In Anthony Bourdain’s travel & food series, Parts Unknown, he goes to Portugal to join his boss’s traditional pig-slaughter feast; it’s a beloved event in much of Europe. In the morning, they have the whole family come around – a good thirty or forty people – before six strong men hold the pig and slit…
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Whilst there were many movie-goers that may have been surprised at hearing Fernanda Torres‘s name being called at this year’s Golden Globes as the recipient of the Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) over the likes of Nicole Kidman’s acclaimed turn in Babygirl and Angelina Jolie’s seeming front-runner presence in Maria, once I’m Still…
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As ridiculous a sport racewalking may seem – Aussies are sure to have images of Jane Turner and Glenn Robbins powerwalking with all their might come to mind – writing/directing duo Phil Moniz and Kevin Claydon lace such with a tenderness and respect that allows audiences to laugh with the sport’s quirk rather than at…
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Similar to the naturalistic, almost documentary-like aesthetic she laced her film American Honey with, writer/director Andrea Arnold approaches Bird with a realism that, for the majority of its 119 minute running time, rarely lets up to allow audiences a proper escape from the poverty-stricken housing estate setting it largely sits within. Unfolding through the eyes…
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After last year’s Longlegs became a breakout success and lent a certain elevated air of relevance to writer/director Osgood Perkins‘ name, there’s understandably a level of expectation surrounding his follow-up, The Monkey, especially with the added gravity of being based off a Stephen King short story and having the producer credit of James Wan (Saw,…
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At the centre of Gia Coppola‘s The Last Showgirl is Shelley (Pamela Anderson), a 57-year old (though she’ll initially tell you otherwise) Vegas all-girl revue performer whose 30+ years in the Razzle Dazzle show are coming to an abrupt end. But just as Shelley’s tenure is closing, and the uncertainty of life sets in, Anderson’s…
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In a time when there’s so much uncertainty in the world, a film like The Last Journey feels even more special and affirming as it projects pure beauty and an uplifting nature in telling its central story around two men and their determination to reaffirm life’s wonder for another. Swedish journalists and television hosts Filip…
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Given that The Gorge is directed by Scott Derrickson, who has helmed such horror pleasers as Sinister and The Black Phone, penned by an action familiar in Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War, Fast X), and is headlined by the reliable duo of Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller, one would feel safe sitting down to stream…
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Whilst the slasher genre has certainly maintained a steady presence within the horror genre as of late, Heart Eyes very much leans into the sporadically gory, gloriously nonsensical mentality that so many Scream imitators indulged in across the late 90s and early 2000s in the wake of Wes Craven’s original slasher rejuvenating the field. The…
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Serving as the first cinematic Marvel offering of 2025, Captain America: Brave New World is neither a return to familiar form or a step in a, well, brave new direction, but a middle-range actioner that’s just serviceable enough to earn entertainment points; even if it ultimately adds up to very little of consequence. Post-Endgame, it’s…
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Whilst lightning has never really struck twice when it comes to the Bridget Jones film series – the 2001 original, Bridget Jones’s Diary, is entirely unmatched in its quality – hats must be taken off for director Michael Morris and writers Helen Fielding (whose novel of the same name it’s based off), Dan Mazer and…
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Co-writing/directing team Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark have quite the sitcom premise on their hands with Suze, but yet, thanks to an inherent understanding of their characters, the film overcomes any outlandishness to prove itself a sweet relationship dramedy about flawed, real humans who just want to be loved – whatever form that arrives in….
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We’re only a month-and-a-bit into 2025, and it’s possible that Netflix have given birth (pun unintended) to one of the year’s absolute worst filmic offerings in Amy Schumer‘s Kinda Pregnant, an absolutely unfunny “comedy” that wastes the talents of its capable cast. A Happy Madison production – which tells you all you need to know…
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Much like how his 2018 psychological thriller Unsane was elevated by it being shot entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus, Steven Soderbergh is implementing another technological gimmick of sorts in Presence, a ghost story that’s filmed entirely from the point of view of the haunting figure lurking within the walls of a sprawling suburban residence….
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Described as his most personal work yet, Luca Guadagnino‘s Queer is an adaptation of William S. Burrough‘s 1985 novel of the same name; though published in the 80s, it was written between 1951 and 1953. Guadagnino has made a career out of telling vastly opposing stories with each of his productions – Call Me By…
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When it comes to depicting real-life violence on screen, Australian director Justin Kurzel has an enviable history of such. His 2011 debut, Snowtown, was a harrowing re-enactment of the South Australian body-in-a-barrel murders that plagued the 90s for close to a decade. In 2021 he represented the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre through the psychologically taxing…
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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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Sensitively handling the queer love story at its core, Mathias Broe‘s Sauna explores the fluid possibilities of connection, further exacerbating its impact through the filmmaker’s own relationship with his transitioning partner. The sauna of the title refers to the place of work for young Johan (Magnus Juhl Andersen), a barely-legal, zero body fat-type twink who…
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A self-awareness regarding certain specifications in getting his film made along with a universality in conjunction with its narrative, writer/director Alireza Khatami goes beyond genre conventions with The Things You Kill, a twisted thriller that breaks apart what it is to transform. At one point in the film, the language professor at the centre of…
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There’s a certain frustration felt when watching Predators, a 96 minute documentary centering around the series To Catch a Predator, itself an offshoot from NBC’s Dateline. In the early 2000s, the show lured audiences in as it highlighted online predatory behaviour – primarily older men meeting underage boys and girls for the intention of sexual…
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Given how she made history as the first deaf person to win an Academy Award for acting, one might think the documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore would be something of a straightforward and celebratory profile on the actress. Shoshannah Stern – who, like her subject, is also a deaf actor and director – certainly…
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There’s a certain bittersweetness in watching OBEX (the title specifically capitalised) only weeks after David Lynch’s sad passing, as Albert Birney‘s truly bizarre odyssey feels like a kindred spirit to Lynch’s Eraserhead, with the hallucinatory anxiety and surrealist mentality playing into a personality that is perversely into its own weirdness. Set in a pre-internet 1987,…
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Audiences today, specifically modern queer audiences, may not quite understand the gravity of shame and fear expressed throughout Plainclothes, a 90s-set drama that sets itself around the gay cruising scene that honed a far-more secretive temperament than what is experienced today. By no means is Carmen Emmi‘s enveloping film an alienating experience, but freedom in…
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Very much speaking to just how much times have changed in terms of film distribution, a romantic comedy from the director of such acclaimed titles as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bad Neighbours, and Bros, and starring proven talent as Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon is releasing straight to the streaming service market. Oh, and it’s actually…
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There’s a certain appeal of freedom that comes with the notion of freelancing. For most creatives, there’s the feeling of independence in choosing one’s own working conditions, and, to the more corporate minded nine-to-fivers, this may conjure a sense of envy in being able to escape certain confinements. Whilst this isn’t necessarily untrue, freelancing is…
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Despite the fact that the recently released trailer made Nightbitch look more like a quirky comedy – think a female-drive, R-rated take on Tim Allen’s The Shaggy Dog – I can attest that Marielle Heller‘s take on Rachel Yoder‘s seemingly unadaptable 2021 novel of the same name is far from the laughable ridiculousness some may…
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Regardless of how one feels about him personally, you can’t entirely deny that Mel Gibson knows how to direct a movie. Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto are all, at worst, competently made features that speaks to a creative awareness of the craft. The Gibson that made those movies, however, isn’t anywhere to be…
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There was a point when it came to initially reviewing Companion that I was thinking how difficult it would be to navigate around certain plot points, given that Drew Hancock‘s horror-leaning, sci-fi adjacent, romantic thriller bets on a particular narrative reveal. It’s one that I wasn’t dare going to spoil – I had the luck…
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It’s all a little too easy to accuse actor-turned-director Brady Corbet of indulging in his own self given the running time of his third feature The Brutalist; the 215 minute drama following 2015’s The Childhood of a Leader and 2018’s divisive Natalie Portman feature Vox Lux. The length, however, (which also includes a needed 15…
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A more evasive mentality is adhered to in A Complete Unknown and its subject, musician Bob Dylan, than what director James Mangold afforded Johnny Cash in Walk The Line (2005), here, a deliberately distant biopic that dares to keep Dylan as the enigmatic character he is, rather than create anything false and flashy for the…
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