2018 marks the 75th anniversary of the oldest film festival in the world. Once again, Venice invites motion pictures and filmmakers from all over the world to participate in the annual show. The Festival, which premieres some of the year’s biggest films and hottest Oscar contenders, is running until the 8th of September. Here’s a look…
Although The Miseducation of Cameron Post‘s 1993 setting may have people believe that the gay conversion camps at the film’s centre are a thing of the past, and therefore easy to mock as a symbol of how backwards society’s thoughts on therapy was, this treatment is still sadly legal in a large number of American…
When any television show enters its fifth season, they can begin to suffer with the fear of repeating old storylines or struggle with finding new, compelling ones to keep audiences engaged. Luckily, this isn’t the case for BoJack Horseman. Saddle up, because the anticipated fifth season proves that the popular Netflix animated show hasn’t run…
Already so far this year we have witnessed numerous animated films making an appearance in cinemas, the long-awaited Incredibles 2 being just one. But what about the rest of the year, you ask? Rest assured, because we here at the AU review have you covered. In this article we’ll disclose five more animated films you’re likely to…
Australian cinema has produced some of the finest comedy the screen has ever seen. But the romantic comedy genre is not a territory we Aussies explore particularly well. For every groundbreaking example like last year’s sublime Ali’s Wedding, there’s something as generically safe as The Flip Side, the debut feature film from producer-turned-writer/director Marion Pilowsky. There’s nothing…
Oh, look! We have another Berg-er joint coming in cinemas! Mile 22 is the fourth collaboration between actor Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg after the three dramatic films that were based on true stories i.e. the biographical war drama Lone Survivor, the disaster film Deepwater Horizon and the crime drama Patriots Day. All of…
Once scorned, we return. After months of speculation, the highly anticipated trailer for the third season of HBO’s True Detective has arrived, leaving viewers wondering, can the show redeem itself? When True Detective first hit our screens in 2014 it was a critically acclaimed success. Starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, the first season of…
A film like Crazy Rich Asians is a long time coming. For the past 25 years, since the release of Wayne Wang‘s expansive drama, The Joy Luck Club, there haven’t been a lot of films in the Hollywood system that featured Asian-Americans in substantial roles; let alone managed to assemble a talented ensemble cast. Whilst, the…
It takes quite some time before Kin ramps into its intergalactic promise, with Aussie directors Jonathan and Josh Baker stretching their indie short Bag Man into an odd hybrid feature to try thin the chunky line between on-the-road family drama and sci-fi. And while the uneven plot can be frustrating to witness as it slowly…
Ziad Doueiri’s Oscar nominated film, The Insult (L’insulte) could be called Pride & Prejudice. This isn’t because this Lebanese drama has anything to do with Jane Austen. Rather, it is because this film is all about how one minor conflict between two men escalates because of a combination of hubris and hatred. It seems that…
Two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) will lead an all-star cast in the upcoming Stan Original series Bloom. The six-part drama series from Playmaker will be distributed by Sony with principal funding from Screen Australia. The all-star cast will also include Bryan Brown (The Light Between Oceans, Red Dog True Blue), Phoebe Tonkin…
Streaming service Amazon Prime Video have just shown off the first footage from the anticipated third season of their critically acclaimed series The Man in the High Castle. Based on author Phillip K. Dick’s award-winning alternate history novel, The Man in the High Castle paints a daunting picture, placing the axis powers in a state of…
Recently nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score), Cindy O’Connor has just ended a seven year run composing music for the TV series Once Upon a Time. We caught up with the composer to look back on the series, learn more about her and talk about the fact…
Six Australian films have been chosen for the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). As one of the biggest publicly attended film festivals the TIFF has close ties to the US film industry. This poses a good chance of expanding the range of Australian film making to a world-wide audience, like former Toronto premieres (e.g….
Jane Fonda is a legend of the small and big screen with a career spanning 60+ years. From Barbarella and Klute and The Dollmaker to her one woman fitness empire to championing the #MeToo movement, Fonda has earned her iconic status. Jetting in to Australia to promote the release of her new film Book Club…
After its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, the new feature Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Boy was released on 220 Australian cinema screens last week, making it the biggest documentary release since Michael Jackson’s This Is It back in 2009, and the biggest ever release for an Australian documentary. From acclaimed director Mark Joffe (Jack…
Before Melissa McCarthy’s involvement essentially fast-tracked The Happytime Murders into production, the dark comedy had languished in development limbo for the good part of decade with both Cameron Diaz and Katherine Heigl attached at various moments as potential headliners. With the final product now upon us, McCarthy’s penchant for vanity-free comedy feels like the most…
Production has officially begun on Disney’s live-action adaptation of the 1998 animated classic coming of age story, Mulan. This marks yet another live-action adaptation for Disney, which found massive success in the recently adapted Beauty and the Beast. The film will shoot in various locations in New Zealand and China and will open in cinemas…
ABC and Screen Australia have announced four short-form documentary projects have received funding through ABC and Screen Australia’s Art Bites Initiative. This initiative is currently in its third year, encouraging filmmakers to produce a total of 6 x 5-minute documentary series for ABC’s online viewing platform ABC iView, based around art. Each team will receive…
Aussie Chasing Comets stars Dan Ewing, Stan Walker, Rhys Muldoon, Beau Ryan, Kat Hoyos and George Houvardas and Producer/Writer, Jason Stevens walked the red carpet of the the former NRL star’s highly-anticipated NRL/AFL comedy drama, which is in cinemas now. Nathan Atkins hit the premiere and brought us back these photos:
In cinemas next week, the new film KIN will hit cinemas in Australia and the USA; continuing the trend of underdog sci-fi that has returned to popularity thanks to Stranger Things (the producers of which also produced this project). The film is the debut feature from NYC-based Aussie directors Jonathan and Josh Baker, whose short film…
You can imagine the meeting. “We need a film for the grey-dollar à la Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” “How about a story involving a book club? Older women like those.” “Sure, but let’s make it into a rom-com.” “We need to include sex because that sells.” “But they might be a bit old for Sex…
After two seasons chasing the notorious Cali Cartel leader Pablo Escobar the DEA finally caught up with him. The rules have changed and now they’re after his successors. With Escobar out of the way business is booming for the cartel, on their way to becoming the biggest cocaine trafficker in history. Follow Agent Pena’s (Pedro…
The coming-of-age story, Breath is based on the acclaimed, Tim Winton novel of the same name. It is about two adolescent boys named Pikelet and Loonie who learn to surf thanks to a chance meeting with a former professional named Sando (Simon Baker). The film has just been released on Blu-ray and features several hours…
The secret’s out about the excellent drama/thriller series, Mystery Road. It’s actually a gripping, Australian detective story that sees the character, Jay Swan reprised from Ivan Sen’s films, Mystery Road and Goldstone. This time around the crime takes place in the small outback town of Patterson where the locals are elusive and tight-lipped about what…
Mandy is a crazy two-hour LSD trip led by a totally unhinged Nicolas Cage performance. The film follows Red (Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) who live a peaceful life in the Pacific Northwest, that is until a religious cult barge in and rob Red of the love of his life, sending the man on a…
If you’ve ever been on BuzzFeed and wondered what a day-in-the-life of one of their reporters is like, then think no more. Netflix’s Follow This is a short-form docuseries that looks at the weird and wonderful stories investigated by this famed website while showing the journalists hard at work. Here are five things you need…
6 years after The Hunger Games lead the charge of YA dystopia book to film adaptations, a new contender has appeared in an attempt to revive the genre. Adapted from the Alexandra Brooks’ series of the same name, The Darkest Minds combines young adult fiction dystopia with superpowers. When a disease wipes out 90% of…
Spike Lee is quite clearly fired up as he scatters sharp, defiant dialogue all through BlacKKKlansman, his first feature film since 2015’s good-but-uneven Chi-Raq and without a doubt one of his best works to date. That is no overstatement either, with Lee directing a big middle finger to the racism both explicit and implicit, by…
From the producers of Stranger Things, and Arrival comes Kin a gripping crime thriller with a sci-fi twist. Chased by a vengeful criminal and a gang of otherworldly soldiers, a recently released ex-con and his adopted teenage brother are forced to go on the run after finding a futuristic super-weapon of mysterious origin as their only…
