One of the great things about Danny Boyle’s work is that it’s so damned colourful. Even when times are tough and the characters are going through hell, there’s always technicolour and light and thumping music. Ok, maybe not in 28 Days Later, but in the majority of his movies. It helps us digest some of the bleaker…
There’s finally peace in Northern Ireland, but some people have not buried the past. This is the premise behind first-time director Nathan Todd’s A Belfast Story. Colm Meaney (The Commitments, Layer Cake, Con Air) plays hardened detective James, who, like many of his generation in Northern Ireland, are living in times of “peace”. In his…
From the man that brought you La Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element comes yet another stylised badass individual out to settle some scores whilst simultaneously attempting to advance humankind through a very thinly veiled pseudo-science and psychology subplot. Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is our hapless damsel unwittingly roped into being a drug…
A human eye expert falls for a young French woman at a party. Years later, his lab partner make a dramatic discovery which leads him to put family and career at risk, travelling to India to validate a world-changing theory. This Sundance winner weaves together the emotional and the scientific in an ambitious metaphysical drama….
Kicking off in Melbourne tomorrow is the annual Melbourne International Film Festival. The Iris will be bringing you tonnes of coverage from the event throughout its two-and-a-bit week run, but before it starts, on the off chance you’re still not sure what you want to see, we bring you our picks of the festival…
A Most Wanted Man is an espionage thriller about terrorists. But despite this genre, the film contains no explosions, gun battles or high-tech special effects. Instead, it has more in common with The Ides Of March, in that it is a tense and dramatic labyrinth of power plays where rivals with competing agendas use political…
Los Angeles based producer Squeak E. Clean and the Brazilian DJ Zegon formed North America/South America (N.A.S.A.) born out their friendship, shared inspiration and love of music from both continents. This documentary looks at the making of their world renowned debut album Spirit Of Apollo with unlikely but brilliant collaborations such as Chuck D +…
To celebrate the release of 20th Century Fox’s masterpiece Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, VICE’s Motherboard has partnered with Fox to produce Island of the Apes – a documentary that travels to Liberia to visit an isolated island that is home to former lab-tested chimpanzees. Here is a synopsis for the documentary: Our crew traveled to…
Continuing a stellar run for Australian cinema in 2014 is the fantastic low-fi apocalypse drama These Final Hours. It’s a brutally honest examination of the human condition when the end is near, that covers every emotion on the spectrum in just under ninety minutes – and a neat reimagining of a well worn genre to boot….
Dwayne Johnson’s big-budget re-imagining of the Hercules legend managed to take the top spot at the Australian box office over the past weekend, taking $3.51 million. This one really could have gone either way. Johnson is as popular as ever and is now considered a bankable leading man. Director Brett Ratner is commonly known as one…
San Diego Comic-Con took place over the last weekend. The biggest pop-culture convention in the world has become the best place for film and TV studios to make their biggest announcements, and fan response within the halls can often gauge how anticipated a certain project is. While there was no massive bombshell dropped this year…
It’s been almost 30 years since Max Rockatansky last appeared onscreen in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Ever since then, rumours popped up every few years that director George Miller was planning a fourth entry in the groundbreaking Australian series. The fourth film, Mad Max: Fury Road, was confirmed to be shooting in 2011 in Broekn Hill. After rains left…
Now this is more like it! Trailers these days have an unfortunate habit of showing audiences too much of the film, resulting in a lack of suspense and anticipation when they finally see the full product. Even teaser trailers are becoming too revealing. It’s a big relief then that the teaser trailer for the hugely…
The 5th annual Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) in set to hit cinemas around the country through August and September 2014 and will bring a complement of 20 feature films and a short film competition to Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. KOFFIA will visit Sydney’s Event Cinemas George Street from August 13-21,…
It’s hard to believe that we are nearing the release of the final film in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, not to mention the final film in his entire Middle-Earth saga. The first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, was met with varied response. Fans of The Lord of the Rings relished the chance to spend as much time as possible in Middle-Earth, while others were already…
It’s a simple question with no straight-forward answer, “What would you do?” if it really was your last day on the earth, if you knew it was all going to end, how would you spend your final waking moments? These Final Hours examines the dystopian world that James (Nathan Phillips) must navigate as the remaining…
It’s been a long wait for Whovians around the world, but thankfully it’s almost over. In under a month we will have the premiere of the 8th series of Doctor Who. Let that sink in. As well as being the beginning of a new series, the premiere is also the first episode of the Peter Capaldi era. Fans…
Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel sequel/Justice League prequel Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is expected to have a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, with many even predicting that Snyder could even reveal the full cast for the Justice League franchise. As part of their 75th Anniversary of Batman celebrations, DC Comics is displaying a wide range of Batman images…
The latest in a series of fantastic historical telemovies from the ABC, Carlotta is a crowd pleasing – and emotional – retelling of the life of Australia’s most famous transgender pioneer. Richard Byron (Jessica Marais) is an unhappy kid from working class Balmain, when as a teenager he finds work in a Kings Cross department…
Now available on DVD after screening on ABC TV last month, we had a brief chat with actor Eamon Farren (pictured above, on the right) to talk about his role as “Ava” in the made-for-TV film Carlotta. How did you come to be involved in the film? I had heard about the project & Jess’ involvement…
Andrew Hart and Nick Duigan have a day job that many Aussies would be incredibly jealous of. They are the hosts of Hook, Line and Sinker, a fishing show that screens on Saturday afternoons on 7mate. Hook, Line and Sinker began in 2001 and this year marks the 10th season of the show. Formally a half-hour series, this years…
The first trailer has been released for the period biopic The Imitation Game, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the pioneering scientist Alan Turing. Turing is famous for his involvement in the breaking of German codes during WWII. A genius and a hero, Turing’s story took a tragic turn after the War when he was arrested for being…
The annual film calendar is always jam packed full of anticipated releases. Sometimes, even with the hype, bad reviews keep people out of the cinema. Other times, films that would have otherwise had an audience gets lost in the fuzz of the blockbuster barrage. And out of these films, occasionally there are gems that were missed,…
Worldwide hit sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has managed to hold off competition from Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel’s new comedy Sex Tape to take the top spot on the Australia box office chart for the second weekend in a row. Dawn has received widespread critical praise, with it even being hailed as one of the strongest sequels…
There’s something to be said about a series that can bounce back from a start as bad as True Blood has had with it’s final season. While the glory days of Alan Ball’s genius has been over from quite some time, the series’ current showrunners have shown that there are still a few tricks to…
Australian photojournalist David Adams has spent six months on the ground in Afghanistan in order to film his new series, Alexander’s Lost World. The series is a fascinating journey through modern-day Afghanistan in which Adams seeks to learn more about the ancient history of the region. The first of six episodes will be shown on SBS ONE…
There’s nothing better to do during winter than getting out of the rain and settling in to watch a movie and have a drink with friends. If you’re looking for a place that screens a range of classics and cult hits, the Golden Age Cinema & Bar in Sydney is a great choice. The intimately designed…
High-concept films are so called because they have a premise that can be easily summed up (and sold) in one sentence or so, and many of the most successful comedies of recent years fall under that banner. A group of friends must retrace their drunken night in order to find their missing friend. A laidback…
There is fewer dialogue and exposition needed in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the long awaited sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the film benefits greatly from it. While Rise was an exciting movie itself, with one of the best reboots of an old franchise in years, Dawn…
Legendary Australian director Fred Schepisi is a busy man, already working on another film (The Olive Sisters) and a musical for next year (The Drunken Chaperone), while simultaneously promoting the release of his current film Words and Pictures, which stars Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche. A romantic comedy blended with philosophical depth, the innovative film…
