Film & TV

It’s 1961 in Greenwich Village and in a short time this city will become a Mecca for folk troubadours. This all started when a young man called Robert Zimmerman changed his name to Bob Dylan and became a legend. But Llewyn Davis’ life is taking a rather different route, it’s one that is as aimless…

Disney’s Frozen has continued its world domination this past weekend by taking the top spot at the Australian box office away from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It is always impressive when a film that didn’t debut in the top spot reaches #1, and Frozen could remain there for another week at least. Both The Book Thief and Saving Mr. Banks had impressive debuts…

The first group of films featuring at SXSW Film 2014 have recently been announced. The Opening Night Film will be the world premiere of Chef, an indie comedy film from John Favreau (Iron Man, Elf) starring Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey Jr. Keynote speeches will be given…

The Golden Globes Awards 2014, hosted by comedy duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, featured some of the biggest names in the business including Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Martin Scorsese and Spike Jonze. American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave proved their popularity and critical success by taking out Best Film: Comedy or Musical and…

2013 was a great year for film. As expected, massive box office revenue was made from the huge number of sequels and prequels (such as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire  and Iron Man 3) populating the marketplace. In fact, of the top 10 highest grossing films of the year at the Australian box office only one, Dreamworks’ The…

It’s still very much holiday time at the Australian Box Office, with nine of the top ten films grossing over $1 million over the past weekend. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues its dominance of the chart and shows that the public’s thirst for films set in Middle-Earth has not waned. In second place,…

Fans of Disney films, and in particular Mary Poppins and those interested in the back story of how that film came to pass will find this almost biopic about author P.L. Travers intriguing and even emotionally moving. Saving Mr Banks is a somewhat confusing title as the film focuses on Travers and her dealings with…

In the Horror Comedy Ghost Team One, a sensation from the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival, films like the Paranormal franchise are parodied, and word is that it’s to a hilarious result. We’ve been sent the official red band trailer for the film, which is now available digitally through Paramount Home Media Distribution. Watch the trailer…

***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*** With AMC doing their whole standard mid-season split, fans of The Walking Dead are left with a few months to ponder the long overdue prison break our nearest and dearest survivors have now been forced to make. For a second there, it looked like we might have a repeat of the slow-burning…

The Iris is proud to bring you our top ten films of 2013, as voted by our contributors. We kick things off with an American comedy that met our writer’s expectations… 10. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues How could we reserve passing judgement on a sequel to one of the most quintessential comedies of the…

The Iris is proud to present a list of our top twenty films of 2013, voted by our contributors. All films on this list are subject to the Australian release dates – not the original release date in the film’s home country. And we kick off with one such film, released in 2012 in the…

Majestic, powerful and intimidating, the sad reality is that sharks have more reason to fear us, than the other way round. Thanks to netting, shark finning and mercury poisoning we’ve managed to push over 90% of shark species to the brink of extinction. Directors Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas choose to broach the subject more…

As expected, the second film in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, comfortably won the Boxing Day Box Office Battle (BDBOB) for 2013. The fantasy epic took $5.465 million on opening day, which is the second highest Boxing Day take ever. The record still belongs to the first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, which made $5.925 million on Boxing Day in…

We asked the contributors of The Iris to tell us their favourite shows of 2013, and here now are the top thirteen they voted! Only three new series make the list, with the other ten proving that the best only get better as the seasons continue… 13. Person of Interest – CBS, USA This continues…

It’s almost become cliché to say it now, but Meryl Streep dominates yet another film. August: Osage County is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name, with original playwright Tracy Letts penning the screenplay for The Company Men director John Wells to helm. A darkly comic drama, the film begins…

If you’re a Doctor Who fan, “The Time of the Doctor” was more than just your usual Christmas Special. It means the end of the Matt Smith era and the beginning of our time with Peter Capaldi. Before we get to those eyes who appeared quickly in “The Day of the Doctor” (the 50th Anniversary…

The release of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues has sent Ron Burgundy and his News Team straight to the top of the Australian box office over the past week. The comedy sequel made an impressive debut, especially considering that the original Anchorman only made $1,669,440 in its entire Australian run back in 2004. David O. Russell’s American Hustle and animated sequel Cloudy With…

The Little Mermaid. Beauty and the Beast. Aladdin. The Lion King. These animated musical classics were all released within a 5 year period (1989-1994) when Disney animation was at its high point. This fruitful period, known as the Disney Renaissance, continued until the end of the century and also included films such as Mulan (1998) and Tarzan (1999). However, during the…

The new documentary Muscle Shoals tells the story of a little town of the same name in Alabama, USA, where an incredible amount of iconic music was recorded at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios. We’re talking tracks by everyone from The Rolling Stones to U2 and Aretha Franklin (all of whom appear in the film)… to…

The new documentary Muscle Shoals tells the story of a little town of the same name in Alabama, USA, where an incredible amount of iconic music was recorded at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios. We’re talking tracks by everyone from The Rolling Stones to U2 and Aretha Franklin (all of whom appear in the film)… to…

Catholic guilt can be one pervasive beast and if ever there was a film to embody this phenomena it’s Philomena. This is the tragic drama/comedy that is inspired by a true story. It crosses three nations, several decades in time and shows the misdemeanours of an institution that should’ve protected its vulnerable charges. The film…

There’s a lot riding on the second installment in The Hobbit trilogy. The first film, An Unexpected Journey, did fairly well (if grossing over a billion dollars worldwide is your definition of “fairly well”) but received some less than favourable reviews, primarily due to its length and some issues with the High Frame Rate technology. Though…

Back during the AU review’s Sydney Film Festival interview series for 2013, we sat down with Patrick Riester, one of the actors from the low budget film Computer Chess, directed by Andrew Bujalski. We talk about the unique filmmaking style, the story, being a part of the film and his usual role: editing. The film is screening…

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a film, which thrives in the visual first, and the story second. But the story is a very close second. Based on a short story in the New Yorker magazine by James Thurber – but not completely following it – we see Walter Mitty – played by Ben…

The Iris is proud to present, in anticipation of the final Matt Smith episode of Doctor Who later this week – the annual Christmas special – the first ever episode of our new Doctor Who Podcast “The Doctor is In” featuring Larry Heath and Sosefina Fuamoli. Larry, a newer fan, gets all the information from…

The Muscle Shoals documentary is as soulful as the music that came out of the Alabama County of the same name. The documentary is filled to the brim with the rich musical history of the town that gave the world The Swampers, and countless hits from The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and way too many others…

While Computer Chess is spruiked as a ‘hilariously offbeat comedy’, it only draws a few tepid chuckles, most of which don’t make the trip from brain to mouth. But assuming it’s one of those comedies where you’re not supposed to laugh, it’s still enjoyable. I’m just not sure if it’s enjoyable enough to invest your hard earned…

Back in November, Supanova took over Adelaide for another year, drawing the pop culture geeks out in force for three days of pure awesomeness. As well as sitting in on some great panels and avoiding being stalked by Chewbacca, I had a chat with Dean O’Gorman, one of the ‘Supa-Star Guests’. O’Gorman, as many of you will…

While at Supanova in Sydney all the way back in June, Larry Heath sat down with one of the dwarves from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy to talk about the films, New Zealand based actor Jed Brophy who plays Nori. We address some fan disappointment in the first film, how that might be addressed in the future, and what…

Ask anyone under the age of 30 what they think is the funniest film ever made, and 9 out of 10 of them will say Anchorman. Hardly a success when released in 2004, the film became a hit on DVD and has since become the most frequently quoted film amongst members of Generation Y. Who among us has…