On Sunday 21st of July this year, the world stopped as former US President, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt. The last attempted American Presidential assassination attempt was March 30, 1981 when John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan. This significant world event sparked global interest about history repeating itself. In Queensland, Australia,…
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There very easily could’ve been an air of farce and faux suspense about The Great Escaper. A true story centring on Bernard Jordan (Michael Caine) – a near-90-year-old who staged a “great escape” from his retirement home in 2014 in order to join his fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy to commemorate their…
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In the summer of 2014, Bernard Jordan made global headlines. He had staged a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades at the D-Day Landings 70th anniversary. It was a story that captured the imagination of the world as Bernie embodied the…
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With all that Bob Marley achieved before his passing at only the age of 36, it makes sense that his life be served the biopic treatment, and with King Richard helmer Reinaldo Marcus Green as a director, there’s perhaps even more of a sense of how emotionally impactful such a tale could be. But seemingly…
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For his debut feature, 2011’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, writer/director Sean Durkin specified that the actions that unfolded weren’t moulded after any one specific cult – the film centred around a young woman suffering from delusions and paranoia after returning to her family from an abusive cult in the Catskill Mountains – and that he more based his narrative after his…
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In the same week that Ferrari arrives in Australian theatres, Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia hits American multiplexes, digital and On Demand (an Australian release is yet to be determined), showcasing a more accessible racing story and the men driving such to fruition. Creative licence and enhanced melodrama are unavoidable in telling this particular…
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There’s nothing wrong with a movie being nice, but George Clooney‘s old-fashioned drama The Boys in the Boat is a little too sweet and tropey for its own good. Based on Daniel James Brown‘s best-selling nonfiction novel of the same name, the 1930s set tale feels as if it’s been made in that era through…
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Compared to the other “exceptional man” biopics of the last year (Oppenheimer, Maestro, Napoleon), Michael Mann‘s Ferrari is, sadly, the least interesting. Whilst it doesn’t take an entirely traditional narrative – the film only shows us a certain chunk of the man’s life – and Adam Driver does his best with his showy role, to…
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If you browse long enough on Twitter, sorry, X, you’ll note that there’s still chatter and self-diagnosed “hot takes” regarding Taika Waititi‘s 2019 outing Jojo Rabbit. The film already had its share of detractors in the immediate aftermath of its release, but an Oscar win for Best Screenplay and the general good word for its…
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There’s already been an abundance of films, television series and books that have detailed the greedy, unethical foundations of the pharmaceutical industry in America. And whilst Netflix’s Pain Hustlers may not be the most investigative and favours entertainment over education, it’s a further insight into the peddling of the opioid crisis and acts as something…
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Watching Dumb Money it’s not hard to be reminded of The Social Network. Aside from the fact that Craig Gillespie‘s comedic drama is produced by The Winklevoss Twins – the brothers who had a major role in the creation of Facebook, at least according to them – Dumb Money is similarly recounting one of the…
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There’s a certain period-piece sexuality billowing through Widow Clicquot that brings to mind other such similarly-set efforts as Atonement and Pride & Prejudice. And given that those films’ second-unit director, Thomas Napper, is at the helm here, it makes perfect sense that such detail and intimacy is adhered to; fittingly, Joe Wright, director of the…
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Before I get into my review of Sound of Freedom, I will briefly touch on the fact that its release has been shrouded in understandable controversy. Overall, I am looking at Alejandro Monteverde‘s true story-inspired thriller as a film on its own accord, and not the QAnon/conservative power-endorsed creature it will ultimately be remembered as….
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It’s the incredible true story that you may have never heard of. The latest film from acclaimed District 9 director Neil Blomkamp, Gran Turismo is a biographical sports drama based not only on the iconic race simulation game from Playstation, but the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a British Gran Turismo player who harnessed his…
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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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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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Whilst it’s fair to say that not every respective project of director Abel Ferrera and actor Shia LaBeouf is successful in their individual execution, you can’t deny the absolute dedication they both have regarding their craft. Ferrara, whose varied career has seen him helm such divisive works as King of New York, Harvey Keitel’s lauded…
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Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to the new action comedy The Machine, starring Bert Kreischer and Mark Hamill, inspired by Kreischer’s viral story of his booze-soaked misadventures with the Russian mafia. Set 23 years after the original story which inspired it, The Machine finds Bert (Bert Kreischer) facing familial crisis and the arrival of…
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Remember the uproar there was regarding Jared Leto’s Italian accent in House of Gucci? Prepare to have a field day with whatever Russell Crowe is attempting in The Pope’s Exorcist. And not only is it the vocal inflection of good ole’ Rusty, but his whole general demeanour throughout Julius Avery’s horror romp, where he swigs…
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Telling a story with an ending we’re already aware of and centred around a subject that could be considered mundane to many, Ben Affleck‘s strength as a director – and enthusiastic support player – is on full display in Air, an immensely humorous, consistently riveting and passionate drama about the basketball league’s greatest ever player…
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There’s a formula adhered to and a lack of mould breaking throughout Matt Ruskin‘s Boston Strangler, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t an effective take on an establish genre, with his script executing compelling narrative arcs and supplying the always-watchable Keira Knightley a role with sense and purpose. She stars as Loretta McLaughlin, a…
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Even though one of the experts interviewed in Satan Wants You expresses that the 1980’s phenomenon known as “Satanic Panic” is seen as something of a joke through the eyes of today, there’s nothing particularly funny about the accusations that were being thrown around at the time. Perhaps it’s something of an absurdity when looking…
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The murder of Emmett Till in 1955, Mississippi, still stands as one of America’s most shocking (and shameful) moments, even now almost 7 decades later. If you’re unaware – like myself going into this stirring drama – the 14-year-old Till (Jalyn Hall) was visiting family in Mississippi, the first time he had ever really been…
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The opening scrawl of Mohit Ramchandani‘s Dreamer states the horrifying statistic that there are 40 million people enslaved around the world today, and that this is more than any other time in history. Each of those people had a dream and a destiny, and it’s Dreamer that highlights just one of those stories. Now, given…
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It’s alarming to think that the name Jason Derek Brown is one that had been on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list for 15 years; only this past September was his name removed, though he remains a wanted criminal. I say alarming as it’s not a name it seems people are overly familiar with,…
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They often say that truth can be stranger than fiction, and in the case of Cocaine Bear, the truth is wild, high, very bloody, darkly funny, and doesn’t play well with others. Of course, this is only an “inspired by” truth, the type of truth that gets gloriously twisted for the sake of bombastic entertainment. …
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“The bear does cocaine. Big, bang, boom, that’s your movie!” And just like that, Alden Ehrenreich and O’Shea Jackson Jr. perfectly sum up the entirety of Cocaine Bear‘s narrative and reason for being during a sometimes emotional, always entertaining conversation with our Peter Gray ahead of the film’s release. Inspired by the 1985 true story of…
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Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, Cocaine Bear is a wild dark comedy that finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest, where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount…
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Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia we have 5 digital double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the wild new comedy Cocaine Bear, directed by Elizabeth Banks, in cinemas from February 23rd, 2023. Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild…
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Boasting a truly spectacular ensemble cast and detailing both the American legal system and the “blind eye” mentality that often accompanies accusations of sexual assault, Miranda’s Victim is an occasionally shaky, but always captivating true story drama. Despite its 1960’s setting, Michelle Danner‘s film feels all too relevant in this current climate; no doubt in…
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