Last week at SXSW, the new Robert Rodriguez TV series Rebel Without a Crew (inspired by his book of the same name) launched at a special press event featuring Rodriguez and the five young directors who have taken part in the series. The series coincides with the 25th anniversary of Rodriguez’s groundbreaking film El Mariachi, which…
It’s been a long five years between drinks for iconic American rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – both in terms of the album releases and visits to our shores. Their tour this month in Australia comes just weeks after the release of their brilliant LP Wrong Creatures, with songs like “All Rise” amongst the best…
You’ll remember Black Summer from last year – the teenager took triple j Unearthed by storm with “Young Like Me” (currently sitting at a cute 3 million plus streams online) and soon became a name to be buzzed about. He’s not even 15 yet, but the producer (aka Rhys Toms) has come through with another strong track, this…
Performers and now-fierce collaborators Sunny War and Micah Nelson (aka Particle Kid) have been bringing their own brands of rich music together in LA for a minute now, with SXSW being the latest platform for the artists to strut their stuff. And now they’re releasing a split LP under the name “Particle War“. With shows throughout the Austin festival…
With one of eight episodes from forthcoming Netflix docuseries Rapture dedicated to her story, we managed to grab a quick chat with North Carolina emcee Rapsody during a preview screening at SXSW Film Festival. The new series from Mass Appeal and Sacha Jenkins looks at the personal lives and individual contexts of various hip hop…
If you’re across Adelaide band SIAMESE, you might know they’re signed to Swirl Records and have been releasing some quality tunes in their short career so far. As a DIY band, these guys have their paintbrush in many pots, from graphic design to music production, including their debut EP, Code One. However their DIY talents extend…
This year’s Boston Calling Music Festival takes place between May 25 and May 27, at Harvard Athletic Complex in Massachusetts in the USA. A festival with this many headliners – Eminem, The Killers, Jack White, Queens of the Stone Age, Paramore, and Tyler, The Creator – doesn’t really need to do much else to get…
We’re excited to reveal the winners of the AU review’s 5th Annual SXSW Awards, which celebrates the best performances and events we caught at the Austin, Texas festival – and some of the disappointments too. BEST AUSTRALIAN GROUP Bad Pony I knew Sydney indies Bad Pony were good live, I just didn’t know they were…
Technology gone overboard is a sci-fi trope that has been done to death in cinema, but it’s a pleasure to watch stories that are still bringing fresh takes on the theme. The latest is Upgrade, a techno-horror slash detective thriller written and directed by Leigh Whannell who moves away from the past few years of…
The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a dystopian future unlike those we are used to seeing. There aren’t any flying cars or amazing technology that you’d assume to see here. There is nothing but solid regression, simplifying life back to its roots. In fact, it appears that everything has gone backwards in the worst possible…
With his new film Upgrade having its premiere at SXSW Film this past week (where it won a prestigious Audience Award), we caught up with Australian director and writer Leigh Whannell as well as cast members Logan Marshall-Green and Betty Gabriel to talk about the sci-fi horror and its wider implications. The film, which is…
As I write this, three days after a rather bumpy launch, its clear that Sea of Thieves is a bit of a mixed bag. There are things that I love about it, there are things that I don’t love about it and there are things that I feel are not particularly well understood by those who…
The Undead, Serbian vile, Nazi Lobsters and an ancient taskforce against the supernatural are all stories we hear about on a day to day basis, (are they not?) but when watching Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet‘s second season, they make so much more sense than that entire paragraph I just wrote. Check out the trailer! We…
After the premiere of Eddie Alcazar‘s latest film Perfect at this year’s SXSW festival, we managed to sit down with the cast and crew, including cinematographer Matthias Koenigswieser, as well as cast members Garrett Wareing, Tao Okamoto, Chris Santos and fellow Australian Courtney Eaton, to discuss the film itself, its experience and message, the attraction to working with such an experimental director, and…
At the 2018 SXSW premiere of Boundaries, Larry Heath caught up with Vera Farmiga and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, as well as the film’s writer/director Shana Feste to talk about the movie and its impact on each of the crew members. The film, in its world premiere at the event, touches on the struggles of family, drugs and animals as a…
Marlon Bundo, that lonely bunny who’s been making headlines this week, will be making his Australian debut next month, with the local release of this bestselling new children’s book. The book, A Day in the life of Marlon Bundo, was launched by comedian John Oliver earlier this week on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, and is in…
Kicking off their Australian tour over Easter long weekend, LA’s own Together Pangea are going to be heading out on a belter with our favourites, Bleeding Knees Club! Bringing their latest album Bulls & Roosters out to Australian fans, the guys from Together Pangea are making sure this debut tour is one to remember. Ahead of the shows,…
Melbourne’s Pretty City recently packed their bags for another short sojourn to the USA where recording of new music, as well as a cheeky stop at SXSW awaited. The band’s new album Cancel the Future is out tomorrow and in coming months, Pretty City will be out on the road (in Australia and abroad) with this new bad…
Talented singer and songwriter Fatai has been calling Chicago home for some time now, but the Melbourne-born artist has maintained strong links with home, even from the other side of the globe. A newcomer to the SXSW fold, Fatai caught up with Larry recently to touch base and share her experiences in the States. What are the…
Over nine nights in Austin this month, I caught dozens upon dozens of live performances from bands from all over the world. This year I found myself discovering more talent than I have in the past few years – both at the SXSW Festival, and at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion event, which happens at his…
After freshly finishing his first ever sold out headline show in Sydney and Melbourne, indie-folk singer Ryan Downey is back with a new single “Those Eyes that Answer” off his debut album Running. Downey’s rich voice accompanies a haunting sci-fiesque melody to showcase a deeply colourful and beautiful song, accompanied with a music video shown only…
Neighbourly disputes are really not all that uncommon in the real world, but in Under the Tree, the third feature film from Icelandic director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigur∂sson, a relatively minor disagreement between two suburban neighbouring families over a tree and the shadow it casts morphs into an ever escalating case of mutually assured destruction culminating…
Ethan Hawke‘s film about iconic country blues singer/songwriter Blaze Foley has been praised by critics since its premiere at Sundance in January, and last week it was Austin’s turn, with Blaze screening at SXSW. At that event, held in the city where Blaze lived for much of his life, we caught up with the Hawke…
Given his penchant for dark, more gothic views on material, Guillermo del Toro‘s foray into big budget filmmaking – 2013’s Pacific Rim – always seemed a little odd. Capable of delivering so much more than what that film ultimately was able to, del Toro may have injected some of his usual fantastic-ness into proceedings, but…
Mary Magdalene extends the long list of biblical film adaptations, and with it, brings a competent yet flawed look at one of the most scrutinised and controversial figures surrounding the life of Jesus Christ. While Mary Magdalene brings some refreshing aspects to the table, it also becomes the victim of its own ambition, sacrificing any…
BBC Worldwide Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) and TEG Live has announced they are bringing Planet Earth II: Live in Concert to Australia in 2018 with performances in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The show, narrated live by Australian actor Eric Bana, features breath-taking footage from the acclaimed BBC Earth series projected on a giant…
The masterful director Takashi Miike’s 100th feature, Blade of the Immortal, is based on the Japanese manga, features awe-inspiring swordfights, brilliant choreography, and the wry humour that Miike is renowned for. Cursed with immortality, a highly skilled samurai in feudal Japan promises to help a young woman avenge the death of her parents. Their mission…
Suffragette was a film that covered the British women who protested in order to gain the right to vote. The Divine Order (Die göttliche Ordnung) is a film that covers things from a Swiss perspective. Whereas the suffrage movement happened in the UK in the early 20th century, for Switzerland it was 1971 before the…
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is finally back, successfully building on its premise by deepening its established gloominess and quirky antics with surprising maturity. The end of season one warned us through a sing-along that the tragic tale of the Baudelaire orphans is far from over, “You might dream that justice and peace…
The classic family adventure The Neverending Story is returning to the big screen on Friday, March 30th at 7pm as part of the In The House series at the George Street Event Cinemas in Sydney. Tickets are only $15 (or $12 if you’re a Cinebuzz member) and selling quickly! Buy them here. Or, for your…
