The best thing I can say about The Autopsy of Jane Doe, “Best International Feature” at this years Monster Fest, is that it is a welcome, fresh new take on the horror genre… until it isn’t. Jane Doe follows Tommy and his son Austin (Brian Cox & Emile Hirsch, respectively) who work in a family run morgue beneath their home….
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Likely to come as a surprise to many that The Founder is less a success story regarding the origins of McDonalds, but more a tale on greed and the value of real estate, John Lee Hancock‘s engaging drama benefits from its stellar central performance from Michael Keaton, continuing the run he so assuredly began with…
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Some people claim they don’t look for drama, that drama looks for them. In Anna’s case, drama’s reared its ugly head in her life in the form a breakup with older man John. She seeks solace and support in her best friend Jean, who lives across the English channel in Paris. Jean welcomes his London-based…
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In Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them we are returned to the world of magic and wizards and witches but set in 1926 New York, USA well before our boy wonder Harry Potter was born. The film shifts the focus not only to a new protagonist but a brand new location which expands the…
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“I found a way to deal with the bad by going a little bit overboard with the good”, explained affable new character King Ezekiel (portrayed brilliantly by Khary Payton) as he gave Carol an eye-widening, grounded explanation of false-hope and the necessity of leadership. That quote from this week’s “The Well” accurately captures what The…
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So uh…the second episode of season two might very well be the most bizarre episode yet. Not that Ash vs Evil Dead is typically grounded or rooted in normalcy every other week but this ep certainly did its best to deliver a WTF moment. Now that Ruby has joined the gang, enlisting Ash, Pablo and Kelly’s…
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Everybody has their own line with respect to what they consider funny versus what is taboo. For some people there is no topic or thing that is off limits while others believe that some subjects – irrespective of the quality of the joke –are in poor taste. The Last Laugh is a documentary that examines…
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I remember when I first heard of The Da Vinci Code novel by Dan Brown, I couldn’t really understand the hype of it all and how it became a best-seller. The story felt like it was a more mature version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, since they both involve going on a quest…
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If the prospect of Israeli cuisine leaves you hungry to learn more then there is one documentary film for you. In Search of Israeli Cuisine attempts to answer the question, “What is Israeli cuisine?” In doing so it examines a diverse range of different influences and food styles on Israeli food, which ranges from street…
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The 80’s was such a fascinating time in history. I don’t think there are many shows set in the 80’s that I don’t end up loving or at least find myself mildly interested in. Video cameras the size of a small dog, TVs that produced great picture and sound as long as you gave them…
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Do you remember the 1977 Disney film Pete’s Dragon? No? Good, neither do most. But Disney’s new string of live action remakes is now having a crack at the original – which has become something of a cult favourite in the Disney archives – in an attempt to replicate their success with The Jungle Book…
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Gary Ross’ Civil War drama Free State of Jones recounts one of the most interesting, albeit lesser-known, tales from the 1860s and 70s in Mississippi. Matthew McConaughey’s Newton Knight, disillusioned with the Confederate forces, deserts the war and builds himself a ragtag army comprised of poor farmers and runaway slaves, bent on fighting back against…
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Pain and Gain. The Wolf of Wall Street. Scarface. What do these films have in common? The characters are all on a quest to achieve their own versions of the American Dream. They are all about greed and the seduction of power that shows that absolute power corrupts absolutely. But what makes the first two…
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Blake Lively finds herself in her own little Castaway-slash-All Is Lost-slash-Life of Pi type role with The Shallows, Director Jaume Collet-Serra placing a lot of faith in the young actress, who to this point is best known for her role on Gossip Girl. The purpose is to basically place Lively’s character, Nancy, as an injured…
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Little Men begins with Jake Jardine (Theo Taplitz) sitting quietly amidst anarchic scenes in a teacher-less classroom. Later that day, home from school, he takes a call from an old friend of his grandfather who, assuming that Jake knows more than he does, clumsily inquires about arrangements for Jake’s grandfather’s funeral. The juxtaposition of these…
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When I realized that the directors of this film (also the writers of The Hangover) also directed the awful 2013 teen comedy 21 and Over and contributed screenplays to abysmal comedies like Four Christmases, Ghost of Girlfriends Past and Rebound, it’s fair to say that I went into Bad Moms – out in cinemas tomorrow…
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Like many people in the world, Roald Dahl has been one of my favourite authors during my childhood. His twisted sense of humour, his unique whimsical touch and its warm-hearted tone have delighted kids as well as adults all around the world and even the film adaptations of his works have all been well-regarded by…
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that when Hollywood is on to a good thing, they will milk the shit out of it and exploit it until audiences are sick of it and then move on to the next “cool” thing. Right now that thing is very much zombies, so don’t be surprised to see…
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The dark comedy is, in my opinion, one of the hardest genres to accomplish. To take serious and taboo themes and put a humourous view on it requires an assured hand on all aspects of the storytelling. If the story is shown too serious, the humour will be seen as out of place. If the…
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Pixar Studios has long been regarded as one of the best animation studios in the world today, alongside Studio Ghibli, which in my denial still exists. But ever since the release of Cars 2, a disappointing sequel to a film that wasn’t that good to begin with, the seemingly infallible quality of Pixar has fallen….
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Craig Boreham’s beautifully filmed coming of age tale Teenage Kicks is a film that leaves you thinking long after the final credits have rolled. Writing this review two days after the film had its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival I find myself still grappling with its expert exploration of cultural and sexual identities…
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Over the course of the last century, warfare has been conducted on land, in the sea or in the air. But with thanks to our ever evolving technology there no longer needs to be a physical presence for war. It can now all be done electronically, digitally, silently and invisibly and cause irreparable damage. When…
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Kicking off this year’s “Freak Me Out” program as part of the Sydney Film Festival was Tyler MacIntyre’s Patchwork, a horror-comedy gem that managed to fly under the radar when it was released last year. The charming indie is a literal blend of character, inventive in the way it draws from the influential idea behind…
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Jodie Foster hops onto the Director’s seat for Money Monster, a sort-of thriller that rightfully leans on the collective charismatic energy of leads George Clooney and Julia Roberts, as well as impressive young gun (pun intended) Jack O’Connell, to bring to life a story of economic frustration, uncertainty, and greed with a timely punch. Distrust…
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“Ouroboros” was a substantial step in the right direction for Fear the Walking Dead, picking up the slack that dragged the previous two episodes with another excursion to an island, the introduction of new characters tying in from the Flight 462 webisodes, and the show’s biggest humans-versus-horde piece to date (as opposed to humans-overwhelmed-by-horde in…
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In terms of Coen brothers fare, Hail, Caesar! stands as one the duo’s most carefree affairs. Doing away with a cohesive narrative and firing on cylinders that are very much their own, the film is sure to tickle the funny bone of die-hard Coen brothers fans but likely to polarise general audiences who will attend…
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that when Hollywood is on to a good thing, they will milk the shit out of it and exploit it until audiences are sick of it and then move on to the next “cool” thing. Right now that thing is very much zombies, so don’t be surprised to see…
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Clearly a passion project for director Michael Bay, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a far-more restrained feature from the usually excessive filmmaker who (mostly) avoids the political side of things to deliver a factually-based action film. Surprisingly streamlined despite its overblown 144 minute running time, the film is the most disciplined we’ve seen Bay…
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Break out your best portmanteau because The Walking Dead has a big romance going on! After a relentless start to Season six, following by an inconsistent middle, we’re now edging towards the finale with the 10th episode, “The Next World”, taking a breather with a calmer, more relaxed focus on the show’s drama. The tone…
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Steve Jobs is the highly anticipated and Oscar nominated film based on the life of the late Apple CEO and co-founder of the same name. It’s the second take at a biopic on the iconic entrepreneur since his death – the first, Jobs (2013) starring Ashton Kutcher was widely panned, and didn’t see the support of…
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