Growing up, we always have a couple of books we connect with. For me, before there was Harry Potter and before I could fully appreciate the sheer brilliance of the Hitchhikers series, there was a little 1985 Sci-Fi novel called Ender’s Game. It was the sort of novel, that at nine years old – or…
Read MoreNote: This Review May Contain Spoilers How I Live Now is at once strange and intriguing. Set in the 21st century, How I Live Now tells the story of a young, American girl who is sent to live with her cousins in the English countryside, when a world war breaks out across the country. Daisy, the American, and…
Read MoreThree cheers for the return of Ferguson! Winston’s intense love of that cat remains a very amusing theme of this season and it was nice to have it brought to the forefront yet again. Winston also took on a bigger role in this episode, although he still seems the odd man out of the gang….
Read MoreAs with many European Art films, Blue Is The Warmest Colour requires patience. The film moves at a snail’s pace but this is only to increase the drama and tension at pivotal turning points in the narrative. That being said, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a beautiful character study that, with its depiction and…
Read MoreIt’s refreshing to see a war film that doesn’t concentrate on the ‘fighting’ aspect of war. Instead, The Railway Man, which opened the Brisbane International Film Festival, focuses on the effects of war such as post-traumatic stress disorder and its devastating nature for decades to come. Based on the autobiography by Eric Lomax, the film…
Read MoreFrom the man that brought you Trainspotting we have another gritty, intense depiction of debauchery, excessive drug and alcohol intake and the deterioration of the mind courtesy of the abuse of those substances. Climb aboard the rollercoaster and see if you can deduce what’s really going on in this mind-melding trip. Bruce Robertson ( James…
Read MoreMost people would have heard of, or at least recognise actor Bryan Brown, he’s an iconic part of Australian film, prolific in the 70s and 80s. There’s no doubt he’s brilliant, but it’s his daughter Matilda Brown who’s come into her own acting, writing and producing, that deserves kudos for creating this gem of mini-series….
Read MoreViewers going in to see this documentary were warned that it was going to be grizzly. But none were prepared for the disturbing images this film produced. Most of which were re-enactments and fantasies, but they were all horrific and true. The Act of Killing focuses on a group of retired gangsters in Indonesia. In…
Read MoreWe’ve really got to give kudos to New Girl for still coming up with the quirkiest plot ideas without getting too off-track or repetitive. This was a really solid episode, ticking all the boxes for amusement, development, and character airtime – Coach and Cece included. That being said, in the aftermath of last week’s episode,…
Read MoreYou know when you watch a film, and when someone asks you to describe what you just watched you’re completely lost for words? Ari Folman’s The Congress is one of those films. It’s a psychedelic rabbit hole that you’ll tumble down with increasing velocity, leaving logic and reason behind for an experience like no other. Robin Wright stars…
Read MoreThe horror anthology produced by FX in the US and now airing Monday nights on channel Eleven usually bases its setting, characters and plot around archetypal horror concepts and sub-genres. Now in its third incarnation, American Horror Story sets Coven modern day New Orleans with flashbacks to the nineteen hundreds and focuses on the supernatural aspect…
Read MoreTaking a slice of “Bourne Identity”, South Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan attempts to make an action-packed spy film reflecting upon the emotional connections denied to those who live as secret agents. Welcome to The Berlin File. In a hotel in Berlin, North Korean spy Pyo Jong-seong (Ha Jung-woo) is brokering an arms deal with a Russian broker and…
Read MoreWe’ve all witnessed it, whether on the news at an extreme scale, in our schools or workplaces, and may have been a victim or an instigator at some point. Bullying is a social sticking point, something that floats in and out of our peripheral vision, whether we acknowledge it or not. Director Shin Su-Won pulls the matter…
Read MoreSurely everyone gets excited about Christmas, right? Well Suzanne Bennington does! White Reindeer, written, directed and edited by Zach Clark, follows a period of where Suzanne (Anna Margaret Hollyman), a real-estate agent, deals with the sudden death of her husband Jeff (Nathan Williams), the local TV weatherman. This so happens during her favourite holiday season…
Read MoreEvery now and then a comedy comes along that just seems to work. It’s not terribly intelligent, nor will it win any Academy Awards, but it ticks the most important box that any comedy needs to possess: it’s genuinely hilarious, without being painfully cheesy. Already riding on healthy word of mouth in American cinemas, This Is…
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