Film & TV

Following on from his recent slew of American indie movies, Jake Gyllenhaal attempts his best to command the screen in what can only be described as the standout aspect in the labourious study of grief that is, Demolition. Having celebrated recent acclaim with titles such as Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition sees…

Actors Zoey Deutch, Blake Jenner & Glen Powell sit down with Larry Heath to talk about their experiences filming and starring in Richard Linklater’s new film Everybody Wants Some!!. Everybody Wants Some!! is released this Thursday, June 23rd. ———- This content has recently been ported from its original home on The Iris and may have…

There was a lot riding on this episode for HBO and Game of Thrones, which inevitably featured Jon Snow finally facing down with Ramsay Bolton as he – along with Sansa and his relatively modest army – sought to wrestle Winterfell from the series’ most despised villain. Traditionally, these kinds of episodes would be the…

Richard Kuipers, Programmer of the “Freak Me Out” program strain for Sydney Film Festival preceded a recent screening of The Eyes of My Mother with a fairly apt description: “the point where extreme art house and extreme horror meet”. While art house may outweigh horror here, Kuipers primed viewers correctly, Nicolas Pesce disturbing feature playing…

Tune in for this week’s TV picks which are worthy of your small screen. Tuesday Game of Thrones, Showcase, 9:36pm AEST A promising episode where new alliances are forged all in the name of survival and power, and Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton’s armies face off in an anticipated battle. Thursday Cleverman, ABC, 9:30pm AEST…

Sophisticated and Austen-worthy, Love and Friendship is a must see. Based on Jane Austen’s epistolary novella Lady Susan, the film centres on the original story’s namesake, played by Kate Beckinsale, a widow with a chain of scandals following her. She arrives at her in-laws’ home and is in search of husbands for her and her daughter. And…

Gimme Danger turns the amp up to 11 and never turns down for a second in its nearly two hour running time. Super loud, super charged, and super excellent, this documentary charting the rise, quick demise, and subsequent reunion of The Stooges is one hell of a good time. Written and directed by super fan…

When you see a Stormtrooper or a Pikachu or a Disney Princess walking by you on the street you know it’s that time of year – Supanova Pop Culture Expo is back in town. If you’re a fan of film, tv, pop culture, video games and anime then this convention is the place to be….

Dark and clever, What’s in the Darkness is in a league of its own being a mixture of crime and coming of age story. Directed by first-time director Wang Yichuan, the story follows teenager Jing (Su Xiaotong) who’s discovering her identity and sexuality. Soon she gets tangled up with a case involving a serial killer…

John Carney‘s latest effort, Sing Street, made its Australian debut through the Sydney Film Festival. In honor of the occasion we caught up to two of its stars, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Mark McKenna to talk about the film. What drew you to the project? How did you get involved with Sing Street?  Ferdia: I went to…

A little bit of a confession before I start this review: I am not overly familiar with Iranian cinema. Apart from films by Abbas Kiarostami and Asghar Farahdi, I haven’t seen a lot of films from Iran, especially genre films. However, I saw a film called A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, a Persian-language film…

Satanism has been a film trope in horror films for many years, and it has paid off with fantastic offerings like Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil’s Advocate and The Omen. However, it has also produced some terrible films like End of Days, The Devil Inside and Jennifer’s Body; films that tried to be different but failing for different…

Penny Dreadful season three will conclude this week with a two-hour finale event that will include the season’s two remaining episodes “Perpetual Night” and “The Blessed Dark.” Both episodes are written by acclaimed series creator John Logan, and will see the Wolf of God and Dracula confront one another in a thrilling and ensanguined finale. Ethan (Josh Hartnett), Sir Malcolm…

Unapologetic, bold Australian “black comedy” Down Under had its world premiere this past week at the 63rd annual Sydney Film Festival, the only logical platform for Writer/Director Abe Forsythe to debut his second feature film seeing as it concerns one of the most talked about and shameful moments in the city’s history. This inevitably controversial…

From HBO and the creators of Entourage comes Ballers. Dwayne Johnson plays Spencer, a retired American Football Superstar who is trying to reinvent himself as a financial manager for current players in sun-soaked Miami. Among his prospective clients are Ricky, a talented but volatile wide receiver who seeks to balance his off-field antics with his…

Hinterland is atmospheric and disturbing – a detective drama of poetry and scale, a story of blood, soil and belonging. The first series of the acclaimed Welsh series ended with a bloody cliff hanger and now the second series will see DCI Tom Mathias (Richard Harrington), return to a world of killers and their victims…

As Sydney Film Festival comes to an end, one door closes and another one opens! Next month, film lovers in Queensland can enjoy the jam-packed program offered in this year’s Queensland Film Festival. From feature films to shorts to documentaries, there’s a little something for everyone! The Queensland Film Festival will be running from July…

Craig Boreham’s Teenage Kicks made its worldwide premiere last weekend as part of this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Our reviewer, Simon, called it, “a beautifully filmed coming of age tale…that leaves you thinking long after the final credits have rolled.” Fergus Halliday caught up with the director himself and star Miles Szanto to talk about the film, the ideas…

The dark comedy is, in my opinion, one of the hardest genres to accomplish. To take serious and taboo themes and put a humourous view on it requires an assured hand on all aspects of the storytelling. If the story is shown too serious, the humour will be seen as out of place. If the…

Director Argyris Papadimitropoulos has a darkly comical voice with which he approaches his new film Suntan, willing to lighten the mood with a playful, enjoyable middle but never quite losing focus of the uncomfortable message at the end of it all. His style is most evident in the cautionary tale of Kostis (Makis Papadimitriou), a…

Rock & roll conquers all in John Carney‘s latest film, Sing Street, where the young and introverted Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) starts a band in order to impress a girl (Lucy Boynton). It’s to the film’s credit, however, that this is only the spark that sets off the movie and there’s a lot more going on here than just…

Frontier comedy have announced that they’re bringing Police Academy’s Michael Winslow to Australia for his largest tour ever down under. The “Man of 10,000 Voices” sold out his shows when he came to Australia for the 2014 Comedy Festival and now he’ll be running his mouth from June 29 all through August. A mix of…

Paramount will be bringing Star Trek Beyond stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and director Justin Lin to Australia next month to promote the release of the new Star Trek film. They’ll be walking the red carpet for the Australian Premiere of the film at 6.30pm on Thursday July 7 at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in Sydney. Star Trek…

Adam McKay may have won an Oscar for his directorial efforts on The Big Short but he hasn’t quite fulfilled his lust for tackling the big issues just yet. The rumour mill has purported that McKay and Jennifer Lawrence are attached to an untitled project that centers on Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the health-technology and medical-laboratory-services company…

Despite the chilly Melbourne weather pop culture fans aplenty (many of whom are in cosplay) make their way to the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre for Oz Comic Con.  Slowly trickling into the venue the queues begin to grow as the crowds start lining up to make their way inside. Over time Oz Comic-Con has turned…

Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis has let slip that his creation Scarlet, is coming to television, on HBO subsidiary Cinemax. Bendis, whose other characters and properties Jessica Jones and Powers have also received the TV treatment, stated that the series is still very early in development. Scarlet follows a young woman who sparks a second…

Acivision have announced that Jon Snow himself, Kit Harrington is set to star in the upcoming Call of Duty game, Infinite Warfare. Harington will play the leader of the enemy faction, The Settlement Defence Front and as an added bonus, director Guy Ritchie (Snatch, The Man from U.N.C.L.E) has directed all of Harrington’s scenes. While the…

Keith Stanfield, who you might remember as Snoop Dogg in Straight Outta Compton, will co-star with Nat Wolff in Death Note for Netflix. Adam Wingard will write and direct the show which is an adaptation of the Japanese manga series. There is no word on who Stanfield will play yet. Death Note revolves around a student (Wolfe)…

Universal Pictures is heading up a Battlestar Galactica film adaptation, penned by Westworld’s Lisa Joy. No director has been attached yet, though Hunger Games’ Francis Lawrence is rumoured to be interested. The 1978 series had a very popular resurgence on the Sci-Fi channel in 2009, with the new series gaining a legion of followers and earning a spot on…

Angelina Jolie is in early talks to star in Fox’s remake of 1974s’ Murder on the Orient Express. Originally directed by Sidney Lumet, Kenneth Branagh will be helming the modern version in addition to to starring as Hercule Poirot.  Branagh will also produce the film along with Ridley Scott, Simon Kinberg and Mark Gordon. Michael Green who is working on Blade…