Kirsten Dunst

Interview: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst and LaKeith Stanfield on baring their souls on screen in Roofman

A true story that proves reality is so often wilder than fiction, Roofman, from director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), details the life of Jeffrey Manchester, dubbed the “Roofman” due to his modus operandi of breaking into his target locations (mostly McDonald’s restaurants) through their roofs.  After escaping prison and hiding out in a Toys “R”…

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Film Review: Roofman; Channing Tatum delivers career-best performance in wild, emotional true story dramedy

A classic case of truth being stranger than fiction, Roofman is the wild, almost unbelievable true story of Jeffrey Manchester, who earned himself the titular moniker due to the fact that he robbed a series of McDonald’s in the late 90s-early 2000s (45 locations, to be exact), entering the premises through their roofs.  Despite his…

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Spotlight on TIFF: Russell Crowe, Rose Byrne and Rami Malek headline premieres at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is fast approaching, and, as seems to be tradition with TIFF, the titles making their appearances on the schedule continue to be a spoil of riches. The AU Review will be on the ground this year covering the festival for another year, and today we’re continuing our look at spotlight…

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Film Review: Civil War is an anxiety-ridden thriller that’s poised to generate conversations

There’s an apoliticality that director Alex Garland adheres to within the framing of Civil War, a film that’s inherently political as it tackles the division of the United States.  Here in a modern day USA where an alternate landscape is explored (although, chillingly, you could imagine such unrest escalating to the type of environment flexed…

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The Power of the Dog marks a triumphant return to cinema for acclaimed filmmaker Jane Campion: Sydney Film Festival Review

“He’s just a man, Peter. Only another man.” – Rose (Kirsten Dunst) Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons star as Phil and George Burbank; brothers who work as reputable cattle ranchers. George is a simple, upstanding and honest man while Phil is boastful, malevolent and manly. While Phil is happy with their routine of continuing the…

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Sydney Film Festival Review: The Beguiled (USA, 2017) is a worthy remake with an excellent cast and crew

Apart from Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, I haven’t seen much of director Sofia Coppola‘s work. Known for her filmmaking approach to humanize her subjects with unorthodox methods like gentle pathos, looking through different character points-of-views outside the norm and the use of anachronisms, Coppola has achieved a reputation of being a director that is…

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Film Review: Midnight Special (USA, 2016)

From Writer and Director Jeff Nichols, an emerging American auteur who has already slammed two home runs with the brilliant Take Shelter (2011) and the film which arguably reignited Matthew McConoughey’s career, Mud (2012), comes his most ambitious film to date – Midnight Special, which opens in Australian cinemas today. In Midnight Special – which…

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Sofia Coppola set to write and direct a remaking of Clint Eastwood’s Beguiled

After stepping down from Universal’s live-action retelling of The Little Mermaid, Sofia Copolla will instead write and direct a remake of Clint Eastwood‘s 1970’s period drama The Beguiled. Originally starring Eastwood, directed by Don Siegel, and adapted from Thomas P. Cullinan‘s novel by the same name, The Beguiled follows a wounded American soldier rescued and nursed back to…

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Sydney Film Festival Review: The Two Faces of January (M) (UK/USA, 2014)

Not everything or everyone is quite what it seems in this gripping thriller that brings a wealthy American couple and a young shady tour guide together on an increasingly tense journey across the Mediterranean as they try to evade the law. Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his gorgeous young wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst) are holidaying…

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