As we near the end of season three of Rake, let’s take a look back and admire the personal accomplishments that Cleaver Greene has made in the past seven weeks. After prison, Cleaver re-entered the world to find that every facet of his life was in disarray: His career was at a standstill, his family was…
If you don’t end up walking out of this movie with a nostalgic tinge for your childhood or singing “Everything Is Awesome” or wanting to buy Lego then you must be a robot. This movie has been one of the hotly anticipated films of the year and with good reason. A combination of stop motion…
Nymphomaniac, stylised as NYMPH()MANIAC (yes, the use of brackets is what you think it signifies), is definitely an ambitious outing for Lars Von Trier, yet coming out of the cinema, I don’t know why I should have been feeling any sense of surprise regarding the film’s content matter or the way in which is was…
Concert movies are a rare breed. It goes without saying that if you’re not a fan of the music of that particular musician or band, then you’re probably not going to have a fun time. Road to Austin, however, is somewhat of an oddity – because even if you’re not familiar with any of the…
Half of a Yellow Sun should be a good film. A critically acclaimed novel, an emotionally charged historical period, an all star pedigree – on paper, you’d be forgiven for approaching the film with high expectations. Sadly, it’s an unfortunately undercooked melodrama that feels decidedly half baked. Set within 1960s Nigeria, headstrong twin sisters Olanna…
We haven’t had an update since it was announced last year that Warner Brothers would be teaming with JK Rowling to make a spin-off film from her astronomically successful Harry Potter series. But now we know more… The film, titled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will follow magizoologist Newt Scamander’s search for magical creatures and will be…
Running across four days in Sydney next month, the World Movies Secret Cinema is one of the film season’s most anticipated events. We caught up with Chris Keely, general manager of the event to talk about its origins, how they put each season together and much more: How did the concept for World Movies Secret…
It must be a big relief to the studio heads at Paramount to see Darren Aronofsky’s Noah do so well around the world in its opening weekend. The film has been plagued by behind the scenes struggles and religious controversy. But it seems that Australian audiences were not deterred by any of this, as the film easily…
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…
