When it’s said that Tom Cruise saved cinema in 2022, it isn’t a statement made lightly or with any false sincerity. Top Gun: Maverick was the invitation needed to truly bring audiences out of the comfort of their home after almost 2 years of enforced hibernation and the ease of the streaming services. Had the…
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After a genuinely scary first offering in James Wan‘s Insidious (2010), the Leigh Whannell-created series has failed to make good on any of the unnerving potential with its sequels (and prequels) going forward. As each subsequent film seems to earn less and less favourable word from critics and audiences, there’s an almost immediate sense of…
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Enmore Road was buzzing. Not just because it was a crisp Saturday night in mid-winter, but because Reuben Kaye was back and his presence at the glorious Enmore Theatre was highly anticipated by the public and police alike. Many words have been written about Kaye’s appearance on The Project in April, but it was the…
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The themes tackled throughout Warwick Thornton‘s The New Boy are presented with symbolic, almost-magical and allegorical physicality. And though its 1940’s Australian setting lends interesting conversation to its religious outlay and the clashing of beliefs at the time, the film itself doesn’t quite contain the spark needed to earn true impact; though it’s not for…
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With No Hard Feelings reminding audiences that, yes, adult-aimed comedies do in fact belong on a big screen, and the streaming model doesn’t have to be a singular option now that we have shifted primarily out of the pandemic mentality, Adele Lim‘s raunchy Joy Ride continues that temperament that the big screen will always benefit…
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BlueAnt is no stranger to the Bluetooth speaker game. While we’ve reviewed some smaller speakers in the past like the X0i and X1i, we now have the pleasure of checking out one of BlueAnt’s larger offerings. Valued at A$579, the X6 party speaker provides some impressive, balanced sound along with a laundry list of handy…
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Described as a “verbatim description” of what happened to Reality Winner (yes, that’s an actual name), an American Air Force veteran, who was suspected of leaking classified government information to the media while she was working as a translator with top-secret security clearance in June 0f 2017, Tina Satter‘s stage play “Is This A Room”…
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I’m a massive fan of the Alien franchise. So much so, that Aliens still sits well within my top ten films of all time. Yes, there’s a list, but let’s put that aside for now. Aliens: Dark Descent is yet another attempt to bring validity and ultimately justice to the long-running franchise in video game…
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There’ll always be a certain excitement in seeing Harrison Ford don a fedora and crack the whip when embodying one Indiana Jones. After a tight, though not always flawless, original trilogy across the 1980’s (Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, Temple of Doom in 1984, and Last Crusade in 1989), many believed the magic…
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For a franchise that has existed as long as Final Fantasy has, it’s amazing to see how it’s still evolving into what we now know to be Final Fantasy XVI (16). While it’s not the sixteenth game overall, the sixteenth mainline entry brings forth a new story, fresh characters and one incredibly revamped combat system….
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If real life in the big city is getting too much, you can yeet yourself over to a virtual countryside complete with vast farmlands, adorable barn animals and even the promise of friendship and romance. This is Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, a remaster of the GameCube classic, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Back…
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I’m a huge Formula 1 fan and tend to jump into the yearly F1 release for some additional action during the current season. While I certainly enjoyed F1 22, I felt it was lacking something, and at times holding back. As the last thing I really enjoyed about the franchise came in the form of…
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Continuing from the toned-down sexualism that 2018’s Bumblebee adopted – the first Transformers sequel that was directed by someone other than series staple Michael Bay – which, coincidentally, earned the franchise its highest praise from collective critics, Steven Caple Jr.‘s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a similarly wholesome, Saturday morning popcorn flick that is…
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Whilst Jennifer Lawrence has lightly flexed her comedic muscle over the years – her Golden Globe-winning turn in 2013’s American Hustle probably the closest she’s come to being the comedienne she so clearly is – No Hard Feelings finally allows the supremely charismatic and comedically capable performer to embrace the genre with all the shamelessness…
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There are few films as meditative and rhythmic as what Wim Wenders managed to achieve here with Perfect Days. Known for his past documentaries and dramas, this German auteur presents a celebration of living a beautifully present life that is fresh out of Cannes and was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, where it…
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The cult hit franchise Katamari is back with a remastered take of the much-loved We Love Katamari game from the Playstation 2 era. Titled ‘We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie”, this powered-up version of the original has improved graphics, new features and various additional quality-of-life upgrades. For those uninitiated into the world of Katamari,…
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Originally conceived as a long short by director Angus McDonald, Freedom Is Beautiful is a timely documentary about the refugee experience in Australia, the cruciality of human rights, and the value in equality for all citizens living under the same rule. Shining a necessary light on the brutal processing regime that takes place on the…
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The fifth directorial effort from actor Steve Buscemi, and his first since 2007’s Interview, The Listener is an intensely quiet film, one that hones a sobering nature that can’t help but speak to its prime pandemic nature. COVID-19 is never specifically stated across the film’s sensitive 96 minutes, but the loneliness in the story’s set-up…
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There’s an utterly fascinating (and still unsolved) murder case at the centre of Maggie Moore(s), the second directorial feature from Mad Men alum John Slattery, which aims for Coen Brothers-esque comedic darkness, but unfortunately falls short of Fargo greatness. The real case at hand was a dual assassination of sorts in 2000 Texas, where two…
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From the opening shot of Barnaby Clay‘s The Seeding there’s a sense that nothing will be as it initially appears. There’s an immediate knowing that hell will break loose over the 94 minutes that are to come when we see the imagery of a baby chewing on human flesh in quite the most casual of…
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Conjuring a metropolis that separates the elements – fire, water, earth and air – as if they were diverse ethnicities, Elemental, in the guise of a romantic comedy, operates as a metaphor for the opposing views of race and class. For a Pixar movie it all may seem a little heavy-handed, but Peter Sohn‘s delightful…
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An eco-terrorism thriller where the bombers are the good guys, Daniel Goldhaber‘s How To Blow Up A Pipeline is structured as if it’s playing to a heist movie temperament, but it’s layered with a topical, current commentary that lends the film a young freshness; very much a movie of the “now”. Relying on ideas realised…
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Described as a “verbatim description” of what happened to Reality Winner (yes, that’s an actual name), an American Air Force veteran, who was suspected of leaking classified government information to the media while she was working as a translator with top-secret security clearance in June 0f 2017, Tina Satter‘s stage play “Is This A Room”…
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A historical figure whose achievements are all the more remarkable due to the obstacles faced as the son of a white father and black mother, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, is highlighted, but not quite as richly celebrated in Stephen Williams‘s Chevalier. And given the extraordinary details of his life story, it’s a shame that…
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I had never really played much of the Diablo series. While I had played each of them in some way or at some point in my life, they’ve never really stuck with me. Be it the ageing mechanics and visuals of Diablo and Diablo II on the PC, to the early days of Diablo III,…
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There’s a palpable sense of unrest that litters the core of Catching Dust, Stuart Gatt‘s feature debut that speaks to one woman’s sense of autonomy and choosing between the devil she knows and that she doesn’t. The woman in question is Geena (Erin Moriarty), whose isolated Texas desert locale is the result of her violent…
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It’s an exciting time for the Australian arts when we get to see an ambitious, personal, and original Australian musical take the stage. Driftwood the Musical presents a captivating tale of hope and perseverance which delves into poignant themes involving the Holocaust, inter-generational trauma, sacrifices in times of war, and the perseverance of art. Created,…
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The themes tackled throughout Warwick Thornton‘s The New Boy are presented with symbolic, almost-magical and allegorical physicality. And though its 1940’s Australian setting lends interesting conversation to its religious outlay and the clashing of beliefs at the time, the film itself doesn’t quite contain the spark needed to earn true impact; though it’s not for…
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Despite the simple premise of Celine Song‘s Past Lives and its romantic comedy connotations, the film is anything but. Burning slow and composing its emotions until it knows when to release them in a flood of responsive passion, Song’s impeccable debut is a drama of humanism and quiet complexity. Set over the span of 24…
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Whilst the breakdown of a marriage and the impending custody battle that will take place as to whose time favours the child in question has been a reliable staple for cinematic drama over the years – most recently displayed in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and perhaps most famously in 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer – queer…
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