Film & TV

Inspiration can strike at any time. But if you’re an artist like PJ Harvey you may choose to go in search of this illusiveness. A Dog Called Money is a music documentary that depicts the process that spawned the album, The Hope 6 Demolition Project. The result is a beautifully-shot film that can be uneven…

For a movie based on a true story about an elderly British woman revealed to be a long-term spy for the Russians, one headlined by the ever-reliable Judi Dench, Red Joan sadly fails to ignite its potential. Based on a novel inspired by Melita Norwood (dubbed “The Granny Spy”), who was both a British civil…

It has been almost two decades since the X-Men franchise started and now it has finally come to an end. Over the years, we have had a series of generally positive outcomes from this franchise — a list of mostly great films and a handful of very bad ones. For every film like X2: X-Men…

Celebrities walk the red carpet for the 2019 Sydney Film Festival opening night gala and to watch the world premiere of Palm Beach directed by Rachael Ward and starring Bryan Brown, Sam Neill and Greta Scacchi. The Sydney Film Festival is on until June 16th. You can find more information HERE

It’s finally here! The Godzilla franchise continues with Godzilla: King of the Monsters! Previous director Gareth Edwards has been replaced by Michael Dougherty, best known for his horror efforts like the Halloween anthology film Trick ‘R Treat and the Christmas movie Krampus. With an all-star cast of acclaimed thespians, rising talents and franchise returnees and free reign…

Now in its 4th year, The Melbourne International Documentary Film Festival has quickly become one of the most anticipated festival on the city’s calendar, boasting World Premieres, Australian Premieres and one off chances for Victorians to see critically acclaimed documentaries on the big screen. Today we’re looking at five of the music focused docos set…

If you were to see the cast of Triple Threat, which is jam-packed with talented martial artists/established action heroes, chances are that you would be overly excited. With this much talent in an action film, how can it possibly fail? We must consider the people behind the scenes. Triple Threat has director Jesse V. Johnson,…

It’s almost time for the annual Sydney Film Festival (5th – 16th June), stretching almost a fortnight across Sydney’s best cinemas – including the historic State Theatre – with a hugely diverse program of films from around the world. There’s almost too many gems to get through this year, so we’ve compiled a list of…

Only several months after cinema screens were graced with Bohemian Rhapsody and part of the journey of Queen’s meteoric rise to fame. We now have Rocketman, which examines another flamboyant and influential musician, Elton John, and unlike the former, this film decidedly takes a bit more of a leap both stylistically and also narratively. Because…

Taron Egerton and Director Dexter Fletcher walked the blue carpet in Sydney along with other celebrities and guests for the premiere of the highly anticipated film Rocketman

In these current dark and tumultuous times it can often seem like we’re rushing faster towards an impending apocalyptic like end. But fear not, the world continues to turn and we can rest assured that in the meantime watching Amazon Prime’s new series Good Omens will alleviate some of that tension. The show is based…

Critical Role cannot be stopped. The popular Dungeons & Dragons live stream, an improvised fantasy novel played weekly by a group of veteran voice actors, is on an enviable run. Following their record-breaking US$11,385,449 (AUD$16,501,500) animated series Kickstarter, Critical Role has returned to its roots, raising money for charity with a pledge drive supporting Red…

It’s easy to be cynical about the Disney juggernaut of rolling out live action remakes of their classic animated properties. We’ve already had Dumbo earlier this year which was watchable but felt like a little misstep by Tim Burton. Next comes Aladdin, which along with The Lion King releasing July 17 will be the 1-2…

Tonight was a special night for a select group of lucky people who were able to watch a special preview screening of Disney‘s new live action movie Aladdin staring Naomi Scott, Mena Massoud and Will Smith as Genie. Aladdin flies into cinemas on May 23rd.

The first teaser trailer for the forthcoming TV adaptation of His Dark Materials has been released out into the world, and we for one are excited! Set for release later in the year, the BBC and HBO co-production has amassed a sterling cast of small screen and big screen talent. Logan actress Dafne Keen has…

With filming on the as yet untitled Picard Star Trek spin-off series underway, this week it’s been announced that Amazon Prime Video will, under a multi-year agreement with CBS, be the exclusive streaming home of the new series in more than two hundred countries and territories outside the U.S. and Canada, including here in Australia. Each…

When one brings up the word “survival” in cinematic terms, usually some would think adventure stories in foreign environments like tropical islands, forests or jungles. Others would think of contained thrillers, where stories would be set in one small setting like a hostage situation in a building ala Die Hard, Under Siege or Speed. But…

Surprise blockbuster hit It slashed up the box office in 2017, making the Stephen King adaptation the most successful R-rated horror film of all time. Now, it’s finally time for the sequel, simply dubbed “Chapter Two” which heads back to Derry where the original characters – collectively, the Losers Club – are all grown up….

It’s fair to say that most people know Shakespeare and his plays. But, very little is known about the old Bard himself. All Is True is a bio-pic about ye olde William i.e. the writer in his twilight years. The result is a story that relies on some speculation and doesn’t always live up to…

After several release date pushbacks and a title change (its working title was Nasty Women, a now outdated reference to one of Donald Trump’s many insults thrown at Hillary Clinton), The Hustle finally plods into cinemas this week. A female-centric remake of 1988’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (which was itself a remake of 1964’s Bedtime Story), the film attempts…

Video games have generally had a fairly bad run when it comes to movie adaptations. Either they veer too far away from their source material and lose their gamer fans, or they lean too far into it and go over the heads of mainstream audiences. So when it was announced that they were making a…

All romantic comedies require some suspension of disbelief from an audience. These films often exist in a world of hyper-reality where two polar opposite characters somehow fall madly in love with each other. When a studio offers up something like Long Shot, a romantic comedy starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, it’s hard not to raise…

It’s been twenty-five years since Australian cinema produced a top quality romantic comedy. Over two decades after Muriel’s Wedding, our local film industry has barely touched the genre, let alone delivered a film worthy of rivalling anything America or the UK can dish up. How wonderfully refreshing it is to see something like Top End Wedding…

It’s 2019, and we’re about to witness not only a live-action Pokémon movie, but a legitimate big-budget ($90 mil) film depicting the adventures of Sega’s most recognisable mascot, Sonic. That’s right, lightning-fast, anthropomorphic hero Sonic the Hedgehog is getting his own CGI-rich feature film despite no recent Sonic title really making an impact on the…

Thunder Road opens with one of the more profound opening scenes in recent memory. Police officer Jim is giving a eulogy at his mother’s funeral somewhere in the American heartland. He’s completely unprepared and grief-stricken and – in one 12-minute shot – flips from humourous nostalgia to all out hysterics, finishing the awkward performance with…

It doesn’t seem like enough to just say this next, third, episode of Game of Thrones Season 8 will be ambitious. Plenty of things in this day and age are ambitious: jazz-rap concept albums from chiselled Compton emcees; some absolutely fucked mutant food hybrid, likely involving Nutella and doughnuts; millennial media start-ups that are so…

People are going to die in Game of Thrones next week. There’s absolutely no question about it. Hyped as the longest battle sequence ever committed to film/tv, the third episode – probably titled “The Long Night” – will undoubtedly be a milestone in television history as it deals with the direct result of the fearsome…

It’s all been leading up to this, 11 years and more than 21 movies and it’s time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to provide a conclusion to the Avengers saga and some of its Phase One heroes. The ones who ushered in a renaissance and resurgence of comic book superhero movies. Whodathunk that back in…

It was a full house tonight at the Entertainment Quarter as celebrities and guests lined up to walk the purple carpet for the Sydney premiere of Avengers: Endgame. Here are some photos from the night.

Season 8’s premiere, “Winterfell”, was a surprisingly disappointing and robotic brush of box-ticking. Reunions and moments of levity took up the most of it, appealing to the masses with schlocky CGI dragon-riding and destined-for-meme Bran stare-downs. The only thing remotely impressive about the episode was John Bradley’s acting. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” was…