Film & TV

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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Interview: Jeremy Lindsay Taylor on fighting for his character in Audrey, comedic complexities, and the necessary, terrifying reality of social media as an actor

Known primarily for his dramatic work across our screens for over three decades now, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor is embracing a new comedic persona in the audacious Audrey, 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. As a husband and…

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The Order is a fascinating insight into a real crime story: Adelaide Film Festival Review

The Adelaide Film Festival presented the Australian Premiere of director Justin Kurzel’s movie The Order at the Piccadilly Theatre last Wednesday evening. Based on a true story, it stars Jude Law as world weary FBI agent Terry Husk, who is sent to investigate a series of armed robberies in the Pacific Northwest in 1983. Nicholas…

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Win an exclusive piece of framed concept art for The Wild Robot and a Digital Access Code to view the film at home

To celebrate the home digital release of The Wild Robot, thanks to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Organic. we have an exclusive piece of framed concept art to give away to one lucky reader, as well as a Digital Access Code so you can view the film at home. The film comes from a new…

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Interview: Connie Nielsen on returning for Gladiator II, further exploring her character’s complexities and collaborating with Ridley Scott

Following on from our red carpet chats with the cast and creatives of Gladiator II at the Australian premiere, Connie Nielsen sat down with our own Peter Gray to further discuss her return as Lucilla after over 2 decades, if she saw a change in Ridley Scott’s directing after this time, and if she could…

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Interview: Paul Mescal and the cast of Gladiator II at the Australian premiere in Sydney

Ushering in a new generation of heroes, legendary director Ridley Scott continues the epic Gladiator saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome with Gladiator II. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his…

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Our SXSW Sydney 2024 Screen Festival Panel Highlights

From the ICC to multiple UTS venues, the Palace, and beyond, the energy of Australia’s film industry was unmistakable at SXSW Sydney 2024’s Screen Festival. Here are some of our highlights from panels, interviews, and sessions featuring indie pioneers and industry giants alike. Creative folks talking candid shop What better way to open a festival…

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Interview: Shari Sebbens on new horror film The Moogai and what it communicates about today’s Indigenous experience; “Pay some respect to where you come from.”

A young Aboriginal couple brings home their second baby. What should be a joyous time takes a sinister turn, as the baby’s mother starts seeing a malevolent spirit she is convinced is trying to take her baby. Such is the logline for Jon Bell’s The Moogai, a new horror film from the producers of The…

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Interview: Emily Bett Rickards on playing America’s first million-dollar female athlete in wrestling biopic Queen of the Ring

An extraordinary, true-life tale, Queen of the Ring is an uplifting drama that follows Mildred Burke, the legendary professional wrestler and single mother who defied incredible odds to become the first million-dollar female athlete and longest reigning champion at a time when the sport was banned across most of America. Through Emily Bett Rickards‘ transformative…

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Daddio is equally humorous, heartbreaking and rightfully uncomfortable at once: Brisbane International Film Festival Review

The prospect of being stuck in a cab for 90 minutes with a driver that isn’t afraid to wax lyrical about the dynamics of men and women doesn’t exactly sound like the most pleasant experience.  And whilst that it is the entire premise of Christy Hall‘s conversation-provoking Daddio, audiences pre-empting their annoyance at such a…

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Interview: Gabriel LaBelle on playing Lorne Michaels in Saturday Night, bonding with his co-stars and favourite SNL skits

From Spielberg to Saturday Night. After making his mark as Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed The Fabelmans, a loosely-based detailing of the famed director’s adolescence, rising star Gabriel LaBelle is taking on another icon of the industry in Lorne Michaels, the long-running creator of the American sketch comedy program, Saturday Night Live, in Jason Reitman’s…

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Anora is masterfully tense, warm, tragic and hilarious in equal measure: Brisbane International Film Festival Review

It’s too easy to claim that writer/director Sean Baker makes inaccessible films due to the fact that so many of his narratives centre around the society underrepresented, chief among them being sex workers.  As we saw in such previous works as Tangerine and Red Rocket, Baker seeks to remove such a stigma around pornography performers, prostitutes…

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Adelaide Film Festival Opening Night red carpet event for World Premiere of The Correspondent

The cast of  The Correspondent and other dignitaries were out in force for the opening night of the Adelaide Film Festival. The movie tells the gripping story of Peter Greste, a journalist who was sent to cover the riots in Egypt following the election in 2013, and was arrested and convicted of terrorism. Richard Roxburgh…

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Saturday Night is equally riotously funny as it is emotionally investing: Brisbane International Film Festival Review

For almost 50 years, Saturday Night Live has been an institution of (primarily) American culture.  Every weekend it invites audiences to surrender to the thrill of live television, where anything could go wrong at any given moment, amongst a staple of regular segments and musical performances.  Its structure has shifted over time, but the core…

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Film Review: Venom: The Last Dance is a downright sloppy send-off routine for Tom Hardy’s pet anti-hero

When I reviewed Venom: Let There Be Carnage in 2021, I noted that it was an entirely overwhelming sequel that was unpretentious and, due to its absolute ludicrousness, never boring.  Some of that sentiment can be shared for Venom: The Last Dance, the supposedly (and hopefully) final instalment in this surprisingly fertile series that is,…

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Film Review: Lee; Kate Winslet stirs in fascinating portrait of defiant war-time correspondent, Lee Miller

Lee Miller is the type of figure that feels as if she should’ve already had a biopic made about her, due to her staggering spirit and defiance in the face of what was expected of her.  Lee is ultimately the only film that Miller deserves, with director Ellen Kuras, a cinematographer making her directorial debut,…

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Interview: Kate Winslet and Antony Penrose on reshaping the perception of American war correspondent Lee Miller in their film Lee

Oscar winner Kate Winslet stars in Lee, a fascinating portrait of the great American war correspondent Lee Miller, whose singular talent and ferocious tenacity gave us some of the 20th century’s most indelible images. A former model, Lee is now tired of being viewed through a lens and by men, and focusses on her own…

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Interview: Ke Huy Quan on the importance of second chances and leading with kindness for his new action film, Love Hurts

No matter how hard you try, you can’t break up with your past. This Valentine’s Day, Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan rockets into his first major leading man role as an unlikely hero, a seemingly mild-mannered realtor with a dark secret that he is desperate to leave behind. Spoiler alert: He won’t. From 87North producers…

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Interview: Jonathan Eusebio on moving from action choreographer to director on Love Hurts; “I want to make the audience feel uplifted or inspired by the action that I’m making.”

No matter how hard you try, you can’t break up with your past. This Valentine’s Day, Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan rockets into his first major leading man role as an unlikely hero, a seemingly mild-mannered realtor with a dark secret that he is desperate to leave behind. Spoiler alert: He won’t. From 87North producers…

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