Seasoned film critic. Gives a great interview. Penchant for horror. Unashamed fan of Michelle Pfeiffer and Jason Momoa.
As the trailer for Christopher Landon‘s body-swap horror-comedy Freaky premieres across the globe, The AU Review’s Peter Gray was fortunate enough to chat with the director, touching on the casting of Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, his love of the horror genre, and if we can expect a third Happy Death Day. After seeing…
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“We’re back to, as Elvis liked to say, ‘taking care of business’”. And with that statement, Oscar-nominated director Baz Luhrmann once again controls the reins of Elvis, a musical drama detailing the life and music of the iconic Elvis Presley. After an unexpected delay in filming due to the unprecedented world events, cameras will roll…
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As someone who was a kid when the first two Bill & Ted films were released (Excellent Adventure in 1989, Bogus Journey in 1991), and watched them on a regular basis throughout my childhood, I’m very much in the target demographic for the unexpected sequel that is Bill & Ted Face the Music. As 1980’s-leaning…
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Zoey Deutch is a star, and as her infectious enthusiasm and penchant for live-wire-fuelled comedy proves in Buffaloed, the world is simply waiting to catch up to her. In the same manner as someone like Anna Kendrick, Deutch does so much with so little, going-for-broke with a fearlessness that often elevates both the material she’s…
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There’s been a bit of radio silence on the 007 front ever since No Time To Die was one of the first major studio releases to react to the coronavirus pandemic and shifted its original April release to November 2020. Now that the film’s local November 12th date seems locked and loaded, the promotional trail…
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Given that the character of Hua Mulan has long been one depicted in poetry, novels, and film for almost as long as she has been a Chinese folklore figure, it’s wiser to view Mulan as another variation of her story, rather than a direct remake of Disney’s 1998 animated favourite. Whereas recent Disney live-action overhauls…
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For the majority of the first episode of this second season helping of The Boys, Karl Urban‘s mouthy, unpredictable Billy Butcher is largely absent. And it’s with his absence from the titular crew – which also consists of Jack Quaid‘s Hughie, Laz Alonso‘s Mother’s Milk, Tomer Kapon‘s Frenchie, and Karen Fukuhara‘s Kimiko – that the…
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We’re twenty minutes into Hu Guan‘s epic The Eight Hundred before the credits cease on screen. Then the film informs us that we are on Day 1 of what is to be a four-day siege – not to mention a further 2 hours in its running time. The titular Eight Hundred refers to the 400…
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There’s a scene relatively early in Christopher Nolan‘s ambitious time-bending actioner Tenet where Clemence Poesey is explaining to John David Washington‘s confused character – known only as The Protagonist – about the supposed science behind his forthcoming operation; “Don’t try to understand it” she assuredly states. And it’s that advice that audiences best take when…
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A cautionary tale about the thrills and perils of recreational sex in the digital dating world, Sequin in a Blue Room is a risqué but nonetheless important teen-aimed drama that offers something of a safe space for queer or questioning audiences regarding the nature of their sexual selves. An erotic film without being overtly explicit…
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“671 kilometers of jungles, rivers, ocean, and swamp. And it is…brutal” So says World’s Toughest Race host (and producer) Bear Grylls to an accumulative 66 teams as they gather patiently to learn just what they’re in for over the course of the next 11 days. And if there’s anyone who knows the extremities of the…
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There are some films you just can’t quite pick. As much as Lawrence Michael Levine‘s Black Bear stays relatively true to its basic plot logline – “A filmmaker at a creative impasse seeks solace from her tumultuous past at a rural retreat, only to find that the woods summon her inner demons in intense and…
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Quick bites. Big stories. Designed specifically to engage the masses in the smallest of time frames, Quibi produces fresh, original content in bite-sized portions so you’re entertained at any given second. After successfully launching across the US, where their short-form, mobile-specific content proved a viable alternative to the predominant lounge-room streaming of Netflix and Amazon Prime…
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Briefly branding Alex Pettyfer “hot property” off the film’s expected anticipation, and somehow managing to ensemble a cast of such weight as Ewan McGregor, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Nighy and Mickey Rourke, the Alex Rider name was an intended film series that floundered on arrival with the release of Stormbreaker back in 2006. Underperforming in its…
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Let the social distancing binge viewing continue! Winter may be over, but staying on the couch seems like the most reasonable seasonal activity as Amazon Prime Video promises to overload its devoted audience with one helluva line-up. Harley and Katniss and Neo, oh my! Kicking off the month with a bang is everyone’s favourite anti-heroine…
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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…
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The teen sex comedy isn’t a rarity within the studio system, but they are often quite outlandish enough that they never entirely ring true regarding the situations they’d like teenagers to relate to. Weighing down the high concept mentality so often adopted by the genre, Yes, God, Yes is that rare beast that hopes to…
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On the eve of Shannon Murphy‘s tragic dramedy Babyteeth releasing in Australian cinemas (you can read our interview with her here) we were fortunate enough to chat with the film’s male lead, British-born Australian talent Toby Wallace. As he stated that being able to talk about the film during COVID-19 is “a breath of fresh…
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In a bid to maintain the state of cinema and reimagine the festival mind-frame, the Melbourne International Film Festival has launch MIFF 68½, an online curated program that’ll allow home-bound Melburnians the chance to experience the festival’s intended 2020 line-up. Running from the 6th-23rd August 2020, MIFF 68½ will showcase 113 films across its schedule –…
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Whilst it’s easy to roll your eyes at the almost insultingly familiar narrative Babyteeth works with at its core – terminal ill teenager falls in love with the wrong guy – it somehow manages to avoid most of the genre cliches, thanks to a mindset that isn’t afraid to be messy, frustrating and, at times,…
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So you should know going into The King of Staten Island that, yes, director Judd Apatow hasn’t changed his aesthetic in terms of narrative length or character ingredients. A too-long comedic drama (emphasis on the drama here) focusing on a typical man-child who’s failed to launch himself, Staten Island hopes to be more endearing than…
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Despite this year’s Oscars honouring one of 2019’s more diverse offerings (Bong Joon-ho’s Korean black comedy/thriller Parasite), the whitewashing of the event was overwhelming. In a cinematic year where actors of colour delivered universally-praised performances (see Lupita Nyong’o in Us, Awkwafina in The Farewell, and Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers, for a start), it was disappointing that…
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In case the filmic version of Fifty Shades of Grey was ultimately a little too safe in its actuality compared to the near-porn mentality of E.L. James’s novel, J-P Valkeapää‘s striking Dogs Don’t Wear Pants stands as something of a reparative. And as much as the bold, dark comedy intends to shock its audience, this remains…
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Given the state of the world right now, a little comedy would be the perfect antidote to distract us. And, on paper, a satire-cum-love-letter surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as a duo of Icelandic popstar-wannabes desperate to win said contest sounds like a potential winner. The reality, unfortunately, is…
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After an enormously successful launch in the United States and Canada, Acorn TV has arrived in Australia and New Zealand. A predominantly British-centric service that showcases the best drama the UK has to offer, one of the instantly accessible series on the “Netflix for Anglophiles” is Dead Still. Set in 1880’s Ireland, the comedically macabre…
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At just over 80 minutes, Darkness Falls (which is also known as Anderson Falls in other regions) understands the importance of not overstaying its welcome. It’s a lean, tight running time for a serial killer thriller, one that opens with a particularly harsh sequence where the predators murder their prey by forcing them to digest…
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In a climate where addressing one’s own identity has never felt more important, independent Australian rapper and producer Dos Dos has released his first major single of 2020, “No Time”. An unfettered reflection of an artist’s struggle with identity and depression, “No Time” – over a subtle base and hip-hop-inclined beat – comments on the…
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And so my dear Bébés, it’s time to say goodbye. After 6 seasons, 80 episodes, countless nonsensical European-inflected ramblings, and, surprisingly, only two “Ew, David”‘s, Schitts’s Creek has come to and end. In the series’ swan song, the Roses (co-creators Eugene Levy and Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and Annie Murphy) are achieving success in their careers and…
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End of Sentence treads a familiar path. And, initially, Elfar Adalstein‘s father-son-centric drama is a particularly downtrodden affair that audiences may not believe they’ll warm to. The film’s lead characters don’t come off as the most inviting either – Logan Lerman‘s fresh-out-of-prison Sean and his doormat dad, Frank, played by John Hawkes – and their…
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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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