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…
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The story of two generations of warring families in Sydney’s West, Suka is a violent love story…with a twist. Brought together by fate, but pulled apart by family, this genre-bending romantic action film marks the feature debut of Australian filmmaker Heidi Lee Douglas. Ahead of the film’s release this week on DVD and Digital, Peter…
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Though Seriously Red is a film that has its heart in the right place and explores the rather fascinating world of celebrity impersonators and, by extension, what that does to one’s own identity, Gracie Otto‘s musically-inclined comedy never quite digs deep enough regarding its thematics. Otto’s film centres itself around Raylene “Red” Delaney (Krew Boylan,…
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An award-winning director, producer, writer, and founding member of the film collective Closer Productions, Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde is a force to be reckoned with. She’s also incredibly delightful, as our own Peter Gray discovered when chatting with her for the forthcoming release of her latest feature, Good Luck To You, Leo Grande. An intimate…
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Whilst there’s no surprise revealed in the fact that Emma Thompson truly deserves to be considered one of the greatest living actresses working today, it’s always appreciated when a performance solidifies such a statement. And in the deliriously charming and strikingly emotional Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Thompson turns in career-best work that leans…
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An incredibly topical drama that navigates its story with natural humour and heart, Sophie Galibert delicately treads the waters around the subject of unwanted pregnancy in her feature debut, Cherry. Initially adhering to a more comical temperament, Cherry centres on its titular character (Alex Trewhitt, a star-making turn), a driftless, 25-year-old Los Angelean, whose already…
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Whether we like them (or follow them) or not, influencers – sorry, “content creators” – are a cultural mainstay in our society that often extends beyond the environment of social media. In Australian horror effort Sissy, co-writers/directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes seem all too aware of the faux importance influencers place upon themselves, a…
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Though its title may suggest it’s a comedy of somewhat raunchy proportions, Renée Webster‘s assured debut feature film How to Please a Woman is a far more accessible, rather delightful dramedy that furthers the female view in a male-dominated industry. Filmed in Western Australia (and looking particularly stunning in the process), Webster’s film centres around…
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Having played to sold out festival sessions across Australia, the female-focused dramedy How to Please a Woman is looking to continue its crowd-pleasing success when it opens nationally in Australian cinemas on May 19th. Ahead of its release, Peter Gray spoke with the film’s writer and director, Renée Webster, about its rapturous reception so far,…
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Lending an air of femininity to the western genre – one so often entangled with a masculine temperament – without compromising its rooted personality, Leah Purcell‘s The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson is the cinematic incarnation of her penned 2016 stage play and 2019 novel, all inspired by Henry Lawson‘s short story, “The…
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Though presented in the guise of a character drama, The Novice is very much a psychological thriller detailing the compulsive, obsessive need one can hone in their attempt to perfect their field of interest. For the central figure in Lauren Hadaway‘s dark effort, Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman, dedicating herself wholeheartedly to the role, both physically…
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Whilst there’s no surprise revealed in the fact that Emma Thompson truly deserves to be considered one of the greatest living actresses working today, it’s always appreciated when a performance solidifies such a statement. And in the deliriously charming and strikingly emotional Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Thompson turns in career-best work that leans…
Read More
Though presented in the guise of a character drama, The Novice is very much a psychological thriller detailing the compulsive, obsessive need one can hone in their attempt to perfect their field of interest. For the central figure in Lauren Hadaway‘s dark effort, Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman, dedicating herself wholeheartedly to the role, both physically…
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After introducing itself as a film that promises there’ll be no sugarcoating its subject matter – the first thing we hear are the audible moans and verbal berating from a pornographic film, and the first thing we see is the extremely graphic imagery of a young girl’s privates in the shower – Ninja Thyberg‘s confronting…
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Similar to how Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, Jennifer Kent, and Ari Aster all secured their place in the annals of genre cinema with their debut offerings, Julia Docournau‘s bold cannibalistic horror effort Raw cemented the French filmmaker as a name to pay consistent attention to. And just as those aforementioned auteurs all swung big with…
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Though there’s perhaps a few too many “missing kid mystery” tropes adhered to in Disappearance at Lake Elrod – the grieving mother, the potentially corrupt police, the buried secrets coming to life – writer/director Lauren Fash injects enough character development and psychological complexity for it to get away with it. Centred around the disappearance of…
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In these pandemic-driven times, the idea of inhabiting another planet sounds more and more appealing. And with space travel now becoming somewhat generally accessible – sure, you have to be filthy rich, but it’s still a step up from it being exclusive to astronauts only – it stands to reason that such a concept could…
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Lending an air of femininity to the western genre – one so often entangled with a masculine temperament – without compromising its rooted personality, Leah Purcell‘s The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson is the cinematic incarnation of her penned 2016 stage play and 2019 novel, all inspired by Henry Lawson‘s short story, “The…
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Director Molly Reynolds has long had a history with the subject of her latest film. Her partner, trailblazing filmmaker Rolf de Heer, has directed David Gulpilil in such critically acclaimed efforts as The Tracker and Charlie’s Country, whilst she has documented these collaborations with the companion pieces Twelve Canoes and Another Country. Her closeness and…
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Given both our fascination and reliance on the support of technology, it only makes sense that the relationship between man and machine is one oft explored throughout the annals of cinema. From John Connor’s correlation with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator to Joaquin Phoenix’s obsession with Scarlett Johansson’s voiced AI in Her, so often are these links…
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Taking last year’s criticism on board for its predominant exclusion of people of colour and women in the majority of its categories, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has overhauled its 2021 voting process with a far more inclusive mindset. Continuing to throw the eventual Oscar nominations into chaos, this year’s BAFTA…
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As her critically acclaimed film Kajillionaire arrives in Australian theatres (read our review here), writer/director Miranda July spoke to our own Peter Gray about what drew her to create such a distinctive film, how star Evan Rachel Wood imprinted on the material, and the irony of releasing such a thematically anxious film in 2020. Kajillionaire…
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When you realise that ageing grifters Robert and Teresa Dyne (Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger) named their daughter Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) after a lottery-winning homeless man, you immediately learn everything you need to know about the swindling couple. They thought the name would secure them inheritance of some sort, but instead they live…
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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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Released in 1974 and oft considered the original slasher film, Bob Clark’s Black Christmas has rightfully earned cult status over the years after initially being passed over for that other genre staple, John Carpenter’s Halloween. Clark’s film is a unique take on the stalk-and-kill mentality that the slasher subsect is known for given that it…
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