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Old Wolf, No New Tricks
Despite Martin Scorsese’s recent reputation as a thoroughly mainstream filmmaker whose work attracts mass praise and awards – only one of his last five cinematic releases hasn’t received Best Picture...
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Pet Shop Boys’ Avant-Garde Anti-Thatcher Refrain: It Couldn’t Happen Here
The Pet Shop Boys’ 1993 album, Very, is identified as their unofficial “coming out” record by fans given its musical and visual stylisation, lyrical content, and the fact that lead singer Neil Tennant...
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‘The Great Gatsby’ Continues Worrying Trend by Australia’s Biggest Film Night
For the second year in the row the humbly self-titled “Australian Oscars”, or the AACTA Awards, gave a single film all but one of the awards for which it was nominated. Last year’s belle of the ball...
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The Camera as God in Mother Joan of the Angels
In Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Mother Joan of the Angels, the director places his camera in the figurative and literal position of God. In this Cannes-winning title from 1961, Kawalerowicz’s stunning,...
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12 of Laura Dern’s Greatest Gif Moments
It’s Laura Dern’s birthday today, which is cause for celebration. Hell, it should be a national holiday! On my old blog I used to have a tag labelled “The Facial Expressions of Laura Dern” because,...
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Foreplay and Desire in Hawaii
Marco Berger’s Hawaii is essentially 100 minutes of mental foreplay. A game between two men filled less with heated physical battles of strength and stamina, but rather secret glances, escalating...
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De Palma and Carpenter Inspire New Genre Thrills in Grand Piano and Blood...
Like many modern films that fall into the niche genre game, Grand Piano and Blood Glacier owe much of their inceptions to other, old films. Thankfully, these two wonderfully audience-baiting flicks...
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2013: Best and Brightest
I guess I should do this, yeah? I saw more films in 2013 than any year before – both films from 2013 and just films in general – so I at least feel like the following “ballot” is a more comprehensive...
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The Enemy of My Enemy
If the enemy of my enemy is my friend then what do we make of Enemy? When your enemy is yourself, does that mean you’re your own worst enemy and best friend? Thankfully for a film made of such...
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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Village People in Can’t Stop the Music
Infamous bad movie Can’t Stop the Music is perhaps one of the strangest pictures ever made. Watching it today, whether for the first time or the seventh, it is impossible to look at it without the...
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Cold in July, The Babadook, and the Knife’s Edge of Horror References
Horror films are becoming more referential. This probably isn’t a surprise to anybody who watches these movie, not should it be a surprise given it’s only natural to recycle what one reveres. Still,...
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Burning Blue Runs Cold
Subtlety is apparently not in writer/director DMW Greer’s repertoire if his debut feature, Burning Blue, is any indication. This is a well-intentioned drama about the development of and eventual...
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Wallowing at Willow Creek
By pure definition, a “found footage” film implies something that Willow Creek ultimately fails at. The basic idea behind of these films is that something terrible has happened and all that remains is...
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Buying and Selling in Ukraine
The necessity for and the corruptibility of modern political activism is portrayed with beautiful formal imagery and slick editing in Ukraine is Not a Brothel. An Australian and Ukrainian co-production...
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California Dreamy in Curio L for Leisure
A hipster’s paradise. A societal mix-tape art project that utilises dream-like ‘90s aesthetics to tell the seemingly disconnected lives of young people at leisure. Set to the cooing sounds of a retro...
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The Boys of Summer… Suddenly, Last Summer.
I wonder if it’s for the best that the trilogy of acclaimed Tennessee Williams plays of the 1950s were all directed by different people, lest their power with themes of the repressed queer, simmering...
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Falling for Fell
The way the Australian film industry is at the moment, it’s hardly surprising that there have been several filmmakers this year alone that are finding exceptional and even complex ways of telling...
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Through a Lens Darkly Offers Insight, but Little Art
Thomas Allen Harris’ Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People feels more like an element of an art exhibit more than a stand-alone film. It’s unsurprising to learn that...
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Canopy is High Above the Rest
Canopy begins with a five-minute sequence that sets the scene splendidly for the film to come, but may also test the patience of many viewers. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear of people leaving during...
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Trainspotting with Stations of the Elevated
I have been lucky in the last 12 months to have been able to see Wild Style, Beat Street, and Style Wars on the big screen. They are all exceptional films in their ways, and especially when viewed...
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