The ghosts of never-ending war and destruction haunt Rusudan Glurjidze’s
Akihiko Shiota’s Wet Woman in the Wind is a feature-length manhunt, set into motion by Shiori (Yuki Mamiya) riding her bike into the sea. She emerges as she entered, focused and unwavering, locking on to Kosuke (Tasuku Nagaoka), a playwright in pursuit of celibacy. Shiota’s film develops into a playful take on a Japanese sub-genre…
At first glance, I’m tempted to drum up some connection or parallel between You Have No Idea How Much I Love You and last year’s Europe, She Loves. Both are European documentaries that engross themselves utterly in their subjects and return with captivating insights into modern humanity. However, aside from the size of its ambitions,…
Out of all the cinematic genres, horror is, in my opinion, the best outlet for creative storytelling. Whether in a metaphorical sense, a symbolic sense, or just nuts-and-bolts mainstream filmmaking, horror can engage, thrill, scare and surprise, regardless of what it looks like on the outside. Case in point, David Cronenberg‘s The Fly. With a…
Fundamentally there is much about Sami Blood that cinema has seen many times over, though for her debut feature writer-director Amanda Kernell has delivered a uniquely complex and painfully relevant coming-of-age while also shedding light on the largely unknown indigenous population of Swedish Lappland. A film of cultural identity and great pain, the prodigiously talented…
At first glance, the logline for Ingrid Goes West can sound a bit twee, tacky or hyperbolic. In the wrong hands, this feels like a film that could easily have come off the wrong way. However, it’s to the credit of director Matt Splicer that it feels less like a lecture from your parents more…
This is not a love song- it’s a review of Public Image Limited’s (PiL) documentary. The film, The Public Image Is Rotten is one that focuses on John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten AKA the band’s one mainstay (just like The Cure’s Robert Smith). It shows an outspoken and spiky man who has tempered through age…
Adapting her own novel for the big screen, German author-director Helen Hegemann makes a polished feature debut with Axolotl Overkill. Pulse firmly on the rapid strobe-lit streets of Berlin, the film is very much a muse on teenage excess and independence, as self-destructive as in can be, with an assured sense of style and impressive…
A Modern Man is a documentary about a handsome, contemporary classical violinist named Charlie Siem. But who is Messer Siem? Unfortunately that question is not really answered in this film because this British-Norwegian musician puts up a wall that is largely impenetrable. This film is directed by Eva Mulvad (The Good Life). It begins with…
When you consider the name Winnie Mandela do you think of the mother of a nation or a terrorist? The documentary, Winnie tends to sit in the former camp by telling this woman’s history and story from her own point-of-view. It’s fascinating to hear her out and this documentary is a long overdue one, but…
With its arrival slated for the end of the month, Netflix has released the first official trailer for its upcoming psychological drama Gypsy starring Naomi Watts. And while the program appears to imbue the similar qualities of Netflix’s celebrated original programming, this trailer promises something far more lurid with its material when compared to the various…
The first teaser trailer for Marvel’s Black Panther aired today during game four of the NBA finals and it looks nothing short of glorious. After Chadwick Boseman‘s initial portrayal of the titular hero in last year’s Captain America: Civil War, the character’s first stand-alone feature holds a heavy emphasis to his fictitious home land of Wakanada, a hidden…
The Untamed, Amat Escalante’s oddball genre film built with space monsters and sexual tension, could have worked just as well as a dysfunctional family drama. The eccentric Mexican director has packed a lot into his fourth feature, an instantly memorable and incredibly unique piece that understands its best possible tension comes from contrasting a heady…
In a world where fashion can be fickle and disposable a designer like Dries van Noten is a gem. The Belgian designer has spent over three decades in the business and remans fiercely independent when other fashion houses have allowed themselves to be bought out. He rallies against the notion of fast fashion and strives…
One of Australia’s top leading film and TV actors, Hugo Weaving is not a name you forget. With so much versatility and strength in every role he takes on, it’s hardly surprising he is a household name throughout the world. From his 1994 role as Tick (or Mitzi if you prefer) in Priscilla Queen of The Desert…
It’s the late 1970’s Venice California is the birthplace of a new go-to trend, roller-dancing, and a group of young roller skaters, almost all exclusively African-American, are about to bring it to the people. Documentary film Roller Dreams takes a look at this iconic but short-lived group of skaters, the Venice scene in the 80’s…
Based on the Nikolai Leskov novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, itself inspired by the character in Shakespeare’s classic Macbeth, William Oldroyd‘s daring film is far from the period piece one might expect given its title. Tightly pieced together by Alice Birch‘s bold screenplay via a star-making performance from Florence Pugh, Lady Macbeth is a psycho-sexual thriller disguised…
Kiwi filmmaker Florian Habicht jumps from making documentaries about Pulp and demolition derbies to modestly prodding around the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest horror theme park with Spookers, a stylish 85-minute piece that manages to weave together stories of exploitation and therapy amongst a whole heap of (fake) blood, guts and playful vignettes. It’s clear Habicht and…
Steven Spielberg is certainly a busy man. Currently in the midst of a lengthy post-production period for his sci-fi adaptation Ready Player One, the influential director has wasted little time getting his next project off the ground. With Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers film The Papers (previously titled The Post) ambitiously being fast-tracked for an awards-friendly 2017 release. The film has previously…
Whitney Houston was a sure thing, or as sure as the music industry had ever seen. A transcendent talent with pedigree and mentorship to match, she was going to be the greatest female vocalist ever. For a time, she was, and then she all-too-publicly fell short. Documentarian Nick Broomfield and iconic music video director Rudi…
Oz Comic-Con returns with five exciting shows in 2017; the first two earlier this year in Perth and Adelaide being a huge success. And now it’s time for the rest of the country to join in the quest to ‘Unleash Our Inner Geeks’ and celebrate all that is cool, awesome and nerdy at Oz Comic-Con…
Following a packed out screening at last years’ Sydney Film Festival, Hotel Coolgardie garnered national headlines for its depiction of the disturbing experience of two Finnish backpackers who found themselves the latest batch of “fresh meat” sent to work as barmaids at the only pub in a remote Australian mining town. Hotel Coolgardie is a…
Imagine living in a world where you found it impossible to understand your bills, where you couldn’t text people and you had difficulty getting a driver’s licence because you couldn’t pass the Ls test. For around 40-65% of Indigenous Australians this is a reality because they are functionally illiterate. The documentary film, In My Own…
Staying true to their ongoing commitment to acquiring more local content, FX Australia has announced the commission of its first Australian TV series entitled Mr Inbetween. The drama series will be directed by Nash Edgerton (The Square) in his debut as a TV series director. The series is written by Scott Ryan and is based on his critically…
Today marks the Australian release of The Mummy. The Tom Cruise led action flick will be the first film in the newly announced ‘Dark Universe’, a project that will revive Universal’s classic monsters that debuted in the 20’s and 30s’. The likes of Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolf Man and the Invisible Man are all set to…
Right at home in the “Freak Me Out” strand of this year’s Sydney Film Festival, Game of Death is probably more-or-less exactly the film you expect it to be. It’s a simple but fun romp that manages to eke out the most from its wacky premise, despite being held back by structural shortcomings and uneven…
For most things in life we ae encouraged to leave our judgements at the door. But this is not the case for the thrilling, gothic romance, My Cousin Rachel. In this case the lady is a woman of mystery wrapped up in a riddle and topped off by an enigma, which means you are in…
There’s a lot that can happen in 24 hours, and unless you stop and take a moment to let it sink in, you might just miss something magical. From acclaimed actor David Wenham comes his feature film directorial debut with Ellipsis, a film that came together under unusual circumstances but the end result is something…
The prospect of watching a documentary on town planning probably won’t have people tripping over themselves to watch it. But when you realise that the subject of the film, Citizen Jane: Battle For The City helped preserve some significant parts of New York, it’s a different story. This film is a brief but intriguing look…
It’d be an arduous task to contemplate a more significant moment in the history of cinema than that of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful slasher Psycho. As not only would its value of shock go on to define the representation of violence and sex for years onwards, it has definitively etched itself into…
