Returning to the genre that arguably brought him to fruition, Gore Verbinski’s (The Ring) A Cure For Wellness is a decidedly morbid slice of cinema that revels in its own jarring weirdness. Here’s a film that has considerable monetary backing (something of a surprise for a particularly eerie horror experiment) yet comes off more like…
Having made something of an underground name for himself in the horror genre with such European productions as Creep, Triangle, and Black Death, British filmmaker Christopher Smith opted out for a brief moment to helm some TV work and an out-of-character holiday-themed comedy; Get Santa with Jim Broadbent and Warwick Davis, for those playing along…
Star Trek: Discovery is set to Launch at full warp speed towards the end of the year, as CBS sets the air date to September 25th on Netflix in Australia and worldwide (Excluding the U.S. and Canada where it will air on CBS) only a day after its U.S. air date. Excellent news, not only…
Saying the Supanova Comic Con & Gaming Expo is a little more than a nerd and geek fest is pulling far too short a straw for the event; rather, it is one rich with amazing artists and cosplayers (one and the same usually), TV and film stars, authors and exhibitors from all over the world. It…
The Oscar and BAFTA winning Hacksaw Ridge is leading the impressive line-up of nominees for the 50th Annual AWGIE Awards, announced this morning by the Australian Writers’ Guild. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2017, this year’s AWGIE Awards will be presented across 19 individual categories including feature film, television, documentary, theatre, animation and interactive media…
From the first scene, GLOW‘s feminist message is openly clear. Aspiring actor Ruth Wilder (Community alum Alison Brie) is auditioning for a role as company boss “Mel”, opening the series by delivering a sombre monologue. After finishing, she explains that she is grateful for the opportunity because “there are not roles like this for women”, yet…
In our first impressions piece of American Gods we examined why this show even in its first episode had the makings of being one of the hot new television series for 2017. Adapted from the Neil Gaiman book of the same name, helmed by showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green and starring a ridiculously talented…
Before I get into this review, let’s get this out of the way. Ever since I first saw one of his films on SBS, I’ve been a huge fan of Jackie Chan, due to his incredible dexterity, creative fight choreography, amazing stuntwork and his likable aw-shucks persona. But like every action hero, the thing that…
The Young Karl Marx (Le jeune Karl Marx) is a bio-pic that feels authentic because it captures the period well in a visual sense. But you also get the feeling that it is only telling a part of the story and not least because it is all about Karl Marx’s youth. This dramatic film is…
Ewen Bremner is a calm and thought provoking actor who has seen a broad variety of roles over the years in stage, TV (My Name is Earl, The Lost Room) and the silver screen (Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Trainspotting 1 & 2, Wonder Woman). Some of the best characters Ewen portrays are very left…
It has been an extremely busy few weeks for The Iris, with the video game world stuck in the lunacy of E3, Supanova in Sydney and the Sydney Film Festival, we have finally calmed down a little and sunk back into some great couch time with some excellent TV and it gave me some time…
Whilst animation in film has evolved immensely over the last 20 years, there’s something immediately charming about Phantom Boy‘s deliberately flat and simple palleted aesthetic. It may lack the emotional weight of the technically more refined Pixar offerings, but this film’s distinct look feels organically melded to its somber mentality. Coming courtesy of French directing…
Based on a memoir by American writer James Lord and adapted for the screen by actor Stanley Tucci, Final Portrait is a concise passion project with committed performances and evident production care that sadly doesn’t overcome its bland setting. Anchored by a wonderful turn from Geoffrey Rush as eccentric painter Giacometti, this dramedy of sorts…
To help celebrate the release of Baby Driver, Stars Ansel Elgort and Lily James will join writer-director Edgar Wright in Sydney for the Australian Premiere. The premiere will take place on Wednesday 12th July, 2017 at Event Cinemas, George St. The trio will walk the red carpet, before joining Australian director George Miller on stage to introduce…
In Home Again, Reese Witherspoon stars as a recently divorced single mother whose life is complicated with the addition of three young men coming to live with her, just after her 40th Birthday. Witherspoon is joined by the likes of Nat Wolff and Michael Sheen for this romantic comedy, which hits US cinemas in September….
Acclaimed Indigenous Australian director, writer and performer Leah Purcell has been awarded the 2017 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award at last night’s closing of the Sydney Film Festival. The award follows a huge year for Leah, from adapting and starring in the theatre adaptation of acclaimed Australian novel The Drover’s Wife, with which she won the…
The Sydney Film Festival has come to a close for another year – and with it come all the great memories of the films that surprised us, inspired us and left us wishing the event would never end. Alas, it has – but here are five films we’re taking away with us as the best…
“100” just may be the best episode Fear the Walking Dead has done to date. Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) was always one of the more interesting characters – that isn’t saying much though – in the show, up until the point where the writers made the terrible decision to randomly send him into “crazy” mode…
Powershop and the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) are inviting filmmakers, and anyone in the filmmaking spirit, to create a short film for the inaugural Powershorts Film Comp in Australia. To enter, contestants must shoot a film using only their smartphones, keep it anywhere between 10 sec and 3 mins and it must include the…
Last night’s Closing Gala for the 2017 Sydney Film Festival saw an array of diverse Australia films and talent receive distinctions, as well as the Australian premiere of highly-anticipated Netflix Original Film Okja as the 64th Festival came to a close. The prestigious Sydney Film Prize was awarded to Ildikó Enyedi‘s intriguing love story On Body and Soul, while…
A song is as song except when it’s a Terrence Malick film. The famous director’s latest experimental offering is an absolute waste in that it is all show and no substance. It weaves together cameos from famous A-list creatives and a cast of Hollywood’s finest actors and then it does nothing. Absolutely nothing. For 129…
Okja is a film involving a giant mutated pig. What more do you want? But seriously, in order to understand the hype of the film, you have to know the filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho. Bong Joon-Ho is an acclaimed Korean filmmaker who has made some incredible films. And the reason he is so acclaimed is his…
The story of The Go-Betweens had previously been largely untold save for Robert Forster’s autobiography, Grant & I. But the film, The Go-Betweens: Right Here is set to change that. It’s a wonderful music documentary that plays out like a love letter to a seminal, Australian band. It also dives head-first into the melodrama, adventure,…
Fans of off-kilter comedy should find something of value in Jeff Baena’s quirky spoof The Little Hours, a play on the 14th-century Giovanni Boccaccio novella The Decameron. With hefty doses of witchcraft, torture, and pan-sexuality peppered throughout the script, it’s not hard to see some viewers being confounded by Baena’s film just as much as those…
Thoroughly engaging, immensely poignant, and remarkably evocative, Call Me By Your Name functions as both a coming-of-age tale and a love story, likely to surprise viewers as to where it travels on both accounts. Based on the novel by Andre Aciman, and co-penned for the screen by director Luca Guadagnino (A Bigger Splash), James Ivory…
It would have been too easy for a film like Una to result in something unreservedly perfunctory. The fable of the abuse victim confronting her perpetrator has been depicted more than one would wish to count, and the argument can be made that a fair share wishes to portray the subject matter no more than…
Having proven his worth as a screenwriter with both Hell or High Water and Sicario, Wind River serves as scribe Taylor Sheridan’s directorial debut. Arguably arriving with high expectations, Sheridan’s tight, often brutal thriller proves his workings with such professionals as David Mackenzie and Denis Villeneuve has paid off, showcasing an ease behind the lens…
The sequel to the 2015 smash comedy Daddy’s Home has received its first trailer and it’s a star studded affair that’s shaping up to be hilarious. Sean Anders directs again as Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) and Brad (Will Ferrell) join forces to provide their kids with the perfect Christmas. Their newfound partnership is put to the test when…
Making his directorial debut, penning the script and holding the starring role, Austrian actor Josef Hader has impressed festivals around the world with the dark comedy Wild Mouse – which has had its Australian premiere this week as part of the Sydney Film Festival. The film stars Hader as Georg, a classical music critic who…
Audacious is definitely the right word to start with when it comes to describing the Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie-directed Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves. At 180 minutes, it’s a leviathan of a film that often comes across as equal parts provocative and indecipherable. The central narrative here centers on…
