Film & TV

With Sydney Film Festival wrapping up and transforming into the Traveling Film Festival in the comings week, one of the most talked about documentaries from the program is still fresh in many minds around the city. Alex Gibney’s revealing Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison of Belief will be discussed at an exclusive Q&A session…

When you bring up the now classic TV series Friday Night Lights – which ran for five seasons from 2006 to 2011 – the response you either get is “American Football!? Why would I watch a show about American Football!?” or “That is one of the single greatest series of all time. Matt Saracen is…

In the mid-90’s, Timothy Conigrave published his bestselling memoir, titled Holding the Man, 10 days before his death. It was a story so intimate and full of warmth that it continued to resonate with Australian audiences over the years. Tommy Murphy adapated it into an award-winning stage production in 2006, and now Director Neil Armfield…

Move over Freddie and Jason, Charlie Wilson has arrived in the most gruesome and chilling Australian film ever made, welcome to Charlie’s Farm! Releasing on DVD, Blu-Ray and VOD June 17. Legend has it that an abandoned farmhouse in rural Australia was once the location for a series of grisly murders. When four youths arrive…

Arriving in Australia for the first time to promote her starring voice role in the anticipated new Disney/Pixar film Inside Out, Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation) caught up with The Iris’ Larry Heath on the multi-coloured carpet at the Australian premiere in Sydney. Amy talks briefly about her visit to Sydney, what it was like…

Inside Out director Pete Docter spoke to The Iris’ Larry Heath at the Australian premiere in Sydney earlier tonight, and talked about about bringing such an original idea to life on the big screen, and working with the likes of Amy Poehler and Lewis Black. He also sheds some light on the character he was…

Track the movements of several gastronomy-addicted bloggers while they travel around the world and eat at some of the absolute top restaurants, most guided by the holy foodie grail that is the Michelin Star rating system. It seems like a terrible idea when you think about it – food bloggers are notoriously uninteresting – but…

Most of the crew involved in We Are Still Here are veterans to the horror genre, and their collective talents come together beautifully in this half satire, half serious story. Director Ted Geoghegan pays homage to the vintage and slightly cheesy, always stringing a thread of self-awareness through the film while it unfolds with a…

From prolific Oscar Winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Freakonomics and dozens of others) comes the much talked about new film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, one of three films Gibney has showcased at this year’s Sydney Film Festival (the others were Steve Jobs: The Man…

If you didn’t manage to catch British comedy series Toast of London when it first aired on the ABC, you best drop everything you’re doing right now and take a trip to your local shopping centre to grab series one on DVD. Written by Matt Berry and Arthur Mathews, the show centres around Steven Toast,…

Last night marked the end of yet another successful Sydney Film Festival as the traditional Closing Night Gala saw SFF awards announced and the world premiere of Neil Armfield’s anticipated film adaptation of Holding the Man. Before the screening, which was met with a rapturous, emotional applause, a one-hour awards ceremony was conducted in Sydney’s…

What do you get when you make a Woody Allen film with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Parker Posey in an unconventional awkward love triangle and throw in some existentialism? You get Irrational Man and the first trailer for it has arrived. Director Woody Allen has kept a tight lid on the script for this…

East England county Norfolk is a drab, scrappy location for Guy Myhill’s The Goob and it’s got just the atmosphere necessary to tell a tale of one family’s disquieting struggle with abuse and oppression that runs alongside the portrayal of a young boy’s – the family’s youngest – need for identity and a stable role…

All those hardcore fans of the ladies of Litchfield Correctional, rejoice! Orange is the New Black returns to its Netflix home today (June 12th) with a third season guaranteed to impress. Following on from the events of Season 2 where fans were introduced to the terrifying Vee (Lorraine Toussaint), had our hearts broken with the back…

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. centers on CIA agent Solo and KGB agent Kuryakin. Sound familiar? That’s because we’re talking about the popular 1960s television series of the same name, which is getting a cinematic revamp courtesy of Guy Ritchie (Lock…

After two successful seasons, showcasing the finest in cult and now classic cinema from around the world, In The House will be returning to Sydney’s Event Cinemas on George Street this September for their third season – with a special screening of Akira taking place at the end of July along the way. The third…

In an exclusive interview which took place last week during the Sydney Film Festival, I got to sit down with acclaimed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani – a man who critic Roger Ebert hailed as “the director of the decade” before his passing (in turn, 99 Homes was dedicated to Ebert) – to talk about his new film 99 Homes,…

In the lead up to the release of Terminator Genisys we take a look at a featurette with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emilia Clarke discussing the “The Guardian”. With the much older Arnie going up against his younger Terminator self it’s a case of two for the price of one! But the role of “The Guardian”…

The 2 part mini-series adaptation of Kate Greenville’s multi-award winning novel The Secret River will be released on DVD on June 24. This epic tragedy dramatises the British colonisation of Australia in microcosm, with the dispossession of Indigenous Australians made comprehensible and ultimately heart-breaking as Will Thornhill’s claim over a piece of land he titles ‘Thornhill’s Point’….

Hellen Mirren’s award winning portrayal as Queen Elizabeth II in stage show The Audience will see a brief resurgence as it returns to Australian theaters. Recorded live at the National Theater The Audience follows the Queens meetings (also known as audiences) with England’s prime minister, a practice that has spanned 60 years. Mirren received a Tony award…

To even try and explain a Roy Andersson movie is a mission in itself; his signature absurdist and surreal style is often laced with dark comedy, providing an introspective view into humanity. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch and Reflected on Existence is the third instalment from Andersson’s Living Trilogy –  films about “being a human being” – following…

New in films that unexpectedly leave you completely satisfied and slightly breathless: Victoria, a two-hour, one-shot, action-drama from Director Sebastian Schipper. It’s a film that takes you all over the late-night streets of Berlin as the sun slowly creeps up and the fallout from a chance encounter continues to get more and more intense until…

If director and cinematographer, Thomas Burstyn (This Way of Life) appeared on Who Do You Think You Are? It would be one fascinating episode. His family tree boasts a poet-turned-businessman father, an explorer brother and a mother who became a fashion designer after fleeing the Nazis. In Some Kind of Love Burstyn describes all of…

After taking home the Oscar for Best Picture earlier this year, the critically acclaimed Birdman has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray today in Australia, following its digital release last month. You can read our FOUR AND A HALF STAR review of the film HERE. We got our hands on the Blu-Ray edition of the…

Note: This article contains major spoilers about the film.  Earlier this week, we reviewed Nasty Baby, the new film from Writer/Director Sebastián Silva, which is divisive in its very intent. Following yesterday’s screening, one of the stars of the film Tunde Adebimpe – in town with his band TV on the Radio to play the Sydney…

Fans of the Mission: Impossible franchise have a lot to be excited about, with a new trailer for the 5th installment in the franchise Rogue Nation launching online. The new film is written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, and sees Tom Cruise return as the superstar spy Ethan Hunt. With the IMF disbanded, and Ethan…

Cartel Land is the documentary that award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman risked his life for, and the danger he thrust himself into is communicated shockingly well in this 98 minute look at cartels and vigilante militias both north and south of the U.S./Mexico border. Heineman has a blockbuster flair for this work, which is why it’s…

Blending visual artists, dancers, and filmmakers, 24 Frames Per Second is the most ambitious exhibition ever presented at Carriageworks. The exhibition, which celebrates dance on screen, has commissioned 24 artists to make 24 major new artworks. This is a cutting edge showcase, three years in the making. Exhibition co-curator Nina Miall reveals, “24 Frames Per…

The battle for top spot wages on. For the 4th time in as many weeks – and at a time where Age of Ultron was expected to reign supreme for weeks on end – that coveted number 1 spot is the home a new film. This time its the silver screen adaptation of hit TV…

If you’re a big fan of the Metropolitan Opera, but can’t afford to shell out the money for tickets to fly over and see them in the flesh in New York City, you’re in for a big treat. The Met Opera’s recent production of Rossini’s La Donna Del Lago was filmed as part of their…