Upon first seeing that picture of Maisie Williams in the TARDIS, I was overwhelmed with excitement; ‘the clash of the fandoms’, I call it – Game of Thrones meets Doctor Who. Combined with my high expectations of her ridiculous acting ability and my dissatisfaction of the past few Who episodes, I had mixed expectations for the fifth…
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With six episodes to weave a coherent first season, the team behind Fear the Walking Dead certainly took their time, carefully (and sometimes clumsily) building a bunch of everyday characters, spanning three different families, into a distinctive and likeable group of potential zombie apocalypse survivors. Some of this was successful but most was not, with…
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There has been enough fuss over Johnny Depp going into Black Mass that the commercial reception of the film is pretty much locked in; the trailers released in the lead up have all signaled a substantial turn for Depp, whose biggest role in recent times has been as a highly exaggerated and energetic pirate. Any…
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There have been plenty of adaptations of the Shakespeare play but this one from Australian director Justin Kurzel is a powerfully intense and brutal take on the tale of the Scottish warrior. This interpretation takes the baseline story of Macbeth and sets it in a dramatic re-imagining of ancient war-times in the Scottish highlands. After…
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The Martian is the much anticipated adaptation of Andy Weir’s acclaimed debut novel of the same name – a book which is as fascinating in its rise to notoriety as the content itself. Released in 2011 as a self-published, free-to-download ebook by the author (he released it chapter by chapter on his website before sticking it…
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After a successful run on ABC2, the first season of British sci-fi-drama series Humans is about to release on DVD. Considering that word has dropped that it’s already been renewed for a Season 2, clearly the ratings on its host channel Channel 4 in England did well enough to warrant continuation. So safely knowing that the…
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Sicario resembles Donald Trump’s big problem with the Mexican border, and renders his wall solution useless. For her part, FBI agent Kate (Emily Blunt) is kicking down doors from minute one. Just as quickly, she realises that is not fixing anything. So when Matt (Josh Brolin in a Mark Zuckerberg outfit) offers her some real…
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There is a moment in Heaven Knows What when a mobile phone is thrown up into the night sky and a surreal sparkle of fireworks cracks and fizzles from the point at which the phone disappears. This is the only moment of beauty and relief that the film offers. The rest of the time, it’s…
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When filmmaker and entrepreneur Andrew Jarecki began the years long investigation that would turn into his award winning documentary series The Jinx, he listed his ultimate aim as attempting to gain a sense of “justice, such as we can get in this case”. Real life events show that Jarecki certainly achieved this, but along the…
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Peace Officer is one scary film and it’s not even a horror movie. This documentary is a timely and important one about the militarisation of police in the United States. It’s a fascinating, informative and balanced look at a complex subject and one that manages to hit all of the right notes. The story focuses…
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Call Me Lucky is a fascinating and compelling portrait of one of the most memorable and significant voices in comedy that you’ve never heard of. However, once you hear Barry Crimmins declaration – “I’d like to overthrow the government of the United States, and I’d like to close the Catholic Church” – it’s hard to…
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From the maker of Oscar Winning Harvie Krumpet (2003) and Mary and Max (2009), claymation pioneer Adam Elliot brings to screen his next installation of the little blobs of clay which he has so strongly attached himself and his career to. Running for 21mins Ernie Biscuit tells the tale of a how deaf Parisian Taxidermist,…
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“Oh look it’s a boxing movie, cinema hasn’t seen that before,” is a cynical thought that would have gone through most minds when Southpaw was first announced. Having it directed by Antoine Fuqua, who brought us Training Day and The Equalizer, and written by Kurt Sutter, a man who worked extensively on Sons of Anarchy…
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I said it on Twitter and I will say it again here- I have never been so unprepared for a film’s plot progression in my life as I was for My Ordinary Love Story. It was unexpected and completely masterful. The story follows a slightly outspoken Eun-Jin (Gang Ye-Won), who introduces us one by one…
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As part of their Retrospective program, MIFF has re released Chilean director Sebastian Silva’s 2013 psychological horror Magic Magic. The film has a classic horror premise: a group of young people road trip out to some far off island location with no reception and relatively detached from the world. Cue chaos. But even though this…
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There’s a worrying future for those of us in Australia’s largest cities: unless you already own a house or two, the rest of us are not going to make it in the property ownership game. So we stress and stew about the fact that although we’re going to have to work till we’re 70 years…
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She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry is a little documentary with a big, important message. It chronicles the second wave of feminism in the United States from 1966-1971. It was a tumultuous time that saw some radical changes. This film is an illuminating one that tackles one key part of a complex social movement. This documentary…
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Mississippi Grind commences with a fixed camera shot of a pastoral landscape, a glorious rainbow stretches across the horizon in the background. Yet, when Ben Mendelsohn’s Gerry remarks on the spectacle with wonder around a local casino poker table later that evening, he is seemingly the only player to have witnessed it. At least, he…
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Hollywood charm and charisma just doesn’t exist the way it did in the Golden Age of Cinema. The “It” Factor, that certain something that turns a simple screen test into an experience akin to finding cinematic gold, is now often replaced or loosely recreated through physical enhancements, as if Botox or a boob job is…
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So if you’re fresh off the blockbuster wave of dinosaurs and teeny tiny superheroes and are ready for some more action packed fun, then this week’s big release Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation will be able to fill that gap nicely. As with any of the Mission: Impossible (aka MI) films, you need to suspend…
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When faced with the challenge of representing over 20 years of the evolution of “French Touch”, a music genre inspired by American Garage, it can be difficult to know where to start. Directed by french auteur Mia Hansen-Love and co-written with her DJ brother Sven Love, Eden is somewhat an autobiographical film taking inspiration from…
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Man and Super Man, distributed by the National Theatre, is spectacular epic with torrential dialogue and entertaining albeit reverential musings on the human condition. Written in 1903 by Bernard Shaw and then subsequently deemed “unstageable”, this seemingly untameable three hour epic has been breathed to life with the patient, clever and guiding adaptation of Sam…
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The first series of Broadchurch was a concise, emotionally-charged thriller that was a huge success both in the United Kingdom and abroad. However, with such a neat ending (the killer caught, Danny’s funeral finally allowed to take place), it was a bit of a headscratcher as to how creator Chris Chibnall would structure series two:…
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Take the title character from Dexter, throw him into a world where instead of killing the bad guys, he’s destroying their lives through digital espionage, and you start to get the vibe of the new USA Network series Mr. Robot, which had a special episode one premiere at SXSW earlier this year, ahead of its official…
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Though far from outright awful, Orphan Black’s second season failed to escape the shadow cast by its debut. It frequently found itself bogged down and tangled up in its own mythology – losing a grip on the masterfully-paced escalation that made the show’s first season such a thrill. Season 3, however, hits a bit closer…
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From one of the most creative minds working in cinema today, Pete Docter, comes his third feature length film for Disney/Pixar. First, there were the monsters living in our closets in 2001’s Monsters Inc.. Then, in 2009 he brought us the tale of a man, a house, some balloons and a Boy Scout in Up; a…
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Britain’s worst actor Steven Toast (Matt Berry) is back, in the second season of the hilarious comedy Toast of London. Series two sees Toast moving on to a range of new exploits and acting roles following the surprise success afforded to him by Michael Ball, aided by his eccentric agent Jane Plough (Doon Mackichan) and…
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Once again, Game of Thrones reminds us that the series owes us – and our feelings – nothing (no “fan favourite”, no “hero” to root for – nothing), and the showrunners are still committed, despite all the book differences this season, to showing what an inventive, murderous author George RR Martin is by staying faithful…
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It is only in 1970s Canada where an over-abundance of hippies, draft-dodgers, Buddhists, vegans, nudists, musicians, writers and tree-huggers could meet and create an organisation like Greenpeace. The documentary, How To Change The World looks at the origins of this grassroots, activist movement and shows how it became the enduring institution it is today. The…
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If you didn’t manage to catch British comedy series Toast of London when it first aired on the ABC, you best drop everything you’re doing right now and take a trip to your local shopping centre to grab series one on DVD. Written by Matt Berry and Arthur Mathews, the show centres around Steven Toast,…
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