Alexander Dunn’s expositional documentary 808 takes its name from the Roland TR-808, one of the first programmable drum machines. Originally manufactured in early 1980 for studio musicians to record demos, the 808 was criticized for its unrealistic drum sound and was likened to the sound of marching ants. However, the snappy, tinny sound of the…
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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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Who can it be now? The documentary, Colin Hay: Waiting For My Life To Begin is about the affable Men At Work front man-turned-solo troubadour who is now known for his appearances on the TV show, Scrubs. The film is a fascinating and honest one that is a little in-cohesive at times but still manages to…
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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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We open in San Francisco in 1976. Minnie Goetz (Bel Powley) has just had sex for the first time. With Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård), her mother’s (Kistin Wiig) boyfriend. Based on Goets’ graphic novel memoir of the same name, The Diary of a Teenage Girl charts a dark and disturbing journey of a young woman, going…
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How To Dance In Ohio is an intimate documentary that allows viewers to see the world through the eyes of a young person on the autistic spectrum. It’s an uplifting film that shows three young women who are coming-of-age and the challenges and triumphs they experience. The story is a gentle, subtle and uplifting one…
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B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 is a historically-oriented documentary that takes you through the unique underground music scene of the titular city that emerged during the 80s. Though clumsily-titled, it’s a fascinating portrait of a lost world of almost-surreal parties, rampant counter-culture and uninhibited artistic potential. Structurally, B-Movie follows the gradual immersion of…
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Larry (Jason Schwartzman) is on the road to nowhere in notoriously chillaxed Austin. He’s just lost his job for a string of misdemeanours, and his only friends appear to be his very beloved French Bulldog Arrow (Schwatrzman’s pet in real life), a prescription medication dealer and aged carer, Norwood, and his grandmother (Olimpia Dukakis), a…
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A Poem is a Naked Person was completed back in 1974 and has only found wide release in this year. That has to do with legal issues, or creative differences, or some other things, all of which means little to you and what you intend to watch. Suffice it to say that you can very…
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Paul Cox‘s new film Force of Destiny made its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival this week (a sold out event), officially opening the festival for 2015, well establishing itself as a certain highlight of the diverse and entertaining film roster. Starring David Wenham and Shahana Goswami, Force of Destiny details the course of the relationship of…
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Happy birthday to Bugs Bunny, who turned 75 on 28 July. You haven’t aged a day! In movie news, The Bourne Identity franchise is returning with Matt Damon and Tommy Lee Jones in Bourne. No plot details have been released as yet, but it is scheduled to hit cinemas in July 2016. In TV, sadly Key &…
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Tonight the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival kicks off with the anticipated world premiere of the Australian film Force of Destiny in an opening night gala. Running until 16th August, the festival will bring us hundreds of screenings over the next two or so weeks, and it’s quite hard to decide which films to see! So, we…
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Funded by Kickstarter and produced by the filmmakers behind The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Finders Keepers is a documentary that tackles the bizarre story of a legal dispute between a man who lost his severed leg in a plane crash and the man who found the appendage inside his barbecue.
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Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has announced what is their biggest program to date, and possibly the biggest any film festival in Australia has seen. The forthcoming event will feature an almost overwhelming 370 films in total, spread across it’s duration from July 30th to August 16th. This total includes 28 world premieres and 163…
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A hit with both audiences and critics at film festival’s such as Sundance, Cannes, and most recently Sydney Film Festival, the very in-demand Dope will be released through Sony in cinemas around Australia on August 20th. In Dope, Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is carefully surviving life in a tough neighbourhood in Los Angeles while juggling college…
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Making her screen debut at at the Melbourne International Film Festival and on ABC Television, Lally Katz will be starring in the film adaptation of her one-woman show, Stories I Want to Tell You in Person. The film adaptation of her play will be screening this August. The production of the play follows a modern-day woman’s quest of having…
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Get excited Melburnites, for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has unleashed the First Glance selection for its 64th year, which includes an exciting program of experimental film and audiovisual artistry in Vertical Cinema; the Centrepiece Gala screening of Holding the Man; a David Gulpilil retrospective; and a new principal partnership with Metro Trains Melbourne….
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The Melbourne International Film Festival for this year is set to commence on the 30th July and on the 7th July the full program will be launched. But before that we’ve been given a sneak peek of one of the titles that will premiere, Australian film Force Of Destiny. David Wenham stars as Robert, a…
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The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is excited to announce their first program announcement for the 2015 festival, eight films from the Next Gen program, which are now on sale for school group bookings. The program is designed to enrich the cinema experience for younger viewers, as well as stimulate discussion and social awareness. This…
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Tsai Ming-Liang’s Stray Dogs is a film that begs a certain amount of prior knowledge before watching. Had I known that Tsai Ming-Liang is renowned for his lack of dialogue and still image composition, I probably would have been a little more adequately prepared for this 145 minute investment. Undeniably beautiful but a rather hard…
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Listen Up Philip is relentless story telling based on relentless story tellers. Relentless seems an apt adjective to describe both the characters and the narrative, both of which rarely waiver from their over analytical tendencies and their inability to take a step back. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Listen Up Philip documents the struggles…
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The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is the ambitious vision of writer/director Ned Benson to capture a relationship in breakdown. Shot over three films ‘Her’, ‘Him’ and ‘Them’, (the first two screened back to back at this year’s MIFF, the second released later this year), Benson covers all angles of the crisis. In ‘Her’, Eleanor (Jessica…
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Written and directed by Belle and Sebastian’s lead singer Stuart Murdoch, God Help The Girl is an indie musical that follows three twenty-somethings in their attempt to form a pop band. The talented, young cast are a delight to watch as they sing and perform quirkily choreographed dance routines. The film switches between a musical…
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Alex (Natalia Tena) and Sergi (David Verdaguer) are very much in love, living in a poky apartment in Barcelona and planning to have a baby when Alex is offered an un-missable career opportunity. In Los Angeles. Living 10,000 kilometres apart, they make the best use of modern technology to stay in touch – Skype features…
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A Hitchcockian thriller in the country, Tom At The Farm is a grim exploration of homophobia, secrecy and family sustainability. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats), the film is based on the play of the same name by Michel Marc Bouchard. Tom – played by Dolan – is a young…
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Love comes in many forms. It can exist as the experience of first love between a young couple, the frustrating protective love a parent has for their child or the love a couple who have been together for nearly 40 years share. In Love is Strange, we see all three, and director Ira Sachs has…
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While any female with internet connection and a love of fashion and style are intimately familiar with street fashion photographer Scott Schuman from The Sartorialist, or fashion blogging powerhouse duo Tash Sefton and Elle Ferguson from They All Hate Us, not many are aware of Ari Seth Cohen’s work on fashion blog Advanced Style. Why?…
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The Good Life (La Belle Vie) is a French drama film based on a true story. It’s a delicate, coming of age tale and portrait of paternal love set in the freewheeling countryside. It asks some big questions about love and freedom. But while it is beautiful, it fails to fill in some of the…
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One of the entries in MIFF’s Big Scene – Small Screen program, Doll & Em is an unassuming portrait of a friendship that succeeds with a delightful mix of undeniable heart and unobtrusive style. Doll (Dolly Wells) and Em (Emily Mortimer) have been best friends since childhood. When Doll unceremoniously breaks up with her boyfriend,…
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We Are The Best! (Vi är bäst!) is a loaded title but this Swedish film is all about challenging your expectations. The movie was written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, who was adapting the graphic novel that his wife, Coco, had penned about her fictionalised teenage years. The result is a feel good, coming-of-age story…
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