Film & TV

Looks like Suicide Squad has finally been knocked off its number one perch by Bad Moms, after dominating the box office across the first three weeks of its release. Having coasted at number two for a fortnight, Moms did an impressive $1.99 million this week to move into the top spot, possibly due to the weekend being the third…

After premiering to rave reviews at the Melbourne International Film Festival last month and at SXSW earlier in the year, Irish director Billy O’Brien’s I Am Not a Serial Killer – based on Dan Wells’ best-selling YA novel – will now see a limited theatrical release in Australia this spring, with seasons in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane….

Forza Horizon 3 has gone gold and to celebrate, Xbox have revealed the inclusion of Halo‘s Warthog as a driveable vehicle, the game’s Xbox Live achievements, and specs required to run the game on PC.

The A Word is an important BBC program that is based on an Israeli TV drama called Yellow Peppers. It is a show that focuses on a very real (read: dysfunctional) family as they try and cope with a five-year-old son who is diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. The Iris watched the first…

From Australian Survivors to Pretty Little Liars and Knight’s Tales, here are our picks this week… Tuesday Australian Survivor, Ch10, 7:30pm AEST Things are heating up as the three tribes face the Immunity Challenge. Which one will survive the harsh environment? Wednesday Whitney, SoHo, 8:30pm AEST A heartwrenching biopic on the iconic singer Whitney Houston…

The Other Film Festival (TOFF), Australia’s leading deaf and disability film festival, will return next month to Melbourne. Running as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival with Arts Access Victoria, the festival aims to shed a light on the creativity and diverse storytelling from disabled or deaf creators, including a talk with deaf US filmmaker Jules Dameron…

The 20th Japanese Film Festival will return nationwide later this year, showcasing the latest in Japanese film, alongside a Classics program in Sydney. Highlights include leading Japanese horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s (Cure) new film Creepy, as well as popular manga adaptation Chihayafura Parts I and II, and seafood documentary Tsukiji Wonderland. The festival will also include a…

Think Inc are an Australian organisation who are putting together some of the most interesting talks for people to go and educate themselves with. Taking a look at their previous events, the two-year-old organisation delve into the talking to people devoted to science more often than not, but intellectual discourse is what they aim for,…

Despite a strong (albeit utterly unhinged) performance from Kevin Costner, Criminal‘s convoluted and underdeveloped plot make for what can only be described as an incredibly boring, yet more importantly, disappointing film to watch. Best known for his mildly received 2012 biographical crime thriller The Iceman, Ariel Vroman’s Criminal sees Kevin Costner star as Jericho Stewart, an…

With the season finale of The Night Of just days away, we still have no idea who did the deed – a mystery that has been beautifully unraveling over the past seven weeks. The seventh, which will air in Australia on Sunday, leaves us with more questions than answers ahead of the 8th and final…

These days especially, it’s rare to find a prequel to anything – be it a film, TV show, movie, comic or game – that lives up to its legacy. However, AMC’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad might be that rare exception. Better Call Saul is more than just a spin-off to Walter White’s…

The iconic character David Brent, last seen 15 years ago in the BBC series The Office, has returned in the year’s anticipated – and highly awkward – film David Brent: Life on the Road, which is released in cinemas today. The film sees star, writer and producer Ricky Gervais return as the character who kickstarted his…

Sony has announced that video game streaming service, PlayStation Now, and a DualShock 4 USB wireless adapter, will be available for PC and Mac. Australian players will be able to access the 300+ titles available on the service, which include Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, from 16th of September…

Square Enix has announced the content for the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Season Pass. The season pass will be composed of Narrative DLC’s and several in-game items, such as weapon packs and extra credits.  The first story mission titled System Rift will be available this Spring while the second mission, A Criminal Past is slated for an early 2017 release.  All…

Yesterday, Palace Cinemas made the announcement that they will be building a new 14 screen cinema for Sydney’s Central Park Mall Development in Chippendale. They will build their complex on Level 3 of the centre, with an expected completion date of late 2017. The cinema complex will be environmentally friendly, encouraging a system where it uses recycled…

PAX Australia has officially revealed a new event at Melbourne’s Federation Square. Occurring on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd of September, the event will bring a taste of PAX Aus to Federation Square in anticipation of the upcoming PAX Aus 2016 convention. 

For any of you that like to add variety in their life when it comes to films, then this festival is for you! Ritz Cinema will be hosting this year’s AICE (The Australian Israel Cultural Exchange) Israeli Film Festival.  The festival will be showing the best titles across Israeli cinema. Over the last few years,…

The new trailer for upcoming horror film Rings has been revealed. Spanish director  F. Javier Gutiérrez will helm the film, who recently confirmed on his Twitter account that the title is a sequel not a prequel, making it the third installment of The Ring franchise. The story is set to follow a young woman named Samara…

Optus launches short video competition, Connect5, which the telco says aims to support local content innovation. The competition encourages up-and-coming content creators to shoot, upload, and submit a 5-minute film that focuses on the theme of ‘Connecting Lives’.

A few weeks ago The Iris posted about a new musical from Whiplash director Damien Chazelle. This week, a new trailer for La La Land was released, giving us a a good taste of the anticipated film. It seems the film is attracting attention from industry insiders ahead of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), with organisers suggesting…

Australia’s biggest comic-con style event, Supanova is heading to Brisbane and Adelaide in November and once again it’s bringing a wide array of talent from your favourite TV shows and movies. Supanova’s latest guest announcement includes the lead actor from the upcoming series American Gods. Ricky Whittle plays Shadow Moon in the television adaption, based on the novel by…

Blue Water Empire, a three-part dramatised documentary series for the ABC, has commenced filming. The show, which provides a unique insight into the history and culture of the Torres Strait Islands, will show pre-colonisation life through the pervasive impact of European arrival. The cast list includes many local favourites, such as Jack Thompson, Ryan Corr, Damian…

IMAX Darling Harbour, home to the world’s biggest cinema screen, will start a program to demolish and rebuild the theatre on September 26th. The existing iconic building will make way for an even more impressive IMAX cinema. Despite the disruption the rebuild will cause, it will maintain its title as the world’s largest cinema screen. The new development…

The upcoming documentary Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey has received is first full length trailer and it looks spectacular. This ambitious film is a celebration of earth across all of time, from the birth of the universe to its final collapse. Voyage of Time examines science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and…

No one asked for the remake of arguably the biggest Hollywood epic of all time. And yet, for some obscure ($) reason, the universe decided the 1959 classic Ben-Hur must be done again. And this time, it has Morgan Freeman in dreadlocks. We all know the story. Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a wealthy Jewish…

When this year is said and done, one of the standouts in cinema won’t be a film full of physical action and visual fantasy, it will be a quiet project; the first film adaptation of a Phillip Roth novel since 1969’s Goodbye, Colombus that’s actually any good. James Schamus’ Indignation is a brilliant film about…

Starring Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, and delivering the big screen  debut of a young Natalie Portman, Leon The Professional is a classic action crime thriller. Leon (Reno), a professional hitman, reluctantly takes in 12-year-old Mathilda (Portman), after her family is murdered by corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration agent Norman Stansfield (Oldman). Léon and Mathilda form…

Now that the Olympics have returned to hibernation, new shows are premiering and promising ones at that. Here are our picks this week. Tuesday 800 Words, Ch7, 8:45pm AEST George and Jan seek relationship advice while George and Arlo try to find a way to bring Shay back. Hell on Wheels, FX, 8:30pm AEST Truckee…

Now in its fifth year, Oz Comic-Con’s dedicated focus to the very best across the local and international pop culture sphere places it in a league of its own. 2016 will see the return of the show-stopping Australian Championships of Cosplay. Plus a huge range of new and exclusive event features, including Australia’s best comic…

So if you’re over superhero films, Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto, you will not be happy to hear that Suicide Squad remains top of the Box Office ladder this week, its third week in no. 1 since its premiere week. The DC Comics’ supervillains remain in top spot with AU$3.18 million made this week, followed by Bad Moms, having…