Directed by Todd Haynes (Carol), Wonderstruck focuses on the lives of two kids in two different time periods, who both set off on their own very personal New York adventures. Ben (Oakes Fegley) longs to know the identity of his father as it may provide some insight into his own life and mindset. Rose (Millicent…
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Blur may have sung about “girls who are boys who like boys to be girls,” but it was writer, Virginia Woolf who got there first. Her short novel, Orlando is about a young, aristocratic man who wakes up one day and discovers he’s become a woman. It was a novel that was written by Woolf…
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Ever since his resounding success with the Harry Potter franchise Daniel Radcliffe has continued to push the boundaries of his acting career with fantastic and varied performances in both Swiss Army Man and Imperium. Now Radcliffe has completed one of his most physically demanding roles yet portraying Yossi Ghinsberg, an Israeli adventurer who became stranded…
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You get the feeling that the story of The Church has enough in it to fill up several movies. But the documentary, Something Quite Peculiar doesn’t try to be a definitive guide to the band. Instead, it lays its focus squarely on front man, Steve Kilbey and adapts his 2014 memoir of the same name….
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You may not be familiar with the name, Dr. Mahinder Watsa but to many people he could be “Dr Love.” This nonagenarian is a former gynaecologist turned sexologist and author of a daily column in the Mumbai Mirror. Ask The Sexpert is an intimate portrait of this charming, progressive and wise old man who will…
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Unrest is a documentary that was difficult to make and a challenging one to watch. The film is the debut feature by journalist, Jennifer Brea who chronicles her life with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or chronic fatigue syndrome. She also speaks to others that have this condition by conducting interviews from her bed via Skype. ME…
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The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) kicks off next week, and along for the ride will be a slew of special guests for a run of red carpet events, Q&As and more. It all kicks off on 3rd August when the cast and crew of the MIFF Premiere Film Fund supported Jungle will walk Grey…
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One of the oldest film festivals in the world, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) returns next Thursday, and with it are hundreds of screenings across more than three weeks. We went through the full list (so you didn’t have to) and bring you our seven picks of the festival. And in no particular order,…
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We caught up with director Patrick Buchanan talks Lunar Orbit ahead of the screening of his film about iconic group The Orb at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival this week. As a filmmaker, can you tell me a little bit about your process behind making this film: Did you find the story in the edit…
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Powershop and the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) are inviting filmmakers, and anyone in the filmmaking spirit, to create a short film for the inaugural Powershorts Film Comp in Australia. To enter, contestants must shoot a film using only their smartphones, keep it anywhere between 10 sec and 3 mins and it must include the…
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All too often, the scene of refugees fleeing from the religious violence of Afghanistan and the Taliban is a common image to appear on our television screens and the news publications that slips into our Facebook feeds. The documentary filmmaker, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, uncovers a more distressing cultural issue ingrained within Afghani traditions of the…
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If 2014’s World War Z set a precedent for anything, it was that you can unequivocally produce a zombie flick without copious amounts of gore and severed limbs and still have it be entertaining. South Korean film Train to Busan follows this blueprint and improves upon it in a number of of satisfying ways. When…
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Proving to be the master of quiet filmmaking, Kelly Reichardt has established quite a name for herself within the independent cinematic industry. With slow-burning, patient films like Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, her newest picture follows the style of her preceding work. Certain Women, an adaptation of short stories by Maile Meloy, shows Reichardt…
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Little Men begins with Jake Jardine (Theo Taplitz) sitting quietly amidst anarchic scenes in a teacher-less classroom. Later that day, home from school, he takes a call from an old friend of his grandfather who, assuming that Jake knows more than he does, clumsily inquires about arrangements for Jake’s grandfather’s funeral. The juxtaposition of these…
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Elle, the latest from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, is sensationally subversive. Part unnerving psychosexual thriller, part searing familial comedy, the film commences disturbingly with the sounds of the violent rape of the film’s protagonist, Michèle LeBlanc (Isabelle Huppert), in her Parisian home. We do not witness the crime, only the immediate aftermath: masked assailant having…
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It’s been said that being at sea tests the limits of friendship and one’s own character. Add a touch of boredom mixed with an abundance of male-ego and you have yourself a manhood-measuring-contest that walks the thin line of manners, morality, and absolute absurdity. Chevalier is a funny and insightful exposé of the masculinity and…
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In December of 2014, a lone gunman walked into an Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and shot and killed 20 children and 6 staff members. While most peoples instant response was to condemn the shooter (who killed himself at the scene), many could be forgiven for not instantly considering the parents who lost their sons…
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Written and directed by Maren Ede, Toni Erdmann is a meandering delight. By turns hilarious and poignant, it concerns the ageing Winfried Conradi’s frequently maladroit attempts to re-establish some sort of a meaningful relationship with his adult daughter, Ines, in the course of a spontaneous trip to visit her in Bucharest, the Romanian capital. Unkempt,…
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World politics is a joke right now considering what we see on television. It’s become a routine to roll our eyes on every Australian Politician and Donald Trump’s idiocy of banning immigrants to the U.S borders. Good news for those who love watching political documentaries as ACMI in Melbourne will be showcasing Weiner to the…
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Now in its 65th year, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has revealed the line-up of special guests set to grace Melbourne later this month (and well into August). Melbourne director Cris Jones and cast members Xavier Samuel, Matilda Brown and Rachel Ward will hit the blue carpet for the festival’s glittering Opening Night celebrations,…
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Later this month, the 65th annual Melbourne International Film Festival will kick off an incredible season of over 345 films*, spanning 22 venues across the Melbourne CBD, from 28 July to 14 August. It’s near impossible to narrow down the list, but today, with tickets to all screenings currently on sale, we’re going to do our best, bringing you…
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The Australian independent feature film Bad Girl is celebrating today after taking home two awards last night at the 28th Annual Western Australia Screen Awards. Directed by Fin Edquist, the film stars Samara Weaving (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Mystery Road) and Sara West (Ash vs Evil Dead, The Daughter). It’s a thriller that sees a rebellious daughter returning…
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It was announced on Tuesday by Melbourne International Film Festival that filmmaker Abe Forsythe’s second feature film, Down Under, will screen as the prestigious Centrepiece Gala at the 2016 edition of the festival. Down Under is a black comedy set during the aftermath of the Cronulla riots. It’s been described as a “hilarious yet poignant story…
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It has been confirmed that indie Australian comic drama Pawno will be screening in Australian cinemas on April 21. This is director Paul Ireland’s film debut, which made its world premiere at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) last year and it was the festival’s fastest selling event. The film also had European and Asian film premieres. Pawno features a…
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An online foodie film festival, ‘Feast on Film’ began streaming on demand yesterday and is running all month, as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). SBS On Demand, in partnership with MIFF, are dishing out the many flavours of the international food scene with ten award-winning feature documentaries, three Michel Roux Jr Programs, and a MIFF…
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An online foodie film festival, ‘Feast on Film’ began streaming on demand yesterday and is running all month, as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). SBS On Demand, in partnership with MIFF, are dishing out the many flavours of the international food scene with ten award-winning feature documentaries, three Michel Roux Jr Programs, and a MIFF…
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Originally a play by the same name, Stories I Want To Tell You In Person was funded by the ABC to make a version for the screen. Intended to be a play about the GFC and commissioned by the Sydney Belvoir Theatre, playwright Lally Katz Stories I Want To Tell You In Person is the…
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From the maker of Oscar Winning Harvie Krumpet (2003) and Mary and Max (2009), claymation pioneer Adam Elliot brings to screen his next installation of the little blobs of clay which he has so strongly attached himself and his career to. Running for 21mins Ernie Biscuit tells the tale of a how deaf Parisian Taxidermist,…
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As part of their Retrospective program, MIFF has re released Chilean director Sebastian Silva’s 2013 psychological horror Magic Magic. The film has a classic horror premise: a group of young people road trip out to some far off island location with no reception and relatively detached from the world. Cue chaos. But even though this…
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Alexander Dunn’s expositional documentary 808 takes its name from the Roland TR-808, one of the first programmable drum machines. Originally manufactured in early 1980 for studio musicians to record demos, the 808 was criticized for its unrealistic drum sound and was likened to the sound of marching ants. However, the snappy, tinny sound of the…
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