quite an entire hold of blending both genres, leaving the film…

Looking at the premise of Carolina Caroline on the surface, it’s all too easy to compare it to something like Bonnie & Clyde.  Sure, Adam Carter Rehmeier‘s focuses on a loved-up couple and their cross country crime spree, but Tom Dean‘s script is far deeper than that set-up.  For starters, the initial “criminal” of the…

Sydney Sweeney has really been doing a commendable job of proving that, as an actress, she’s so much more than what we see on Euphoria.  Whilst there have been the expected streaming filmic choices (a Netflix horror effort, an Amazon sex thriller) and a dip into the superhero subsect (farewell Madame Web, we hardly knew…

In a time when so many action movies have a sense of the recycled about them, you have to admire the approach taken with Motor City.  It’s working off a gimmick, sure, and that in itself means Potsy Ponciroli‘s gritty, violent actioner won’t be for everyone, but if you want a genre feature that embraces…

Set in 1916 during World War I, The Choral takes a look at a certain group of community who, in their time of hardship, come together to uphold a tradition that serves as a spiritual lifting. The choral society at the centre of the film have come to a crossroads.  Their choral director has been…

Young love and all the amazing, traumatic things that come with such are explored in Charlie Harper, Mac Eldridge and Tom Dean‘s emotional, non-linear romance dramedy, anchored by the moving performances – and palpable chemistry – of its leads, Emilia Jones and Nick Robinson. Centering around the two halves of its titular coupling (so no,…

From the opening sequence of Aneil Karia‘s Hamlet it’s evident that the Shakespeare tale we know won’t be simply rehashed on screen.  This isn’t your school production or even Broadway, with Karia maintaining the classic tongue of the prose, but bringing its setting to modern day London within the South Asian community. Following the moment…

If you are one of the many audience members seemingly disappointed that Dakota Johnson‘s love triangle with Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal’s in Materialists earlier in the year wasn’t as romantic as you were led to believe, then it’s possible that Michael Angelo Covino‘s Splitsville may be the antidote.  Of course, this self advertised “unromantic…

From relatively humble horror beginnings, The Conjuring Universe – as it was so dubbed the more sequels it garnered – is coming to a close after over a decade of mixed scares and box office bullion. And whilst The Conjuring: Last Rites, the ninth installment in the franchise overall (following the previous three Conjuring films,…

When trauma is experienced, how does one move on with a semblance of normalcy? That is the question indirectly asked at the centre of Eva Victor‘s stunning Sorry, Baby, a darkly comedic, at times devastating drama that unfolds in the more mundane moments that follow an act of sexual assault; in a wisely unseen moment,…

There’s something rather ironic in Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn describing Warren Adler‘s novel The War of the Roses as “Terrifying, black-humored, black-hearted and bristling,” something that many would liken to her own works.  She isn’t wrong, and she would certainly know a thing or two about detailing the deterioration of a once-loving marriage, but…

Taking a break from the horror genre she has so effortlessly cornered over the majority of her exciting career thus far, Samara Weaving exudes her expected charm and badassness as the titular Eenie Meanie in writer/director Shawn Simmons‘ ode to the 70s action movie, an irreverent, fast-paced actioner that blends its comedic thrills with a…

Whilst I absolutely have to hand it to Australian filmmaker Luke Sparke for his inventive genre blend in Primitive War – that being the war-set action film and the dinosaur-centric creature feature – this bloated actioner, overall, never quite finds the right footing in how to successfully execute such a bodacious mash-up. With a requisite…

A pure studio comedy feels like a cinematic rarity these days.  For some reason a genre that no longer feels as if it has confidence in the bigger marketplace that is inside a multiplex, The Naked Gun – the third sequel in the (once again) long running franchise that was birthed nearly 40 years ago…

Forgoing the surrealism that largely laced his previous films (Hereditary, Midsommar, Beau Is Afraid), Ari Aster‘s Eddington is, arguably, his most straightforward film to date.  It’s also likely to be his most divisive. Set in the heat of the pandemic – May 2020, to be exact – the film’s lead focal character, Sherriff Joe Cross…

Despite opening during the pandemic when going to the cinemas wasn’t exactly the easiest excursion, Nobody – released in March of 2021, having been pushed from its original date of August 2020 – managed to (rightfully) fight its way through opposition to relative success; on a $16m budget it earned a solid $57.5m worldwide. It…

On the surface, Hugo Keijzer‘s The Occupant appears as if it’ll be another entrant in the survivalist drama genre, focusing on a young woman, seemingly out of her depth as she battles the elements of an unflinching nature.  The Georgia-Russia border serves as the primary setting, with Ella Balinska‘s Abby serving as Keijzer’s focal point,…

After announcing himself as a horror filmmaker to be reckoned with following his bold 2022 debut Barbarian, it’s understandable that audiences may be entering Zach Cregger‘s sophomore scarer Weapons with a certain level of expectation.  Of course, the rather ambiguous trailers have only added to the overall dread the film suggests, and the trivia nugget…

Cinema, as of late, has really taken advantage of nostalgia and the good faith that audiences will hold onto such and turn out for a years-later legacy sequel.  The last few years alone have given us continuations to such once-dormant properties as Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Scream, Halloween, and I Know…

The heist film genre gives itself away to a multiple of mentalities.  Yet, whether it adopts a more action-based personality or one more comedic, it ultimately plays very much by the same central narrative of a snatch-and-grab job that, more often than not, has its share of obstacles to overcome. The Pickup, the latest heavy-name…

In her real time crime thriller set in a war zone, The Cranes Call, director Laura Warner embeds with war crimes investigator Anya Neistat and her team as they track down a group of survivors bold enough to take a stand against those accused of committing the most heinous crimes of rape, torture and murder…

Dog owners are all too aware of how inherently special the bond is between themselves and their four-legged friend.  Regardless of their size, their age or temperament, it’s a deep connection that forms on either side, and the pooch at the centre of The Friend – a gigantic, droopy-faced Great Dane by the name of…

With such a talented cast and a premise ripe with potential, it truly is a shame that Bride Hard succumbs to Shaina Steinberg‘s lazy, exposition-overloaded script, Andrew MacRitchie‘s inexplicable editing, and Simon West‘s continually pedestrian directing (how he has fallen since Con Air in 1997 should be studied), resulting in an action-comedy that fails on…

Riverside Theatres is currently host to a world-class, spine-tingling production of 1984, an adaptation of George Orwell’s iconic novel by Orson Welles, brought to life by the brilliant Shake & Stir Theatre Co. Even if you’ve never read the book, the themes totalitarian control, surveillance, and the distortion of truth that are so deeply embedded…

It feels inevitable that something like Together will earn comparisons to last year’s The Substance, purely off the fact that the horror it indulges in – that would be the body variety – escalates considerably leading into its wild climax.  Sure, The Substance being a great example of body horror is all well and good,…

Set over the course of one day in a dysfunctional office setting, Another Day in America – as much of a generalisation as it may appear as a title – is an apt description for Emilio Mauro‘s commentative dark comedy, which blends situations both mundane and exaggerated across its 112 minutes, resulting in an oft-uncomfortable,…

In the grand design of 90s horror movies that could manage a certain 2025 resurgence, I Know What You Did Last Summer would, arguably, be not placed too high on a list of likelihoods.  Thank the lords then that writer/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) pitched her version to Sony Pictures, as the filmmaker defies…

If you’ve seen the marketing for the latest Smurfs film – which is serving as a soft reboot of the series, disregarding the live-action features from 2011 and 2013, and the animated retooled “sequel” from 2017 – you would notice that they’ve been very much banking on the voice casting of Rihanna as Smurfette.  There’s…

A friend coming group together is a tried and true concept when it comes to situational comedy, and whilst writer/director Deena Kashper isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel with her ensemble laugher Nuked, she gives enough of her reflective humour and narrative hook a distinct personality that we’re happy to go along for the ride; which,…

Similar to fellow DC Comic mainstay Batman, the character of Superman has had his share of big screen iterations (one could argue too many at this point) over the years, with no less than four different actors across as many intended franchises; disregarding the Superman serial series of the late 1940s and early 1950s with…