Movie

Inspired by Hotel Coolgardie, Pete Gleeson’s shock 2016 documentary about two female Finnish backpackers and their work experience at a predominantly male-frequented pub, The Royal Hotel similarly shines a light on the the disturbing, toxic nature that can spawn from a small, isolated town that exploits Australia’s “drinking culture” mentality. An ironic title that will…

Flitting between two separate timelines as it details a forbidden, youthful romance and the remnants of such a memory, Olivier Peyon‘s tender Lie With Me is a poignant journey, laced with beauty and unavoidable crispness despite its emotionally messy mentality. In the present day, Stéphane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec) is a famous author who has…

After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan. Will the town uncover the killer and survive the holidays…or…

Unless you’re a Spielberg or a Cameron, it seems increasingly difficult to launch an original, high-concept, sizeably budgeted film with major studio backing.  So, in that regard hats must go off to director Gareth Edwards for getting The Creator off the ground and into multiplexes; extra points for doing so with a film centred on…

You just can’t keep a good serial killer down, can you?!? The puppet master better known as Jigsaw has terrorised audiences – and on-screen body parts – for almost two decades now as part of the lucrative Saw film series, the little Aussie horror movie that could that birthed a billion dollar franchise. Despite the…

The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF), presented by MINI, has announced its 2023 program with an incredible line-up of Queensland and Australian premiere features, with Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, starring Michael Fassbender, serving as the Australian premiere and Closing Night event. BIFF’s program is further brimming with Queensland premieres from highly acclaimed and visionary…

Undoubtedly 2023’s most anticipated – and most aggressively marketed – filmic event, Barbie has finally arrived in cinemas for the masses to ingest in droves. It’s understandable though that some audiences still are unsure as to how it’ll taste as a whole, as despite its candy-coated aesthetic, pitch-perfect casting, and amusing, if ambiguous trailers, there’s still a…

Don’t let the title fool you, What’s Love Got To Do With It? has nothing to do with Tina Turner.  Instead, the titular question is a rhetorical of sorts that documentary filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) ponders when she hears that her life-long best friend (Shazad Latif‘s Kaz) is interested in an arranged marriage, and subsequently…

Thanks to Madman Films, we have 10 double in-seasons passes (Admit 2) to see Sally Phillips, Erik Thomson, Cameron Daddo and Tasma Walton in the new Australian comedy How to Please a Woman, set for release in cinemas from May 19th, 2022. Gina is not feeling fabulous. She has lost her job and feels stuck and frustrated…

Whilst he never exactly went off the grid to warrant this a “comeback”, Channing Tatum certainly reminds us just why his likeable, some may say limitedly ranged persona was such a staple in the mid 2010’s with Dog.  Not only does it see the actor step back into leading man territory – somewhere he hasn’t…

As easy as it is to wax lyrical on the fact that we have yet another iteration of the Dark Knight, The Batman, from director Matt Reeves, is unlike any we have experienced on screen thus far.  Sure, the fact that Reeves has adopted a dark temperament to lace his narrative may not be viewed…

In 1996, when horror was a bad word and the slasher subsect had been relegated to bargain bins and a straight-to-VHS lifespan, genre maestro Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes) and a (then) relatively unknown Kevin Williamson dared to defy the conventions by creating a film that played into the…

When we are first introduced to Red Rocket‘s lead subject – washed-up porn star Mikey (Simon Rex) – writer/director Sean Baker frames him in such a manner that alludes to him being one of those scrappy anti-heroes whose undeniable charm is enough for us to forgive his indiscretions. And indeed, Mikey is that (in a…

As much as The Worst Person in the World adheres to many of the standard ingredients of the “romantic comedy”, to refer to Joachim Trier‘s as one would be doing it a massive disservice. Detailed over 12 chapters (and both a prologue and epilogue), the film gives us a look into a certain period of…

Having a background in live-action comedy films has evidently paid off for director Garth Jennings with his animated aspirations.  The acclaimed helmer of such features as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Son of Rambow, Jennings moved into animated fare with 2016’s jukebox-musical success Sing. Now back to reunite his scrappy crew of musical…

Even for a filmmaker of Steven Spielberg‘s stature, it’s safe to say that taking on a property such as West Side Story would still be a daunting task.  The 1961 cinematic adaptation of the 1957 Broadway production was awarded 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, and has remained something of a cultural criterion in the decades…

Whilst I completely understand wanting to re-visit a fruitful series such as Resident Evil, one that pulled in significant coin despite being critically slaughtered, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City hardly makes such a trip worthwhile. For starters, Milla Jovovich, patron saint of these entirely disposable films, hasn’t been brought back.  Yes, it being a…

What a year 2020 has been – and we’re only 7 months down! With COVID-19 (still) wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting and, let’s face it, unprepared world, reportings of weekend movie grosses hardly feels necessary.  And yet, as the entertainment industry remains one of COVID’s biggest casualties, it’s difficult not to find importance in the…

The first offical trailer for the upcoming biopic based on the legendary rock band Queen is looking to take audiences on a wild ride, covering the band’s meteoric rise to fame. This is Bohemian Rhapsody. Being a Queen fan myself, I could not help notice actor Rami Malek’s (Mr. Robot) striking resemblance to the well known vocalist…