Film & TV

There is plenty of real world evidence to suggest that, to a degree, our thoughts and feelings can in some way re-wire our brain. Neuroplasticity is a relatively young field, but an infinitely fascinating one nonetheless; discoveries are being made everyday, many on how our brain evolves for better or for worse and how we…

Based on the true story of Saroo Brierley and his book A Long Way Home, this week’s anticipated release Lion takes its audience on the beautiful, emotional journey of Saroo; lost in India as a young child, raised in Tasmania, forever desperate to find his way back home. Starring Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) as the…

In last week’s episode ‘The Lying Detective’ came the revelation that the Holmes boys have a sister, a shocking bombshell that had eluded us all. Mainly because Mycroft had purposefully kept her existence a secret from Sherlock (and us the viewers). In this week’s episode, those long buried secrets come to the surface, and Sherlock…

“Edge of the Forest”: an apt description of quiet West Otago township Tapanui, the words located underneath it’s welcome signage. On first look, this forestry town on New Zealand’s south island, a few hours east of Queenstown, is no more than a quick stop-off on a road trip through the region’s stunning scenery, which includes…

Animated musical flick Sing did well this week, earning $2.32m at the Australia box office.  In its third week in the cinema and second week at top spot, it’s already earned $22.3 million, although it has dropped in earnings from last week by 33%. Hot on its tail is the live action musical (no animals this time) La La Land, which took…

Fresh from winning Best Picture (Drama) at the Golden Globes, Moonlight is Roadshow Films’ highly anticipated film set for release in cinemas across Australia on January 26th. At once a vital portrait of contemporary African American life and an intensely personal and poetic meditation on identity, family, friendship and love, Moonlight is a ground-breaking piece…

2016 will go down in history for many reasons – but one of its more positive spins was the sheer quality of television that came out of it. Where you could once count the number of great series at any given time on one hand, it’s now impossible to keep up with everything that’s coming…

Last week’s episode ‘The Six Thatchers’ (Series 4 Episode 1) received some mixed reviews in the media. Some were praising, others were less positive. The Guardian’s review even resulted in co-creator and the episode’s writer Mark Gatiss rebutting their critique in verse. The episode for most felt like a step away from the format we’ve…

When 2016 ended, the world, and everyone in galaxies far far away, knew for bloody sure that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was going to blitz the box office.  However, with the release of Christmas and holiday entertainment, this has now slipped down the ladder, making way, this week, for the Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon animated…

Jacqueline Kennedy (Onassis) has been depicted on the silver and small screens before but Jackie is the first film to really capture the complex nature of this remarkable woman. The film is not strictly a biopic in that it only focuses on a number of key events in Kennedy’s life prior to and in the…

The 74th Annual Golden Globes was held in Los Angeles today, with Jimmy Fallon hosting the awards for the first time. The event, which is voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has the unique distinction of celebrating both Film and Television, as well as breaking apart many nominees into “Drama” and “Musical/Comedy” categories….

The 24th annual SXSW Festival has announced its opening night film and a string of world premieres that will help make up the run of screenings that will take the stage in Austin, Texas between March 10th and March 19th, 2017. Starring today’s Golden Globe winner Ryan Gosling, alongside the likes of Cate Blanchett, Christian…

Fans of the popular CW series Supernatural – which launched with the network back in 2006 – will be ecstatic at today’s news that the show will be returning for a record breaking 13th season later this year. It’s the only original scripted show that still airs on the network from its original roster. The…

When NBC cancelled their DC Comics series Constantine in 2015 after just one season and 13 episodes due to poor ratings, many fans were left disappointed by the series premature ending. CW today announced some good news for those fans, however, with the show set to return as a limited animated series on their digital…

With Christmas time comes awards season, and every so often a film comes along that attempts to tackle both markets – deliver a heartfelt drama set around the holidays that will bring people into the cinema after they’ve finished exchanging gifts; while voters cast the film on their award season ballot. Such a forced ploy…

During the parting moments of 2016, a year already marked by the deaths of so many luminaries and childhood favourites, actress Carrie Fisher suffered a cardiac arrest during a transatlantic flight, causing her death four days later on the 27th of December. Her mother, actress and performer Debbie Reynolds, passed the very next day, reportedly leaving with…

The Confirmation plays out like a Sherlock Holmes tale set in a scarce stretch of rural America, with weekend dad Walt (Clive Owen) and his precocious son Anthony (Jaeden Lieberher) spending a murky 24 hours chasing down a stolen tool kit. In the directorial debut from Nebraska writer Bob Nelson, the role of Sherlock and…

We take our annual look back at the best movies of the year, rounding out the 21 best films released in Australian cinemas between January 1st and December 31st, 2016: 21. Captain Fantastic “(Matt) Ross has created a piece that, despite its subtle flaws, is dazzling in its achievements but still beautiful in its imperfections.”…

Right from the opening credits, A Series of Unfortunate Events consistently reminds you this tale is not for the fainthearted.  Author Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton) reiterates as the narrator of the series that the story is dreadful, melancholy and not for those looking for a happy narrative – but for Netflix, the self-aware entertainment bodes a mysterious and…

Teenage films have always been a cinematic staple for me. Whether they are quality films (like Heathers, Stand By Me), plain fun (Mean Girls, Easy A, Say Anything) or just plain silliness (Porky’s, American Pie), I’ve always found enjoyment in both entertainment value and nostalgia. But the past few years, the portrayal of teenagers in film…

Take Down (aka Billionaire Ransom) is what you would get if you made cardboard cut-outs characters and put them in a world that was like Brat Camp-meets-The Hunger Games. The film is a thriller that is short on character development and suspense. It means that what ensues feels rather slow, tedious and contrived. The story…

The Iris have been lucky enough to speak with a great many composers in the past and Leo Birenberg is a notch above most. His rising star status comes from being a man of many flavours. Along with his great friend and mentor Composer Christophe Beck, he tries not to be glued down to one…

Ready the tea and make sure you’ve got your shock blanket handy because BBC Sherlock is back and here to emotionally ruin you all over again with a brand new series. Thanks to streaming service provider Stan, Australia gets each episode of Season 4 within hours of it airing in the UK. Obviously this review…

Similar to how the recently released Allied arrived in cinemas preempted by an action-heavy advertising campaign that proved somewhat misleading, Passengers is far from the grand space opera many will be expecting.  Instead of a sci-fi outing that’s more brawn than brains, Morten Tyldum‘s intriguing film is surprisingly simple, personal, and (mostly) effective. As we…

Just as emotionally manipulative as the 2011 original Red Dog but less successful in its execution, Red Dog: True Blue looks to merely survive on a superficial level as the “aww shucks” cuteness of the titular canine appears to be the sole reasoning behind this sequel/prequel hybrid coming to fruition. The stunning harsh red dirt…

Rosehaven is a comedy show that finds the funny in lots of things. It’s a fish-out-of-water comedy, a buddy comedy and a sitcom set in rural Australia. This eight-part series debuted on the ABC in 2016 and it was a hit with audiences. This is because it’s a funny show about two rather unlikely friends…

One lonely night in the mid-nineties, a struggling writer named Laura Albert telephones a psychologist, Dr Terrence Owens, pretending to be a younger man named Terminator. He has a lot to talk about; most notoriously his years as an underage truck-stop prostitute pimped out by his mother. Dr Owens thinks it would be healthy for…

The majority of videogame films are, for a lack of a better term, complete tosh. From catastrophes like Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros. and most of Uwe Boll‘s filmography to films that are close to viewer satisfaction like Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children and Ace Attorney, the reputation of videogame films is not something…

ABC announced on Monday that they will be releasing three new 6 x 5 minute narrative comedy web series, Goober, Almost Midnight and Lost in Pronunciation. ABC and the South Australian Film Corporation have collaborated together to launch the three comedies via streaming site ABC iView during the Christmas/New Years period. The purpose of the series is to…

Coming back for its 28th season, Alliance Française French Film Festival will be returning to Palace Cinemas in 2017 throughout the Autumn months of March and April. The festival will offer a broad range of films and documentaries among the French Film industry as a way to celebrate the talent for those on-and-off camera. Alliance Française French…