Film & TV

Written & Directed by John Michael McDonagh (The Guard & Calvary) the hilariously dark comedy War on Everyone follows corrupt cops Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård) and Bob Bolaño (Michael Peña) as they break the law for a living in New Mexico. Terry is an alcoholic who loves Glen Campbell, and Bob is a closet intellectual who…

April is shaping up to be an absolute cracker for Sydney peeps. The For Film’s Sake Festival (formerly WOW) runs from April 26th to 30th. You’d be hard pressed to find a more interesting and innovative festival in Australia. Determined to help overcome the gross disparity in the Australian Film Industry, FFS showcases female and…

Not surprising that the great reviews, great publicity and release around the school holiday period for Beauty And The Beast has earned this another no. 1 spot for this week.  Generating $4.96m, it has also made a total of $34m since its premiere.  It’s already the biggest release of the year so far, and has even beaten Disney’s biggest earner…

In this modern age we live in, there’s no doubt in my mind that games today are as good as they have ever been. This is not to suggest that the importance of games that came before are diminished, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for instance is and will remain a classic, but rather a way…

Nacho Vigalondo has always been an exciting filmmaker for me. Ever since I saw his first feature film Timecrimes, I’ve always wanted to see more of this work. His handling of genre film and melding it with themes of humanity or topical themes has always fascinated and thrilled me. Timecrimes was a great time-travel film that…

The question a film critic often wants to ask, but is discouraged from for fear of offending someone, is why make this film? The answer is, more often than not, “because now was the right time.” And for Denial, this is most certainly true. In a world of newly termed ‘disenfranchised voters’ that are seemingly comfortable…

Formerly known as the MTV Movie Awards, all the details have been revealed about the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards, set to be held in Los Angeles on May 8th at 10am, Sydney time. This year’s host will be Workaholics‘ Adam Devine, who takes over from last year’s duo Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson….

This week, I was given a preview of the newest attraction at the Sydney Royal Easter Show – VR Land, a virtual reality experience with a host of different and exciting games. The set up at the Easter Show features several double-cabin egg pods, as well as single or three-person pods, and smaller game-based machines…

While in Austin last month, we caught up with Michael Bonfiglio, co-director of May It Last: A Portrait of The Avett Brothers (the much loved US band) with Judd Apatow. We spoke about premiering the film at the iconic SXSW festival and working with (and discovering) the band across the album three years it took…

As we now roll into Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe we are pulled to the beginning of one character’s story. Doctor Strange is Marvel’s step back to delivering an origin story for a new superhero but in some ways this film is a giant leap forward in universe building. It’s hard to fathom…

Naoko Yamada’s A Silent Voice is an authentic and delicate coming-of-age story exploring a tale of romance and redemption. The animation is based on the manga series of the same name from 2013-2014 by Yoshitoki Ōima. A Silent Voice provides a fruitful outlook on the future of Japanese anime, and its success in western markets,…

Lucian Msamati (Luther, Game of Thrones, NT Live: The Comedy of Errors) plays Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s iconic play Amadeus, captured live from the National Theatre, with orchestral accompaniment by Southbank Sinfonia, with cinematic screenings set to take place around the country. So what do you need to know about the play? As the name…

Take direction from New Zealand’s Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople), film in Australia and add cast members like Australia’s Cate Blanchett and the one and only Jeff Goldblum, then consider the strong track record of the last two Thor standalone films, and the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok has just…

Poor Maureen (Kristen Stewart). Her boss, Kyra (Nora von Waldstätten) is impossible, sending her all over Europe for clothes and shoes she is too rich and famous to buy for herself. On top of that, her twin brother died a few months ago, and he still hasn’t contacted her from the beyond, even though he…

Director Kelly Reichardt‘s (Meek’s Cutoff) award-winning latest release Certain Women, starring Michelle Williams, Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart, will be exclusively screening at selected venues later this month. ACMI will also be screening a limited season of Reichardt’s previous works, including Meek’s Cutoff,  Wendy and Lucy and Old Joy, to be screened on 35mm film. ACMI…

In our final instalment, we’re looking at some of the more obscure, lesser known and forgotten titles that never got the chance to show off what made them so special. While many mourn the loss of blockbuster games, there are often great video games from smaller studios that slip under the radar and are never heard…

Recently released photos of Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider film have sparked much attention and interest for the newest in a long line of video game films. By their very nature, video game films spark scepticism, and a hefty dose of it already accompanies the release of the film. The…

For the third year in a row Hal Laboratory has developed a Box Boy title for the 3DS, each time adding fresh and fun ways to navigate each level. The current iteration, Bye-Bye Box Boy is as addictive as the former games and if it’s possible, even cuter.

The 64th Sydney Film Festival has unveiled itself today as it divulged a plethora of juicy details, including 28 prominent new films to be featured and the first of over 150 Festival guests. First though, the event has announced a brand new location for the festival. The SFF will now take place in Randwick’s iconic…

After proving himself a competent director and screenwriter with the rather modest (at least in comparison) action/comedy Hit & Run in 2012, Dax Shepard unfortunately fails to pair the aforementioned genres together again with CHiPs, an extremely loose adaptation of the popular 1977 television series, which attempts to blend sordid humour with high-grade action and…

Sonos have never seen themselves as leaders in “doing things first”, rather, as the kings of “doing things right”. They seem to live by an adage of the past: the idea that a company can exist on key products – not a slate of “let’s see what sticks and what fails” merchandise – that are…

Last month at SXSW, the documentary Muppets Guys Talking: Secrets Behind the Show the Whole World Watched premiered to much jubilation. The film is exactly as the name implies: some of the team behind the original Muppets (as well as Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street and others), got together to talk about their time on the…

The For Film’s Sake Festival (formerly WOW), a film festival focused on showcasing female and minority filmmakers to help thrive within the Australian Film Industry has released its 2017 program. Running later this month in Sydney, FFS will be screening various international and domestically produced films made by female-identifying artists and other minority groups, including…

Last week Ford held their Future with Ford Innovation Forum where industry leaders and innovators sought to highlight emerging trends and future technologies of drive innovation and next-gen vehicle development. Following that, Ford has announced they are exploring the potential of implementing augmented and virtual reality in their marketing and shopping processes. These new digital interactions could allow the…

Outcast, originally a comic published by Image Comics and created by Robert Kirkman and artist Paul Azaceta, is another Robert Kirkman TV creation that is slowly taking the world by storm. It may be a TV show that has a much smaller scale than Kirkman’s The Walking Dead series, but hey, even I remember watching…

Set in Chile, Madre follows wife and mother Diana (Daniela Ramirez). Pregnant with her second child and caring for her disabled son, Martin (Matias Bassi), Diana struggles daily with running the household; her husband Tomas (Cristobal Tapia Montt) is often away on business in Asia. Just as we’re about to see how much more she can…

One More Time With Feeling, the feature film about the making of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ acclaimed album Skeleton Tree, and surprise box office hit, has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray (including a special 3D release). Directed by Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford), One More…

Disney’s new live action version of Beauty And The Beast is at the top of the box office ladder again this week. Although it only made $7.74m this time around (last week it made $13m), its total earnings since its premiere is $26.15m, and, at the rate it’s travelling, is now likely to be one…

More a celebration of drag culture than a heavy-handed expose, Divine Divas proves a fascinating watch as it allows a peak behind the curtains of one of Brazil’s first establishments to showcase men dressed as women. In 1960’s Rio de Janeiro, the Rival Theatre – under the forward thinking of Americo Leal – was one…

Dance Academy was one of the shows that defined by teenage years. I was by no means a dancer; yet the representation of real, raw teenage issues was presented in an Australian spotlight – especially on a network that was rather lukewarm at the time (ABC3, now branded as ABCME) was addictive for an entire…