Film & TV

After an impressive debut in Australia with Titanic, which saw over 1000 guests transported back to 1912 in an immersive, authentic recreation, Beyond Cinema have announced their second Sydney immersive cinema experience: The Great Gatsby, as well as a debut in Melbourne for another classic. The Gatsby experience will be set in an exclusive Sydney mansion, as…

There’s something incredibly sweet about Lady Bird, without having the film push into over-sentimental territory. That in itself is a remarkable achievement for Greta Gerwig, who in her directorial debut has turned in an endearing and sincere coming-of-age story that, although quite monotone, springs to life with particularly powerful performances from two female actors of…

Last year, I wrote about how classic remasters are effectively ‘killing the business’. Yet when Sony announced its MediEvil remaster, I was forced to eat my own words — the pure excitement overrode any concerns about the dangers of nostalgia.

Six weeks after its release, fighting off Jumanjis and Star Wars, The Greatest Showman sits atop the Australian box office with an impressive $1.6 million. The uplifting musical opened in cinemas on Boxing Day, and has earned a whopping $26.6 million since its initial release. To leverage this success, the film is already lining itself up…

Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Prometheus) has been cast in the upcoming psychological thriller Angel of Mine, directed by Kim Farrant (Strangerland). Set in Melbourne, Angel of Mine follows a mother still struggling to cope with the loss of her daughter, becoming obsessed with a stranger’s daughter she believes to actually be her own. As her obsession…

When Black Panther was announced the film was automatically destined to bear the hopes and aspirations of many. There was whispers of it finally bringing some long needed diversity to both the MCU and the film landscape. Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler would need to bring his A-game and with this film he’s successful in…

Marvel’s Jessica Jones is set to return to Netflix for a second season,  as its March release date is confirmed and a new trailer graces our screens. With arch-nemesis Kilgrave gone, Jessica finds that an exit from the world of vigilante justice isn’t as easy as she anticipated, as her disturbed past drags her back into a world…

Entertainment One, Seville International and Screen Australia in association with Create NSW have announced that Bryan Brown (Breaker Morant, Dirty Deeds) Sam Neil (Jurassic Park), Greta Scacchi (The Entertainer) and Jaqueline McKenzie (The 4400) will star in the upcoming film Palm Beach. The film will be written by acclaimed playwright Joanna Murray-Smith (Honour, The Female of the Species) and be directed by the celebrated Australian…

When the Solo: A Star Wars Story trailer dropped recently, everyone had one name on their lips. Lando. It’s not that people weren’t excited about seeing a young Han, or finding out how he met Chewie, or seeing the maiden flight of a surprisingly clean Millennium Falcon. It’s that there he was. Lando frigging Calrissian….

Moscow, 1953: when tyrannical dictator Joseph Stalin drops dead, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to be the next Soviet leader. Among the contenders are the dweeby Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), the wily Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), and the sadistic secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale). But as they…

The new Netflix film The Cloverfield Paradox has had something of a remarkable life. In an unprecedented (yet perhaps inevitable) move, the streaming service dropped the film right after the Super Bowl on Monday, having only officially announced it during that very event. Since it was released, numerous articles and reddit threads have emerged, trying…

With Gurrumul, director Paul Damien Williams has created a striking and emotive portrait of one of Australia’s greatest musical talents – Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. But more than that, Gurrumul also affords us all a glimpse into the cultural life and traditions of the Yolngu people in North Eastern Arnhem Land, in what are some of…

Under Taika Waititi’s imaginative direction and influence, Thor: Ragnarok single-handedly innovated Marvel’s Thor franchise forever. Waititi’s refreshing exploration with the established Thor-lore while expanding Thor: Ragnarok’s artistic palette by mixing New Zealand humour, unique scene-stealing characters and eye-catching visuals earned him acclaim from critics and fans alike. Before going behind the camera for Marvel, however,…

Fans of Michael Haneke and, in particular, his earlier works should take a swift and immediate liking to Happy End and stick with the patient-testing film throughout. It’s a cynical, pointed and rather sharp jab at the hypocrisy, selfishness and tragedy of droll middle-class life; well-made, beautifully acted and painstakingly (sometimes painfully) complex, although the…

As we approach the 2018 addition SXSW Film Festival over in Austin, Texas the full program for the festivals’ 25th anniversary is still taking shape. We already gave you a nice look at some of the highlights of the program in its initial stages, but that list may need a big update sometime soon because…

Do you prefer red roses or black crosses? Chocolate kisses or ice-cream pints? Would you rather spend the night with hopeless romantic Bridget Jones or seductive housewife Mrs Robinson? This Valentine’s Day, whether you are celebrating being in love or quite the opposite, Universal Sony selection of classic Valentine’s Day or anti-Valentine’s Day films will…

Their lawless years are behind them. Their child-rearing years lay ahead… Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter leave us in stitches in the classic Raising Arizona, the next installment of In The House on Feb 16th at 7pm at Event Cinemas George St in Sydney. Tickets are only $15 (or $12 if you’re a Cinebuzz member) and…

As inconsistent and creaky as the old floorboards of this film’s generic haunted house, Insidious: The Last Key is a tired though mildly inspired jolt to a franchise that could never quite match the far superior universe of The Conjuring. The fourth entry, and supposed swan song, for the Insidious series hinges itself firmly on…

Good news for fans of the stellar XCOM series – 2K and Firaxis Games have just announced the release of the XCOM 2 Collection, which features all four DLC packs and the latest expansion, War of the Chosen for Windows PC, macOS and Linux.

Not so long ago, in a galaxy pretty close, on a planet called Earth we saw the release of Cloverfield. Ten-Years-Ago to be precise. It was a hit at the time, unique with its clever use of found footage that had not been done to death (just yet). With J.J. Abrams producing and Matt Reeves…

Helen Mirren stars in Winchester, a chilling tale inspired by true events at the most haunted house in history. Appearing in cinemas nationally February 22, Winchester will take audiences inside the labyrinthine mansion and the troubled mind of a grieving widow. To celebrate its upcoming release we’ve got TEN double passes to give away to…

In Yakuza 6, you can put a dude’s head into a microwave at a convenience store and have the store assistant fry him to death with the push of a button. Aside from being wildly impractical and likely causing lifelong trauma for all involved, the fatality underscores the inherent wildness and absurd humour of the…

The 25th South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas has announced the first 132 features we can expect to see in its lineup this year, with The Quiet Place set to open the festival, directed by an alumni of The Office. Across the festival’s nine days, no less than 132 features will be…

You may think the Super Bowl is an exciting day for NFL fans, and you’d be right. But did you also know that’s an exciting day for movie and television fans!? Film trailers have been known to appear all throughout the big day, so without further ado, let’s look at the trailers you may have…

After being rumoured for years, and first known under the title “God Particle”, the third film set in the Cloverfield universe has been released today on Netflix in a surprise move from Paramount Pictures, who had long planned the film for a cinematic release. The film, which we now know is called The Cloverfield Paradox,…

Wolfenstein II‘s latest DLC, The Diaries of Agent Silent Death, came out recently on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. It’s the second DLC out of a scheduled three, available with the Freedom Chronicles Season Pass or the Digital Deluxe Edition of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

Here at The Iris we’re quite fond of attending pop culture and comic conventions. We’ve been regularly covering Australian events for the last few years now. However this year we’re setting our sights on events abroad and looking to check out what our international compatriots have to offer. Across the ditch our New Zealand neighbours…

Heist films are a dime-a-dozen these days. They’re the ones that fit the “put people on a mission” genre, starring a well known ensemble cast, who have been given an exciting plot where cast chemistry, filmmaking chops and fun storytelling mix together to make an entertaining night out for cinemagoers. If you think of the…

I must be a really bad film critic since I have realised another error of my ways. After other mistakes, like never seeing a Agnes Varda film before until Faces Places, here’s another I must confess and rectify: I have never seen any of the works of Daniel Day-Lewis. Considered to be the best actor…

It has been 15 years since Queer Eye For The Straight Guy graced our TV screens. Fast forward to 2018 and the show has been rebooted and will be exclusively streamed on Netflix. A new cast of handy men will doll out advice, sass and free make-overs for those that need it most. We run…