Kumail Nanjiani

Film Review: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire needs to unthaw its grip on series nostalgia

Nostalgia undoubtedly has its place within the realms of IP revisitation, but there are certain ways to utilise such a notion without completely falling back on them.  2021’s Afterlife, the 3rd Ghostbusters , chronologically, following 1984’s debut and its 1989 sequel – or the 4th iteration if counting Paul Feig’s much maligned, but vastly underrated…

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Film Review: Migration is a lively animated comedy that should resonate with your family this holiday season

Given that Migration, the latest animated offering from the Illumination collective (the production company behind such successes as Despicable Me and the inexplicable Minions), is penned by White Lotus creator Mike White, it makes sense that the film manages to make us care about its characters, rather than just be mildly amused at their comedic…

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Interview: Elizabeth Banks and Kumail Nanjiani on identifying with their animated counterparts in Migration; “Cartoons are better than people.”

This holiday season, Illumination, creators of the blockbuster Minions, Despicable Me, Sing and The Secret Life of Pets comedies, invites you to take flight into the thrill of the unknown with a funny, feathered family vacation like no other in the action-packed new original comedy, Migration. The Mallard family is in a bit of rut….

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Film Review: Eternals opts for a more emotional, biblical edge as it deviates from the standard Marvel fare

After thirteen years and twenty-five films, it only makes sense that the standard formula for what makes a Marvel movie earns something of a deviation from the expected.  The tightly choreographed fight sequences, the amusing quips, the CGI-heavy climactic battle…all ingredients that, to the testament of such an institution, have been recycled in a variety…

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Is Netflix’s The Lovebirds worth watching?

Not unlike fellow Netflix offering Murder Mystery, The Lovebirds adopts the tried and true premise of regular-folk-get-mixed-up-in-a-major-crime and hopes it has enough of a strong centre to overcome any unoriginality.  And whilst the screenplay from Aaron Abrams (a sometimes-actor whose credits include Resident Evil: Apocalypse and The Open House) and Brendan Gall (TV’s Blindspot) doesn’t…

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SXSW 2020 Film Festival to include movies from Issa Rae, Tiffany Haddish and Judd Apatow

The SXSW Film Festival is often seen as a launching pad for major studio releases, as well as smaller independent titles and buzz-worthy TV ventures, and this year’s edition looks to be no exception with the features, episodic premieres, and opening night film announced. Running from March 13-21st this year, the 27th SXSW Film Festival…

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Film Review: Dolittle; at least it’s better than Cats!

After the colossal misfire that was Cats, audiences may not be ready for another round of CGI-rendered animals.  But, despite none of us really asking for it, Dolittle is here, and we can at least be thankful that it’s not the cinematic car-crash it very easily could have been – at least in comparison to…

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Film Review: Stuber is an Uber-amusing three-star ride

Buddy comedies are a dime-a-dozen these days. And much like romantic films, they rely on the chemistry of the leads to succeed. An original plot? Unimportant. Solid acting? No need. If the chemistry works between the leads, then it should offset a lot of the film’s flaws. Case in point, Michael Dowse‘s action-comedy Stuber, a…

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Film Review: The Big Sick (USA, 2017) Makes The Case For Big-Screen Romance

It sometimes feels like today’s romantic-comedy films have become a little of out of sync with the rest of the modern blockbuster landscapes. You just don’t see as many being made these days. There’s an easy argument to be made that the audience for these kinds of stories have largely migrated to TV shows like…

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What we learned from Kumail Nanjiani and Emily S. Gordon at the Sydney Q&A for The Big Sick

Upcoming big-screen romantic comedy The Big Sick is set to debut to Australian audiences on August 3rd. However, that didn’t stop Kumail Nanjiani and Emily S. Gordon from dropping into an early Sydney screening of the film for a quick Q&A session with Rove McManus. If you’re still holding out to see the film, it…

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Film Review: Fist Fight (USA, 2017) has solid storytelling, but otherwise falters

If there’s one thing everybody can say about this film, it is that the film is punchy. Studio comedies have been very underwhelming the past few years, especially from studios like Warner Brothers (the less said about Hot Pursuit, the better), regardless of the comedic talent involved. So when I heard about this film that…

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TV Review: Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 3 (USA, 2016)

Behold, the running gag of the gold chain. This episode sees Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) finally on a salary, treating himself to a delicate gold chain that he drapes around his neck. Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) spots it first and so begins a pun-tastic thirty-minute journey. The Pied Piper boys spare no expense at tearing the poor…

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TV Review: Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 1 (USA, 2016)

The Pied Piper boys are back in a third season of Silicon Valley. Each season gets better and better, and this one is already proving to be its best yet. It is a wonderful blend of humour, honesty, and melancholy. Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) finds himself in another pickle with his start-up – it all…

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