The Goosebumps novel series was one I read religiously as a child growing up – in fact I don’t know many 90’s children who weren’t invested in this wonderfully ghoulish series – so the idea of a (long overdue) cinematic adaptation of R.L. Stine’s classic tales was one I embraced wholeheartedly. The type of subject matter…
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This weeks episode of Ash vs Evil Dead may as well be seen as a half of a two-parter because it ties in with last weeks episode very closely. Touching on the same themes and utilising the same locations and characters, it serves very well as an accompanying piece. Bound In The Flesh commences mid Ash vs…
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If we keep Accidental Love out of the conversation (and he’d wish everyone would), David O. Russell has had an incredible few years. A man who struggled to get films made for almost a decade (following the successful Three Kings in 1999, his only release until The Fighter in 2010 was the underrated I Heart Huckabees…
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Visionary Director Paolo Sorrentino gives us one of his most universally appealing and accessible works to date with Youth, calling upon the ageless talents of Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel and a scene-stealing Rachel Weisz, to deliver a fascinating, surreal – almost absurd – exploration of legacy, loss, wisdom, memory, and cynicism. Set exclusively in…
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Spectre is the 24th James Bond film, 52 years into a franchise that has defined and redefined espionage thrillers, showing absolutely no signs of stopping both financially and creatively after Skyfall’s overwhelming success in 2012. Sure Daniel Craig’s iteration of Bond has given us some dull moments (see Quantum of Solace), but the 47 year…
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Over the last couple of years thanks to the wonderful team at National Theatre Live they’ve been bringing some of the greatest theatrical plays from the National Theatre in London to cinema screens across the world. For those who are unable to see these plays in the flesh, seeing them via NT: Live has been…
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The last time we were treated to an appearance by the Zygons was in the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, titled “The Day of the Doctor”. Foregrounding the episode in recounting that episode, “The Zygon Invasion” had much to live up to. If you don’t recall, “The Day of the Doctor” explored how the Doctor(s)…
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The trailers released for Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak make the film look like a horror-infused haunted house type film. In actual fact it’s not; well not entirely anyway, since Del Toro has instead crafted a gothic romance film that harkens back to story-telling styles of yester-year – it just so happens to be set…
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It’s a pretty common trope for movies to ask ‘how far would you go’, but it’s not all that frequent that I’m faced with a movie that asks how far I would go for a painting. The Woman in Gold is a fascinating, if a little unambitious and conventional, film that tackles the true story…
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Staring music and spoken word legend Henry Rollins, He Never Died is exactly the kind of Grindhouse trash you want to see at an underground film festival. It’s like reading a comic book that was self published in the days where that meant a photocopier and a guillotine. There’s something old school about this whole…
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M. Night Shyamalan has copped a lot of criticism in the previous years, some of it warranted, but most of it an overreaction to his missteps. Granted, The Last Airbender, After Earth, and Lady in the Water were particularly bad movies, right alongside the laughable The Happening which was even trashed by it’s lead actor…
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We are now in the second half of the first season of Fear the Walking Dead and the showrunners have decided to flip the script, jumping us ahead nine days to the creation of a safe zone, just one of 12 quarantined areas below the San Gabriel mountains – according to the military anyway –…
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If you had seen what Madison has seen over the course of Fear the Walking Dead‘s first two episodes would you gather your two kids for a good ol’ game of Monopoly before following them out into the night to find a shotgun, while leaving a barking dog in your house, with the damn back…
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In the early 1960’s a movement was beginning to grow amongst the African-Americans in the United States. It began in the south led by Martin Luther King Jr with a pacifist push but soon a group emerged in the west coastal city of Oakland (near San Francisco), founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale came…
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Where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality? When does thinking about committing a crime become a crime? Can we be convicted just because our Google searches were for suspicious or potentially dangerous things? These are just some of the questions posed by the chilling documentary titled Thought Crimes: The Case of the…
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A deeply emotional and captivating film, Mia Madre (My Mother) stands as what is bound to be one of the many beautifully told Italian films on offer for the Lavazza Italian Film Festival. Having won awards from the likes of the Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Prize of the Ecumenical Jury), and being directed by Nanni…
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In the mid-90’s, Timothy Conigrave published his bestselling memoir, titled Holding the Man, 10 days before his death. It was a story so intimate and full of warmth that it continued to resonate with Australian audiences over the years. Tommy Murphy adapated it into an award-winning stage production in 2006, and now Director Neil Armfield…
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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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A fun blend of period piece and gothic horrorshow, the first season of Penny Dreadful wasn’t quite the slam-dunk Showtime might have hoped it would be – but it still managed to be solid debut for a show refreshingly different to much of the prestige and genre drama on offer these days. Season 2 is…
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Trailing behind the release of the enormous The Avengers: Age of Ultron comes the final film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 2 line up of films, Ant-Man. After much talk surrounding the production prior to its release, and always ongoing questions of ‘what if’ we’re now witness to the final product. It’s surprisingly small…
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I didn’t like 2012’s Ted. The jokes were as uninspired as the ridiculous plot, relying on the same formula that makes Family Guy a tedious watch and putting too much faith in shots of a teddy bear being crude and smoking bongs being funny. That said, I couldn’t stop laughing during Seth MacFarlane’s Ted 2…
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I’m ending my Sydney Film Festival coverage looking at a short film that was a perfect end to the run of incredible cinema at the 62nd annual event. Sari Braithwaite’s Smut Hounds was a nine minute film, screening before the French film Metamorphoses, detailing the festival’s role in bringing the conversation of censorship to the…
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In the mid-90’s, Timothy Conigrave published his bestselling memoir, titled Holding the Man, 10 days before his death. It was a story so intimate and full of warmth that it continued to resonate with Australian audiences over the years. Tommy Murphy adapated it into an award-winning stage production in 2006, and now Director Neil Armfield…
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When veteran, Iranian filmmaker, Jafar Panahi was jailed in 2010 and banned from making films this made him even more determined to carry on doing just that. In this time he has made not one but three movies, the most recent being Tehran Taxi. This one sees fiction dressed up as a documentary and it…
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Get on Up was the entrée, a biopic on the inimitable, James Brown. But Oscar-winner, Alex Gibney’s documentary, Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown is the more substantial, main course. For over two hours the audience is treated to a film that is full of music and flamboyance, from old performances on stage and…
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Gabriel Ripstein’s 600 Miles is a straight shooter unconcerned with excess narrative baggage, clocking in at 85 minutes with a minimal gun trafficking plot that relies on talented actors and raw cinematography to place this project as a worthy debut feature for the Mexican filmmaker. Veteran Tim Roth brings a solid performance to the film,…
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On the surface Last Cab To Darwin is not just a film about euthanasia, but a film about the people you meet on the greatest journey you take of all, living the one single life you have. A road movie that’s a drama with heart and emotion at its core and a cast of genuine…
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Slow West is the story of a young, wide-eyed Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who undertakes a journey to find his ‘true love’, Rose (Caren Pistorius). Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender) soon enters the picture, vowing to help him survive his journey for a small fee. Unbeknownst to Jay, a bounty has been placed on the heads…
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Silicon Valley is a TV show that takes a byte out of life in that American, computer wonderland, showing various male geeks working at large technological companies. The series is by Mike Judge (Beavis & Butt-head, King of The Hill) who actually worked as an engineer in Silicon Valley in the 1980s. This TV show…
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Westeros is not somewhere I’d ever like to live. It’s dark, brutal, and defeating, full of liars, manipulative Littlefingers, and selfish Queens who do not put the same amount of value in life as we (most of us) do in the real world. If you’re looking for justice, you’ve come to the wrong place. George…
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