Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez Explain the Global Financial Crisis in The Big Short

“Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.” The above quote appears roughly midway through The Big Short, Adam McKay’s star-studded, irreverent take on 2008’s global financial crisis. It’s an effective encapsulation of a film that operates as the rare piece of ‘edutainment’ that’s both legitimately educational and entertaining while providing a self-reflexive…

Pan (2015)

I remember a time. A special time, when around every corner was another secret waiting to be discovered, another story to be told. It was a time that could never end. Of course it did end. We grew up. Reality intertwined our perception and the tales we’d created faded into insignificance. Pan asks us to…

Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)

Brett Morgen, the director of documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck, possesses two advantages few documentarians have. The first is that his subject – Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain – has become such a cultural icon that there’s no need for him to rehash the broad details of his life story. The second is his unprecedented…

Extended Cut: Splendour in the Grass 2013

There’s a certain smell to Splendour in the Grass. There’s that earthy bush smell – part grass, part manure, a distant hint of the sea, the scent of fresh mud baking in the late afternoon sun. There’s that people smell – that warm sweat pong that’s so overwhelming it’s almost pleasant, the shared burden of…

20 Years of Triple J’s Hottest 100

When the “20 Years of Hottest 100” was announced yesterday, you’d be forgiven for experiencing some déjà vu. Didn’t we just celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hottest 100 back in 2009, with another “All-Time Hottest 100?” Of course, this is supposed to commemorate the first annual Hottest 100 (songs from that year), and, conveniently,…