Sometimes we get two films released around the same time with the same basic concept (eg: Deep Impact and Armageddon both films concerning a giant meteor headed for Earth; or Dante’s Peak and Volcano, both dealing with destructive volcanic eruptions). Another case in point is the new horror film Baghead. A quick skim of the…
The Alliance Française French Film Festival feels like a cultural institution in Australia. But it might be somewhat surprising to learn this is the largest celebration of French cinema outside of France. And even more impressively, this year marks 35 years of the festival bringing the best in French film Down Under. The 2024 edition,…
Birds chirp on a summer’s day. Families enjoy a picnic by a stream. A woman tends to beautiful flowers in her garden… Welcome to the most disturbing film of the year. British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (probably best known for Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson) goes where few have dared to tread in The Zone…
Set in rural Victoria, The Rooster marks a highly imaginative and impactful feature film debut for writer and director Mark Leonard Winter. The double Helpmann Award-winning actor, who featured in Elvis, Balibo and The Dressmaker, drew on personal experience to create something special. The film deals with masculinity, isolation and crisis; and features an introverted…
Jamaican born singer/songwriter Bob Marley was one of the music legends of the 70s, with his fusion of reggae, blues and soul achieving mainstream success. Time Magazine named his seminal 1977 album Exodus as the greatest record of the twentieth century. He has sold over 75 million records and has been inducted into the Rock…
Imagine if you had the ability to see into the future and change the outcome. That idea is at the centre of Marvel’s latest superhero movie, which the studio would like to turn into a franchise. Brought up in foster homes, Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a paramedic. All she knows is that her mother…
The latest film from Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismaki is Fallen Leaves, a deceptively simple and quirky rom-com about two-star crossed lovers in Helsinki. Two lonely down-on-their-luck, working class people meet at a karaoke bar. But they find the path to making a connection and maybe finding happiness is not smooth sailing. Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) is…
Non-indigenous Australians have often had a rather fraught relationship with the landscape of this continent. On one hand, its “boundless plains” offered a sense of opportunity; a chance to control the environment. But the land is also sometimes perceived as a wild place that can never be controlled. This led to a pervading sense of…
This semi-autobiographical coming of age drama from Canadian filmmaker Anthony Shim explores the immigrant experience, the difficulty of fitting in and adjusting to a new culture and making friends with insight and empathy. The film is set in the 90s. Following the suicide of her soldier boyfriend, who suffered from schizophrenia, So-Young (Choi Seung-yoon, a…
May December is a richly layered, melodramatic but deliberately ambiguous character study from director Todd Haynes (Carol). The film was inspired by the real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a 34-year-old schoolteacher who was convicted of abusing her 13-year-old student. After completing her jail sentence for statutory rape, she married her teenage victim and started…
