Talk about the power and passion. Iconic Australian band Midnight Oil has always had that in spades. Now the new documentary Midnight Oil 1984 captures that in their heyday; when they were reshaping the lives of young Australians. This is a grass roots band that went about the business its own way. It didn’t chase…
In 1986 comedian Rodney Dangerfield went Back to School for one of his better comedies. Thirty years later, comic Melissa McCarthy goes back to school for the flat and largely lifeless Life of the Party . This is the third collaboration between McCarthy and her writer/director husband Ben Falcone. It follows the awful Tammy; and…
On the night of 18 July 1969, a car driven by the last remaining scion of the famous Kennedy family careened off a bridge on Chappaquiddick, a small island just off Martha’s Vineyard. The political cost to Senator Ted Kennedy was great, but nothing like the devastation suffered by the family of Mary Jo Kopechne,…
Anyone who has ever had a newborn in the house will immediately relate to Jason Reitman’s Tully. This funny, affecting film delivers a compelling tale of motherhood in the 21st Century. Of course, it also marks the reunion of Reitman with Diablo Cody. It’s now 11 years since their breakout hit Juno, and their only…
– The Bookshop – Only in cinemas from 24 May 2018 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name; The Bookshop is set in 1959. Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), a free-spirited widow, risks everything to…
– Hereditary – Only in cinemas from 7 June 2018 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to StudioCanal. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they…
At the risk of offending true believers, this is a church movie. It pivots around forgiveness. To the best of my knowledge, it was largely, if not entirely, funded from church resources. I dare say its key audience will be those of the faith, and ex-pat New Zealanders (it was made there, and is set…
Imagine if we lived in but one version of the world and there were other incarnations. What would be the benefits and the dangers? That mind-bending contention is at the heart of the low budget Australian sci-fi drama, The Gateway. Physicist and researcher Jane Chandler (Jacqueline McKenzie) is happily married to writer, Matt (Myles Pollard)….
Breath is a haunting and elegiac coming-of-age tale. Set on the wind-swept coast of Western Australia in the 70s, it centres on two 14-year old surf rats. Bruce Pike – aka Pikelet – (Samuel Coulter) and Ivan Loon – aka Loonie – (Ben Spence) are best friends. Pike is a good boy from a respectable…
The unique talent that was Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunipingu is showcased in this reverential documentary written and directed by Paul Williams. Gurrumul is known as a band member of Yothu Yindi; and a supreme artist in his own right. He spoke little, but said so much through his evocative music. More often than not he let…
