Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie offers fans another crazy, glamorous adventure with characters that are as colourful as the film itself. Laughs, cameos and questionable life choices galore – welcome back Sweetie Darlings!
A good horror flick is metal-as-fuck. Tasmanian director, Sean Byrne, embraces this sentiment with a twisted, electric-guitar-infused follow-up to his debut feature, The Loved Ones. With Devil’s Candy, Byrne once again demonstrates uncommon cinematic focus, but the end product is not without its off-key moments. The film immerses itself in alternative artistry from the hard…
James Wan’s haunted house oeuvre is a well-oiled machine. Creaky floorboards and fearsome presences roll off the production line like clockwork; creepy, broken, grandfather clockwork. And, although The Conjuring 2 is bound by formula, when the scares are this good, I’m happy to buckle my seatbelt and enjoy the ride. Wan’s recent good form (Insidious et al) is…
Goldstone, Ivan Sen’s sequel to 2013’s Mystery Road, begins with sepia-toned photographs of Australia’s past. White families gathered around dining room tables. Gold miners dusted with grime. Indigenous children bedecked in white frocks. A procession of Chinese immigrants walking through the centre of a mining town. These photographs simultaneously hint at Goldstone’s allegorical intent as…
Along with another one of last year’s directorial debuts – John Magary’s The Mend – Josh Mond’s James White signals a new direction for New York indie cinema. Inspired by the improvisational energy of early Cassavettes and Jarmusch’s calculated coolness, James White offers an unconventional coming-of-age narrative that incorporates tragedy without allowing it to sublimate…
New Zealand writer-director-actor Taika Waititi has always had a quirky comedic streak. With his latest, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, he’s closest to a defining style that can easily translate across a variety of audiences. That might be why he’s been selected to helm the next instalment of Marvel’s Thor franchise. His first feature film Eagle…
I enjoyed this flick—but then again, I’m an X-Men disciple who worships at the altar of film series progenitor, Bryan Singer. Ordinary film-goers who don’t know their Wolverines from their Cyclopses may be inclined to mutter ‘X-Meh’ when leaving the theatre. And understandably so as, on this occasion, Singer fails to find cohesion with a…
A boy’s best friend is his mother. Not exempt is 50-something real estate flunkey, Frank Mollard (Anthony LaPaglia), who struggles to come to terms with the death of his biological mum. But fate intervenes in the shape of ‘surrogate mother’, Sarah (Julia Blake) who offers him friendship and closure. Sundays proves a decent contemplation of…
Rams’ Icelandic valley is populated by sheep and people, in roughly that order of importance. The separation between the two populaces isn’t particularly distinct, given the prevalence of shaggy white beards and thick wool-knit sweaters. Sheep are integral to the local economy and ecosystem, and especially to ageing farmer Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson), who treats his…
I’m eternally thankful that the title of Jerry Rothwell’s Greenpeace documentary, How to Change the World, is an ironic one. Structured around a series of Greenpeace founder Bob Hunter’s ‘rules’ (from “Plant a Mind Bomb” to “Let the Power Go”), Rothwell is more interested in deconstructing the failures of Greenpeace than lionising its successes (though…
ccpopculture 