Film & TV

The 9th Indonesian Film Festival (IFF) will be held in April till May to showcase the best from contemporary Indonesian cinema. The festival is in its 9th season and is a collaboration between Indonesian Student Association of University of Melbourne and University of Technology, Sydney. Dubbed as the “Largest Celebration of Indonesian Screen Culture held in Australia”,…

Just a few years after the animated TMNT (2007), we are getting a live-action reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Based on the comic book series that began in the 80s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks like it has a pretty good chance of reigniting the popularity of the franchise. With Michael Bay on board as producer, the film…

While at SXSW earlier this month, The Iris’ Larry Heath sat down with the cast and crew of the “slow-burn thriller with rich Texas flavour” (Variety), Two Step. In part one, which you can listen to in full below, we meet Andrew Kenny, who scored the film, Director Alex R. Johnson and Actress Ashley Rae…

There’s been a lot of debate about this film, from many angles and many outlets and many voices. On the one hand it depicts an enormous natural disaster with large scale action sequences the likes of which we see in Hollywood blockbusters as a dime a dozen. On the other, it focuses on a very…

One of the strongly praised films of the 2014 SXSW Film program has been the Terry McMahon-directed Patrick’s Day. Centering around the turbulent relationship between 26 year old schizophrenic Patrick (Moe Dunford), his overprotective mother Maura (Kerry Fox) and the object of Patrick’s love, Karen (Catherine Walker), the film deals with lust, love, manipulation and…

‘Us’ had one job and it was to put at least some of the splintered survivors onto the same trajectory. As such, we were given a mildly touching reunion with Glenn and Maggie, preceded by a showing of just how desperate Glenn can get; desperate enough to wander into a dark cave with an unknown…

With addiction week now at an end, The Iris looks back on five stories that really caught our attention during the week. As is typical with The Feed itself, some stories are serious, others are more fun – but everything is informative in its own way: 5. Porn Free: What life is really like when…

With SBS 2’s The Feed spending their week looking at addiction, we at The Iris and the AU review will be spending a bit of time doing the same. We’re kicking things off here on The Iris by looking at 7 characters whose various addictions make them must-watch television in their own right. You might…

Andy and Lana Wachowski gave us one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time when they unleashed The Matrix upon us back in 1999. The film is still regarded as a classic amongst most circles, but the 2003 sequels failed to repeat the critical success of the original. Their filmography since has only included Speed Racer (2008) and…

Take a former punk rocker out of her comfort zone and place her in the suburbs with her husband and new baby and you’re bound to have some pretty entertaining scenarios eventuate as a result. This is the basis of Jen McGowan’s SXSW-showcased film Kelly & Cal – a story about the relationship between Juliette…

According to The Hollywood Reporter, an American Horror Story writer has confirmed the premise of the fourth season of the show, which is set to premiere in October. Writer Douglas Petrie has confirmed the rumour that season four will take place in a carnival setting, with reports confirming today that the series will be called Freak Show….

The reviews have been so particularly harsh for I, Frankenstein that you would expect to actually enjoy the film; having your standards dropped so low that surely semi-competent performances by Aaron Eckhart; and Bill Nighy could be enough to derive at least some satisfaction. Right? Wrong. The film is as unimpressive as you’ve probably already…

Tom Cruise is back with another sci-fi outing in 2014, and it looks like it could be one of his best yet. Edge of Tomorrow, which also stars Emily Blunt (Looper), is an adaptation of the Japanese novel All You Need is Kill. The new trailer for the film has just been released and it cleverly sets up the…

In this exclusive interview, The Iris meets Ian Hultquist from the band Passion Pit to talk about scoring the film Animals, which premiered at SXSW 2014. Part One: Part Two: From IMDB: Animals tells the story of Jude and Bobbie: a young couple that exist somewhere between homelessness and the fantasy of their imaginations. Though…

Cesar Chavez comes as one of the more visually and emotionally striking films of the SXSW Film program for 2014. Set for US release on March 28th, the film documents the life of the famed American labour rights leader, Cesar Chavez. Directed by Diego Luna and starring the likes of Michael Pena, Rosario Dawson and…

Having a full house premiere at the Stateside Theater in Austin on Monday was Frank, the Lenny Abrahamson directed offbeat comedy which takes inspiration from the Chris Sievey persona Frank Sidebottom. Starring Domnhall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Fassbender – as the papier mache head wearing ‘Frank’ – it’s a film that has prompted much…

Opening a potentially very heavy week of nightly evening news with a lighter story is a wise move- and that’s certainly what the team at The Feed appeared to be doing by having a story about cane toad licking addicted dogs kick off its Addiction Week. As cartoonish as this story may sound on paper…

Expectations have been building ever since it was announced that X-Men and X-Men 2 director Brian Singer would be returning to helm the next film in the series, titled X-Men: Days of Future Past. They were raised even further with the release of the incredible first trailer last year, and are likely to shoot through the roof with the release of…

The winners of Film Awards for the recently-completed SXSW festival have been announced, and it is a long and varied list, which you can see below. The festival is an awesome way to give recognition to these mostly unknown films, and 2014 presented an amazing selection of films. The Grand Jury award went to comedy For…

Looks like it was a slow weekend at the Aussie box office, with only one film making more than a million dollars. Let’s just blame the start of the AFL season, shall we? George Clooney’s The Monuments Men took the top spot again with $1.71 million, while car-racing pic Need For Speed rose from third spot to second with…

the AU review meets director Christian Larson and executive producer (and manager of Swedish House Mafia) Amy Thomson, to talk about the film Leave The World Behind: A Film Starring Swedish House Mafia, just as the film was premiering at SXSW 2014. The film is released no iTunes on April 15th. Get more details HERE…

With SBS 2’s The Feed spending their week looking at addiction, we at The Iris and the AU review will be spending a bit of time doing the same. We’re kicking things off here on The Iris by looking at 7 characters whose various addictions make them must-watch television in their own right. You might…

Kicking off tonight, SBS 2’s news, culture and technology program The Feed will be spending a whole week hooked on the topic of addiction, cracking the lid on obsession and vice in all its alluring glory. Here’s a look at some of the highlights you can expect from the week: Monday March 24 Time to…

The final four episodes of the new wave HBO crime drama, True Detective, pushed closer to solving the 17 year running investigation into heinous crimes and further explored the personas at the centre of the double barrelled story, Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey). Episode 5, “The Secret Fate of All Life”…

It had to be done, right? ‘The Grove’ didn’t move the plot along at all, opting again for a stand-alone type episode in similar fashion to Beth and Daryl’s alcohol-driven journey in ‘Still.’ The third to last episode of season four took it’s time to slowly crush us with one of the most intense episodes…

This week marked the end of the ‘Sister’ trilogy and the end of Abby’s time on the show, although I’m hoping to see her cameo down the track like Jess’ parents sometimes do. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the episode was that every character had some sort of development, or lesson learned – and…

This week’s episode is crammed with about thirty different and not visibly interwoven plot-lines, but let’s put all that aside for now and focus on the most sensational moment in the show: Fuzz (Keegan Joyce) has come home from Africa and he has turned into his dad! A scotch swilling, Tin Tin coif-sporting, loosened skinny…

While his mates over at Marvel studios hog the spotlight, it can be easy to overlook the fact that arguably the most popular Marvel character is returning to our screens in a few weeks’ time! The sequel to 2012’s successful reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro looks set to be another massive hit…

We let you know a few weeks back that the World Movies Secret Cinema is returning to Sydney from April 11-13. The event takes place in a secret location where ticket holders are summoned to watch a secret film, so you have no idea what you’re watching until you get there! It’s been announced that…

It seems that Australian audiences just couldn’t resist the prospect of seeing George Clooney, Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett steal priceless art back from the Nazis over the past weekend. The Monuments Men, which Clooney also directed, opened at #1 with an impressive $2.3 million, taking the top spot from action sequel 300: Rise of…