Film & TV

TV Review: Doctor Who – Season 8 Episode 4 “Listen” (UK, 2014)

  …Or also known as “The One That Screwed With the Canon. Again.” Steven Moffat’s scripting of this Season 8 adventure sees our favourite Time Lord and his companion work their way through a narrative which would ultimately leave the fandom divided and talking. We all know Moffat is at the top of his game when he’s…

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What To Watch: The Iris’ Weekly TV Picks (18th – 21st September 2014)

Thursday Clueless, Eleven, 9:30 pm AEST An oldie but undeniably, a goodie. Starring Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd and the late Brittany Murphy, Clueless offers a satirical insight into the glamorous life of ultra rich teenagers. You may wince and gag at Cher’s precocious behaviour but the heartwarming ending and nostalgia-inducing soundtrack are sure to win…

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Margaret and David call cut on At the Movies after 28 years on air

It has been a dark 48 hours for Australian film fans, as the ABC announced yesterday that legendary film critics Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton would not be returning in 2015 for another season of their film review show At the Movies. The show has been screening on the ABC since 2004, and Margaret and David had previously…

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Let your dreams soar with the first trailer for Paper Planes

The first trailer for upcoming Australian film Paper Planes has been released online. It’s a great trailer and positions the film as a fun and exciting experience for the whole family. Australian films often deal with darker themes and material, so it’s always nice to occasionally see one that skews a bit lighter. Paper Planes boasts an incredible ensemble cast, including…

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TV Review: The Mindy Project, Season 3 Episode 1 “We’re a Couple Now, Haters!” (USA, 2014)

There’s often a risk with getting two will-they-won’t-they characters into a relationship; shows such as Castle and Bones spend seasons upon seasons building up the sexual tension, with the result, more often than not, resulting in a season’s worth of happiness before the inevitable break up. The Mindy Project has bucked that trend by beginning…

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Exclusive Interview: Michael Muhney, Percy Daggs III, Jason Dohring from Veronica Mars at Oz Comic Con

Chris Singh chats with Michael, Percy and Jason from Veronica Mars as they prepared for the Sydney leg of Oz Comic Con. They talk about the success of Veronica Mars, making the switch from TV to movie, Kickstarter and the new spin-off Play It Again, Dick. ———- This content has recently been ported from its…

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Film Review: Disney Planes – Fire & Rescue (USA, 2014)

Dusty Crophopper (voiced by Dane Cooke) has defied all odds, transforming himself from a small town crop duster to a global aerial racing champion. Planes: Fire & Rescue is the next exciting chapter to his story, following his training with the unsung heroes of Piston Peak’s fire and rescue unit. After a routine practice session…

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TV DVD Review: Anzac Girls (Australia, 2014)

It’s fair to say that the nurses of the Australian Army didn’t get nearly enough credit for the job that they did during the First World War; that’s criminal, really, when you realise just how close to the front they were, the conditions they lived in, and the trauma they endured, all while facing massive…

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Box Office Report: Turtles fight off competitors to retain top spot

There was hardly any room for competition this past weekend as worldwide hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was officially released after a couple of weeks of advanced screenings. The film had a huge opening weekend, taking in $4.37 million at the Australian box office. The film has received decent if not stellar reviews (such as ours, which…

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What To Watch: The Iris’ Weekly TV Picks (15th – 17th September 2014)

Between digital free-to-air and Foxtel, it’s at a point where it’s hard to choose what to watch on a given night. So we thought we’d take the task on ourselves and filter through the best TV of the week. Twice a week, we’ll deliver our picks for the days ahead. We kick things off with…

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Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper share an intense love in the first trailer and posters for Serena

Jennifer Lawrence is without a doubt the most popular actor in the world right now. Ever since her Oscar-nominated breakthrough in 2010’s Winter’s Bone, Lawrence has been steadily building one of the most impressive Hollywood careers in recent memory. Her headlining of the massively successful Hunger Games franchise and well-deserved Oscar win for Silver Linings Playbook cemented her position as the biggest…

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Film Review: Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (Denmark, 2013)

Ai Weiwei is a fascinating figure, both as an artist and as one of China’s most influential and outspoken dissidents. Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case portrays the oppression and danger that Weiwei encounters as he continues his political activities. Andreas Johnsen’s quietly important documentary picks up where Alison Klayman’s 2012 Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry left…

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The first full trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is here!

The first part of the third installment in the immensely popular The Hunger Games has now been given a full trailer, portraying an epic uprising as the rebellion take the games to a much larger and more open scale. From the looks of it, we can expect the Capitol to be throwing their full weight…

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Film Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (USA, 2014)

The tale of anthropomorphic ninja turtles, raised and trained by an anthropomorphic rat sensei, has been ubiquitous in children’s lives since the 1980’s. There’s something about this ridiculous concept that has worked for years, with the lore of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles increasingly rich with video games, toys, comics, TV shows, and even pizza…

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Film Review: Step Up – All In (USA, 2014)

Have there been SIX Step Up movies already? It seems like only yesterday (like, 8 years ago) when Channing Tatum and his freakin’ abs danced their way onto the silver screen and into the hearts of many a hormonal human being. Step Up: All In is the sixth film in the franchise, and while there…

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Win a double pass to Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinema opening night in Brisbane!

Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas are back with a bang this spring, bringing music by day and movies by night to their original Brisbane home at South Bank’s Rainforest Green from September 28 until November 9. Brisbane is the first stop on the outdoor event’s national tour that reaches 150,000 festivalgoers across Australia. With live…

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Win a double pass to the MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival in Sydney!

The annual Manhattan Short Film Festival returns to Glen Street Theatre as part of a global event when more than 100,000 people in over 300 cities across six continents gather in cinemas, galleries, universities, museums and cafes to view and vote for their favourite short film. This year, the festival received entries from 47 countries,…

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Film Review: The Double (UK, 2014)

“I am a person”, says recluse Simon James, “I exist”. This simple sentence drives much of The Double, the new film from Richard Ayoade, famous for his role as Moss in British comedy series The IT Crowd. Ayoade has recently moved into the director’s chair, with feature debut Submarine and now 2013’s The Double, a…

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Head to the first Girls on Film Festival this weekend for movies, parties and feminism

This weekend (September 12-14) sees the first ever Girls on Film Festival take place at Northcote Town Hall in Melbourne. The festival has been described as a “fan club meets movie marathon meets feminist salon meets house party with girl bands”, and will include screenings of ten brilliant films across the weekend. Each of the…

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Film Review: Sin City 2 – A Dame to Kill For (USA, 2014)

The original Sin City got over so well with it’s highly stylised look that Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For was pretty much guaranteed to be met with ecstatic fandom. But then it took too long to make. Nine years after the first Frank Miller adaptation of his comic books is a long…

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ACMI to screen 35mm restored print of Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy from September 20-28

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is partnering with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) to bring Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy back to the big screen this month. The 35mm restored print of the epic crime saga will screen at ACMI from Saturday September 20 until Sunday September 28, with…

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Melbourne’s beloved Astor Theatre to close in 2015

In news that will sadden cinephiles around the country, it has been announced that the Astor Theatre in Melbourne will close its doors in May of 2015. The single-screen repertory cinema has been screening a diverse program of films since 1982, mixing the latest hits with the classics of years gone by, often screening 70mm…

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Box Office Report: Ninja Turtles knock Guardians from top spot

Marvel’s latest superheroes were no match for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles over the last weekend. The heroes in a half-shell took the top spot with a weekend of advanced screenings, just edging out newcomer Into the Storm, which also had a decent opening weekend. You can read our Into the Storm review here. Turtles has been one of the few success stories…

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DVD Review: Road To Paloma (USA, 2014)

Better known for his intense stare and inaudible grunts as Khal Drogo on the original Game of Thrones series, Jason Momoa proves there’s more to him than meets the eye with his work in Road To Paloma. As the film’s lead he provides his most emotive performance yet, as the director he displays his strength at…

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Win a copy of The Grand Budapest Hotel on DVD!

Celebrated as one of – if not the – best movies of the year Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is now available for purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD through Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. With an all-star cast including Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Jude…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Housebound (New Zealand, 2014)

There are two film genres that are notoriously hard to get just right – horror and comedy. So does that make a horror-comedy mash-up near impossible to perfect? Evidently not-so for Kiwi writer/director, Gerard Johnstone who nailed it on his first try with Housebound. The first horror film to (finally) present a practical reason for…

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Wastelander Panda: Exile to premiere on ABC iview and at Fantastic Fest this month

Madman has announced that Wastelander Panda: Exile, the first drama program commissioned for ABC iview, will premiere on iview on Saturday September 20th. The post-apocalyptic sci-fi western will also have its international premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas from Septermber 18-25. Fans will also get a chance to see a sneak preview of the…

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TV DVD Review: Kids On Speed? (Australia, 2014)

Kids On Speed? is a factual and fly-on-the-wall series which follows five children who are suspected to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It’s a powerful and revealing show that looks at this much-maligned, misunderstood and stigmatised illness that has been met with controversy (due to its resulting in more children being medicated). This documentary…

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Character trailer revealed for American Horror Story: Freak Show

As we near the fourth installment of the popular American Horror Story series, “Freak Show”, certain details are being drip fed from FX, the latest of which is a neat character trailer revealing the various archetypes we will see come to life through the series. Set to the gorgeous “Carousel” by Melanie Martinez, the AHS:…

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AMC confirms companion series for The Walking Dead

The zombie-infested world, propped from Robert Kirkman’s popular comic books, will soon become all the more richer, with AMC announcing on Friday that they have ordered the pilot for a companion series to their immensely popular The Walking Dead. Since the day this apocalyptic series premiered fans have often wondered what is going on outside…

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