It almost seems uncanny that Netflix‘s new royal drama, The Crown, would be released the same time that the drama in the US had been at its peak – and it has absolutely paid off. As I’m sure for many viewers, this series came as a well-received break from the real life drama unfolding on our…
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After a couple of ho-hum episodes, Ash vs Evil Dead is finally heating up, taking things back to their roots with a hefty amount of comedy and gore. Now that the book has seemingly been plunged into the underworld, Ash is about to get his life back together. Sheriff Emery however has other plans and…
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Miss Saigon has been a regular favourite among theatregoers and in the 25th anniversary film showing the 2014 West End production it’s easy to see why. The musical is a high-stakes love story set in and after the Vietnam War. It also boasts an excellent score that captures the full gamut of emotions and fragility…
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Taking its outlandish concept and maintaining a balance of wit and intelligence, Gavin O’Connor illustrates a sense of faith for his audience with The Accountant, allowing the film to entertain them without pandering in the process. With its sense of humour in check the film utilises Ben Affleck’s stone-cold gaze and considerable physique to the…
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Based on the bestselling novel by Australian author M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans, directed by Derek Cianfrance, is an Oscar-worthy heartwarming but heartbreaking film. It centres on Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) who retreats to a tiny town in Australia to forget the horrors of WWI. He gets a job as a lighthouse keeper on…
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Proving that his script work on Sicario was no fluke, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan has taught an old dog some new tricks with Hell Or High Water, a should-be predictable crime tale that’s peppered with so many nuances and perceptive characters that it rises above its genre simplicities. Despite director David Mackenzie (Starred Up, Young Adam)…
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Scares were flat when Stiles White made his directorial debut with 2014 film Ouija, a supernatural horror which got by commercially on its formulaic, same-same structure – and the release date being Halloween – but ultimately faltered in the face of superior genre films released that in the same year. Nothing about Ouija was particularly…
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Imagine a scenario where a computer virus has the ability to affect a country’s power supply. It sounds like the plot of a thrilling, science fiction film. It is frightening to think that this could be the future of cyberwarfare, especially when one considers this in light of the Stuxnet event. Zero Days is a…
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Most people were introduced to James “Jim” Foley when he appeared in a bright orange jumpsuit and reports (and video) confirmed that he had been the first American citizen to be murdered by ISIS. It was a moment where the Islamic State had stripped away his humanity and reduced Foley to a casualty. In the…
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be this juggernaut that keeps pumping out successful film after successful film. They’ve been on this upward trajectory for so long that it seems inevitable that they will have to stumble somewhere. Surprisingly and welcomingly so, Captain America: Civil War is not that movie. There is no denying that surpassing…
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The trailers for the documentary Amanda Knox (which debuts on Netflix in late September) questions whether the eponymous star did or didn’t commit the murder of British exchange student, Meredith Kercher. The crime that occurred in Perugia Italy in 2007 had an investigation that had more holes than a pile of Swiss cheese. This documentary…
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Richard Bates Jr. is a film-maker that I’ve admired ever since I saw his first film, the wonderfully acidic and biting Excision. It successfully melded horror elements with a heavy dollop of dark comedy set within a grounded story. Add in a wonderfully talented cast with career-best performances from Traci Lords and AnnaLynne McCord, and…
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Ooo-ooo, witchy woman! Sorry, got the song in my head. After my viewing of Blair Witch, it’s only fitting that my next review will be about The Love Witch. Hearing the incredibly positive buzz from many festivals around the world, especially from the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), I was so excited to see this…
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It’s probably impossible for any film or documentary that covers The Beatles to ever be disappointing. It’s also challenging for any to shed light on an interesting aspect of the band that may not have been covered before. Director Ron Howard opts to focus this project on a particularly hectic and whirlwind time in the…
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Fans of Bridget Jones and those feeling nostalgic over 90s-early 2000s rom-coms won’t be disappointed by Bridget Jones’s Baby. The film follows Bridget (Renee Zellweger), now in her 40s, who’s back in square one. Single and bitter about it, but she tries to move on and parties. This leads to chance steamy encounters with a…
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It’s frightening to think that the events that are depicted in the documentary film, Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four happened at all, never mind as recently as in the 1990s. The film is a damning look at the trial and convictions of the San Antonio Four, a group of low-income…
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Italy’s answer to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, One Kiss (Un Bacio, directed by Ivan Cotroneo) centres on gay and proud Lorenzo (Rimau Grillo Ritzberger), Blu (Valentina Romani), who is shadowed by a traumatic past, and bullied basketball player Antonio (Leonardo Pazzagli). Their shared outsider status at school draws them together. But their friendship…
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Tom Hanks, what can we say about Tom Hanks? Quite frankly, it’s hard to say anything bad at all. Despite the rare lacklustre movie, this man just cannot seem to steer anything in the wrong direction. And Sully, out now in Australian cinemas, proves no different, with the venerable actor steering both a movie and…
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One of the first thing that Blood Father makes clear is that John Link (Mel Gibson) is over being a flashy action hero type. It’s old hat to an ex-con like him and he doesn’t want anything to do with it. However, don’t be fooled, Gibson himself seems to be having a hell of a…
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Fede Alvarez surprised horror fans in 2013 when he tackled a remake of Evil Dead in a way that was satisfying and consistent with the classic blood-soaked series. This time around the Uruguayan director is trying his hand at something much different, a sharp original home-invasion thriller titled Don’t Breathe about three delinquent burglars who…
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If all was right in the highly politicised world of award shows, Logan Lerman would be looking at a good upcoming season, seeing as his performance as Marcus Messner in James Schamus’ Indignation will be almost impossible to overlook. The Cold War-era film is an adaptation of Philip Roth’s period novel of the same name,…
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Proving to be the master of quiet filmmaking, Kelly Reichardt has established quite a name for herself within the independent cinematic industry. With slow-burning, patient films like Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, her newest picture follows the style of her preceding work. Certain Women, an adaptation of short stories by Maile Meloy, shows Reichardt…
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Unapologetic, bold Australian “black comedy” Down Under had its world premiere earlier this year the 63rd annual Sydney Film Festival, the only logical platform for Writer/Director Abe Forsythe to debut his second feature film seeing as it concerns one of the most talked about and shameful moments in the city’s history. This inevitably controversial film…
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It’s not very often a film will change my perspective on life, but after viewing Taryn Brumfitt’s documentary Embrace it was a completely different story. The roots of this inspiring documentary stem from a post of Brumfitt’s that went viral in 2013, depicting Taryn in an unconventional before and after photo – from having a…
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One part coming of age tale, one part family drama and two parts fish out of water story, Morris from America is the third feature film from Indie Writer/Director Chad Hartigan, which had its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival. The film stars comedian Craig Robinson alongside newcomer Markees Christmas, as Curtis Gentry and 13 year…
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There was a lot riding on this episode for HBO and Game of Thrones, which inevitably featured Jon Snow finally facing down with Ramsay Bolton as he – along with Sansa and his relatively modest army – sought to wrestle Winterfell from the series’ most despised villain. Traditionally, these kinds of episodes would be the…
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Sophisticated and Austen-worthy, Love and Friendship is a must see. Based on Jane Austen’s epistolary novella Lady Susan, the film centres on the original story’s namesake, played by Kate Beckinsale, a widow with a chain of scandals following her. She arrives at her in-laws’ home and is in search of husbands for her and her daughter. And…
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Unapologetic, bold Australian “black comedy” Down Under had its world premiere this past week at the 63rd annual Sydney Film Festival, the only logical platform for Writer/Director Abe Forsythe to debut his second feature film seeing as it concerns one of the most talked about and shameful moments in the city’s history. This inevitably controversial…
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Paterson is the new film from acclaimed auteur (and Iggy Pop fan) Jim Jarmusch. A man who enjoys character studies that are never rushed for the sake of plot progression, existing in some semblance of real time, watching a Jarmusch film involves a lot of patience on behalf of the viewer. If you’re a fan of…
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Clever and dark, High-Rise (directed by Ben Wheatley) is a dystopia to remember. The story follows surgeon Laing (Tom Hiddleston) who moves to a tower far from civilisation. This tower has everything you need from a supermarket to a gym, but no contact with the outside world. Laing adjusts to life at the tower and…
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