Film & TV

Does Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? shed new light on decades-long murder mystery?

A murder case that remains unsolved some near-three decades on, the slaying of 6-year-old beauty pageant phenomenon JonBenét Ramsey still can’t but help earn speculative interest today.  And it’s through Joe Berlinger‘s three-part docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, that new theories, old wounds and investigative frustrations come to light, resulting in an enveloping, oft-unsettling…

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Interview: Melissa Barrera on the unique storytelling of Your Monster; “I always find a way of brainwashing myself into being in the emotional state of the character.”

Battling an illness and dumped by the love of her life, struggling actress Laura Franco returns to her childhood home to recover. To her horror, she discovers a monster living in her bedroom closet. Turns out he’s quite the charmer. Over time, they forge an unlikely connection as Monster helps Laura stand up to her…

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Film Review: Your Monster is a deliciously deranged win for original cinema

It’s not an uncommon trope for a female character to be introduced to her audience at her lowest moment.  She indulges in a sense of self-loathing (we’ve all been there) and through either her friends, her career or a fresh male presence, she builds herself back up and becomes the best version of herself. In…

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Interview: Temuera Morrison, David Fane and Awhimai Fraser on taking ownership of their characters and culture in Moana 2

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ epic animated musical Moana 2 reunites Moana (voice of Auli‘i Cravalho) and Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson) three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything…

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Film Review: Moana 2 swims as a serviceable continuation of oceanic adventures for Disney’s Polynesian Princess

The fact that Moana 2 was originally envisioned as a long-form television series for Disney+ (Moana: The Series, for those playing at home) perhaps explains why this sequel – which was only announced as a reworked theatrical effort at the beginning of the year – never quite reaches the emotional heights of its predecessor, and…

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Film Review: Heretic furthers the horror genre’s stronghold on cinema at its most perceptive

In the last few years Hugh Grant has truly taken pleasure in playing against the grain of expectation he laid upon himself after a career of inhabiting predominantly likeable characters.  Arguably starting with his wonderfully committed camp turn as the villainous Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 in 2017, Grant has been on an incline of…

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Interview: Viggo Mortensen on respecting the western genre with The Dead Don’t Hurt, creating a female-centric story, and preparing for good luck on set

The Dead Don’t Hurt is a story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationships with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting with Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his…

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Win tickets to see Pharrell Williams’ LEGO-inspired biopic Piece By Piece

Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia, we have 5 double digital in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Pharrell Williams‘ LEGO-inspired biopic Piece By Piece, screening in Australian theatres from December 5th, 2024. Featuring a star-studded cast of music super stars like Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, and Justin Timberlake, PIECE BY PIECE is an inspiring autobiographical story…

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Film Review: Little Dixie is an investing thriller that exists in a rough, dirty reality

Director John Swab, a gritty aesthetic and the gruff likeability of Frank Grillo have proven a welcome parcel over the last few years, and following on from both Body Brokers and Ida Red is Little Dixie, a formulaic but no-less investing thriller that exists in a rough, dirty reality. Though there’s plenty of genre tropes…

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Interview: Director Pierre Perifel and producer Damon Ross on The Bad Guys 2 and escaping the pratfalls of a sequel; “You don’t want to take yourself too seriously.”

Who’s badder than The Bad Guys? The Bad Girls. In the new chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed 2022 action-comedy hit about a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws, The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced…

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Interview: Lucy Lawless on her directorial debut with documentary Never Look Away; “If I can make you feel something, I want to do it while revealing human nature.”

When first introduced to the story of CNN war cameraperson, Margaret Moth, Lucy Lawless immediately jumped at the chance. In local lore, Moth was a rockstar and an enigma. Having long eschewed directing, finally here was a story that Lawless could not resist. “It felt like destiny that I should be asked to tell the…

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Film Review: Never Look Away is an at once unflinching and entertaining portrait of wild-hearted iconoclast Margaret Moth

Given her career achievements, and that name alone, it’s quite a surprise that Margaret Moth isn’t more of a well known figure.  Working as a full-time camera operator in 1970s New Zealand at a time when no other women held such a position in her homeland, nor Australia, Moth – born Margaret Wilson (she was…

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Film Review: Wicked is a musical extravaganza worth celebrating

At 2 hours and 40 minutes, there’s a lot of Wicked. And this is only the first part of the story.  Yes, despite the advertisements simply marketing this as “Wicked”, the opening credits inform us that this is the first half of the mammoth Broadway adaptation that expanded the wonderful world of Oz by letting…

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Interview: Riley Nottingham and Johnny Carr on navigating the nuances and opposing personalities of their characters in Strange Creatures

Two estranged brothers are forced back into each others lives when they’re tasked with scattering the ashes of their recently deceased mother in the country town where she grew up. Such is the logline for Australian director Henry Boffin’s directorial debut, Strange Creatures, starring Riley Nottingham and Johnny Carr as the aforementioned brothers who reevaluate…

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Film Review: Strange Creatures is an effective character drama in the guise of a road comedy

An Australian road movie that wisely operates beyond such genre simplicities, Henry Boffin‘s Strange Creatures finds organic humour in the tragic circumstances of its two main characters – estranged brothers Nate and Ged Taylor (Riley Nottingham and Johnny Carr, respectively) – as they respect the dying wish of their recently deceased mother. The opposing personalities…

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Interview: Daniel Reisinger on finding the humour in grief with his unexpected “rom com” And Mrs; “You want to make something that connects with human beings and can help in some small way.”

Gemma’s life is about to take a dramatic turn. Living in London, she faces the sudden loss of her American fiancé, Nathan, just before their wedding day. Nathan’s passing forces Gemma, who has always been skeptical of modern marriage, to reassess the meaning of a lifelong commitment. With a push from Nathan’s free-spirited and unpredictable…

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And Mrs subverts the expectations of its romantic comedy packaging with an emotional beat at its core: British Film Festival Review

It’s too easy for any British romantic comedy of sorts to be likened to the works of Richard Curtis.  With Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and About Time amongst his credits, we can see why he’s often something of a benchmark for the genre, but whatever formula he established, director…

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Win a double in-season pass to hear the Gods speak in Gladiator II

The Gods have spoken! To celebrate the release of Gladiator II, with thanks to Paramount Pictures and Superdream, we are giving away 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington in Ridley Scott‘s anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning 2000 epic, Gladiator. For your chance to win…

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Renee Zellweger is back for one last chapter in first trailer for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Two-time Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger returns to the role that established a romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre. Bridget Jones first blasted onto bookshelves in Helen Fielding’s literary phenomenon Bridget Jones’s Diary, which became a global bestseller and a blockbuster film….

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Film Review: Gladiator II is a lively sequel that offsets familiarity with camp and spectacle

Whilst his latest efforts have wavered in their quality and execution, you still have to hand it to director Ridley Scott, who, at almost 87-years-old, is one of the few filmmakers who commits to the notion of epic storytelling to be played out on the format God intended: the cinema screen. And such is the…

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We Live in Time is a warm, inviting affair, elevated by the captivating performances of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh: British Film Festival Review

Given that the trailer for We Live in Time very much informs audiences that it will be a tale of potential emotional manipulation, with the Nick Payne-penned script basing itself around a family dealing with late-stage cancer, it proves worth the screentime as Brooklyn director John Crowley breathes a certain life into proceedings, aware that…

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Interview: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga star Alyla Browne on being one of 2024’s CGA recipients

Established in 2013, Casting Guild of Australia (CGA) come together each year to identify a group of extraordinary actors they believe have the potential to break out on the world stage; The CGA Rising Stars. With such previous recipients as Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road), Alexander England (How To Please a Woman), Katherine Langford…

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Interview: Co-directors Jessica Halloran and Ivan O’Mahoney on telling the raw truth in Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story

This is the story of Jelena Dokic’s extraordinary survival. How she survived as a refugee, twice. How she survived on the tennis court to become world No. 4. But most importantly, how she survived her father, Damir Dokic, the tennis dad from hell. A tragic, raw, though ultimately uplifting tale of resilience, Unbreakable: The Jelena…

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The Outrun believes in the quieter, more intimate cadences of how life actually unfolds: British Film Festival Review

A character losing themself to nature in order to find solitude or correct the course of their life is not a road seldom travelled on screen.  And in the case of The Outrun, it’s the windswept Orkney Islands off the northeastern coast of Scotland that serve as a place of rejuvenation for Rona (Saoirse Ronan,…

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The Problem with People is a gently paced comedy that suits as breezy Sunday afternoon entertainment: British Film Festival Review

Even though something like The Problem with People is a film that very much plays by a certain rulebook, you can’t help but still feel the charm of Chris Cottam‘s dramedy across its breezy 100 minutes. Co-written by Paul Reiser, the Mad About You alum layers a certain American view to the Irish countryside that…

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Film Review: Red One; festive family flick is, unfortunately, forgettable

For a movie centred around the festive season and attempts to drive home the importance of joy, there’s very little on offer when it comes to the unnecessarily long 122 minutes of Red One. Less outright bad than it is bland – which can often be worse – Jake Kasdan‘s potential-filled holiday actioner creates a…

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Interview: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans and the cast and creatives of Red One on their hope of making a new Christmas classic

The mission to save Christmas is on. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Red One is a must-see action-comedy event that delivers a fresh twist on Christmas for the holiday season. Directed by Jake Kasdan, who has previously teamed with Johnson on the blockbuster Jumanji movies, this multigenerational global spectacle features such megawatt stars as Chris Evans teaming…

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Widow Clicquot; Haley Bennett takes centre stage as “the Grand Dame of Champagne” in rousing drama: British Film Festival Review

There’s a certain period-piece sexuality billowing through Widow Clicquot that brings to mind other such similarly-set efforts as Atonement and Pride & Prejudice.  And given that those films’ second-unit director, Thomas Napper, is at the helm here, it makes perfect sense that such detail and intimacy is adhered to; fittingly, Joe Wright, director of the…

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Film Review: Audrey; Australian black comedy revels in its own bad attitude

Whether you actually want to admit it or not, there’s something admirable about a comedy that revels in the fact that it doesn’t play well with others.  Audrey is very much that bitch. It delights in being psychologically grotesque, and despite the fact that it features the type of teen mean girl embodiment that would’ve…

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Interview: Audrey creators, director Natalie Bailey and writer Lou Sanz, on embracing the dark side of humour

After impressing festival audiences with its acerbic humour, Audrey is a twisted, razor sharp film, both gloriously absurd and strangely relatable. Its black comedy at its best, inspired by modern classics like Muriel’s Wedding and Jennifer’s Body. With New Zealand’s funniest export leading the charge, alongside Australian screen veterans and emerging stars, Audrey is far from your average mother-daughter…

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