There aren’t many straightforward, non-Romantic Comedies these days. At least not ones that get a big advertising budget. And generally, when they do, they suffer from juvenile humour, a disappointing, predictable script and scenarios that illicit little more than the occasional giggle. The sorts of movies that cause geniune, belly aching laughter – at least…
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From one brief look at its poster, you very much know what to expect from Safe Haven, the latest film from Dear John director Lasse Hallström, based on a novel from the author of The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks. Even that sentence will tell you all you need to know, let alone the loving embrace of…
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It’s all fun and games until you enrage a pair of witch hunters.
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Every now and then a romantic film comes along that avoids a vast amount of the clichés that plague the majority of the genre (especially from the US). It’s usually a refreshing, entertaining, well produced take on the concept. The latest film to tick these boxes and save us from the romantic tripe that the…
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As we return to Middle Earth, exactly 9 years after Peter Jackson delivered the Academy Award winning climax of his Lord of the Rings trilogy, it goes without saying that a fair few things have changed. We begin in The Shire, Hobbiton, with the familiar Sir Ian Holm as the elderly Bilbo Baggins, telling a…
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The live action adaptation of popular manga series Rurouni Kenshin (aka Samurai X) has proven itself a box office hit in Japan and it seems news travels fast, with original and encore sessions at the 16th Japanese Film Festival screenings selling out. A 45 minute delay caused by technical issues did little to deter an eager crowd, who lined…
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The Japanese Film Festival turns sweet 16 this year, and is screening the latest and greatest Japanese films on offer to celebrate. Slotting into the program is the beautifully crafted anime adventure, Friends: Naki on the Monster Island directed by Takashi Yamazaki and Ryūichi Yagi. Takeichi a naïve boy from a poor village goes in search of an infamous Monster…
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Skyfall lives up to all the expectations I had for the next Bond film courtesy of a clever script, exceptional acting and casting. Plus an even balance of explosive action VS visually stunning cinematography.
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Human Meat Factory is a stop animation short created by Korean born director Anna Han. Aimed at engaging audiences by providing an animal’s perspective of the slaughter industry, the short will be screened as part of the 4th Seoul International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival in Korea and the 6th Sydney Underground Film Festival. At a touch…
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Originally titled El Infierno (aka Hell), Luis Estrada’s black comedy El Narco is a brutally twisted, yet darkly humorous perspective on the political, social and economic impacts of drug trafficking in Mexico. Released on the bicentennial of Mexican Independence Day 2010, the controversial film has found commercial and critical success in its home country despite attempts to stop its…
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Madman Entertainment once again hosted the Reel Anime festival this September, showcasing four upcoming Japanese animated releases. Screenings at Dendy Newtown included the launch of the highly anticipated adaptation of part one of Kentaro Miura’s best-selling Berserk Golden Age Arc trilogy, ‘The Egg of the King’ as directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka (Lunar games). Set in…
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Madman Entertainment once again hosted the Reel Anime Festival this September, showcasing four of the latest and highly anticipated Japanese animated releases. Screenings at Dendy Newtown included Wolf Children, a film directed by Mamoru Hosada (Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), which follows the story of a young lady and her relationship with a wolf man. Nineteen year-old…
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Jack (Mark Duplass) is mourning the loss of his brother. After a mild implosion at a memorial ceremony, his best friend, also his brother’s ex, Iris (Emily Blunt) orders him to some alone time in her father’s cabin in the wintery woods on an Island off Washington State. But Iris’ sister, Hannah (Rosemarie Dewitt), has…
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Kerouac’s classic Beat-generation manifesto On The Road transforms to the big screen in all its pulsing, joyful free-wheeling madness, complete with crazy cats, hustlers, junkies, and poets. Brazilian director Walter Salles (Central Station) and screenwriter Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) deliver a pitch-perfect manifestation of the cult classic, transporting the viewer to the time and…
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The horror of war is painted with devastating clarity in Flowers of War, a historical fiction drama by director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). Set during the 1937 Japanese massacre in Nanjing, under imminent occupation, the city is reduced to dusty rubble and the last remaining citizens are fleeing for their lives amid…
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An Australian-German collaboration by director Cate Shortland (Somersault) and based on Rachel Seiffert’s 2001 Booker Prize short-listed novel ‘The Dark Room’, Lore follows the journey of Lore (Saskia Rosendahl), the daughter of an SS officer at the fall of the Third Reich, forced to flee her home with her four young brothers and sisters when…
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A noir thriller set in grey, low-lit London and based on the Elsa Lewin’s 1990 novel of the same name, I, Anna is the directorial debut of Barnaby Southcomb. Beginning with a series of narrative threads woven together through a mosaic of flashbacks, the film draws on the classic murder mystery genre, with Anna (Charlotte…
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Set in South Africa, Beauty is a sombre meditation on masculinity and sexuality. François (Deon Lotz) is an Afrikaanner family man, who, at the film’s opening is celebrating his daughter’s wedding. He is affluent, ordinary, respected and liked. But, as suggested by the film’s opening shot – a long-angle zoom, ever so slowly drawing in…
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Winner of the Cannes Grand Prix, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia follows the overnight and early morning journey through the wind-swept Anatolian steppes of a group of forensic and law enforcement officers along with two murder suspects in search of a body they buried, but can’t remember where. It’s a long night, and as…
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Set on the eve of the French Revolution (and based on the novel of the same name by Chantal Thomas, winner of French literary award the Prix Femina in 2002), Farewell My Queen, follows a fictional account of the early stages of the monarchy’s epic downfall through the eyes of the court’s peons – specifically…
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Big Easy Express isn’t so much a concert film. It isn’t so much a road movie. It isn’t so much a rock bio. It’s both none and all of the above. I think the best way to desribe it is as a musical odyssey. Big Easy Express beautifully captures the “Railroad Revival Tour”, a 7…
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Over the weekend, the 59th annual Sydney Film Festival wrapped things up with an excellent closing night film and party at the beautiful State Theatre. One of my favourite things about the festival is its inclusion of the classic venue – it’s a joy to see a film as they were watched many decades ago:…
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You might be wondering why you’re seeing film reviews suddenly pop up on the AU review… well, ultimately it’s because of this film. When Hanna was announced as the opening night gala of the 2011 Sydney Film Festival, a film which The Chemical Brothers scored, it dawned on me that there was a whole world…
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Over the course of the next 12 days, I’ll be covering just about anything music related I can get my hands on at the 2011 Sydney Film Festival, in the new segment “Sounds on Screen”. From music docos to soundtracks featuring Calexico, Johnny Greenwood (Radiohead), The Chemical Brothers and more – if it heralds a…
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