Ask any marijuana advocate about the transcendental qualities of smokin’ da herb and they’ll probably tell you it can overcome just about anything – culture, language, ideology, social/economic divide etcetera etcetera.
Stoner flicks of the western world tend to reflect ganga’s global ubiquitousness in the casting of ethnically diverse characters: think Harold and Kumar, think Dave [...]
The Roman Polanski statutory rape saga has been reignited with an unexpected new twist following the arrest on Saturday of the legendary 76-year-old Polish-French director, who is currently detained in Zurich, Switzerland, where he arrived to receive a special award from the Zurich Film Festival. Swiss authorities may extradite Polanski to the U.S. to face [...]
On Thursday Variety confirmed long-held rumours that the Scream franchise will be reinvigorated with not one but a trilogy of new sequels. Scream 4 is slated to begin production early to mid next year and Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette have signed on to star, with legendary spookster Wes Craven in talks to [...]
In Looking for Eric director Ken Loach simultaneously serves up a grim urban drama and a hilarious genre-defying crowd pleaser with the story of a down-in-the-dumps mope approaching mid-life crisis who is visited, counselled and joined for smokos by his hero, soccer player Eric Cantona. Cantona – played by the real thing – is a [...]
Following on from my post a couple of months ago about the upcoming Michael Jackson documentary This Is It, helmed by High School Musical director Kenny Ortega and drawn from 80 odd hours of rehearsal footage from MJ’s ill-fated world tour, apple.com have a short exclusive clip available online as well as the theatrical trailer.
MJ [...]
Forget the economic commentariat and the opinions of so-called experts who attempt to explain how the global financial crisis started, where it came from and whose faces should be imprinted on the voodoo dolls. I much prefer the theory espoused in Eddie Murphy’s new comedy Imagine That, which argues all hell broke loose when desperate [...]
Ana Kokkinos doesn’t “do” happy. The celebrated Australian indie director has made a trio of bold and provocative don’t-dare-look-away pics: Head On (1998), The Book of Revelation (2006) and now her new feature, Blessed, an ensemble drama with a narrative twist. The film follows 24 calamitous hours in the lives of a group of disenfranchised [...]
In Pixar’s fab new feature Up helium balloons make a fitting metaphor for the big L word – BTW that’s love, not leprosy – but they also neatly symbolise the direction the studio has steered all-ages CGI animated movies: that is, up. With a 10-yip strike record of good features vs. duds, the Pixar whiz [...]
Anyone who doubts the cinema’s propensity to inspire social change and prompt real life call-to-arms should read this report from yesterday’s The Age, which discusses the Australian Federal Police’s new inquiry into the deaths of the Balibo Five (pictured left). Here’s the opening sentence:
It seems a bit of a coincidence to Greig Cunningham that the [...]
Jeremy Saunders, Australia’s prolific poster-designing prodigy who featured on this blog in an interview late last month, has conjured a corker new one-sheet (pictured left, click to enlarge) for Lars von Trier’s notorious indie flick Antichrist.
The simple eerie elegance of this poster, which depicts the faces of stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg melded onto [...]
It’s been a while since the last Poster Watch so dig this sweet new one-sheet (left, click to enlarge) for Wes Anderson’s upcoming stop-motion animated Fantastic Mr Fox, which looks pretty adorable: funky, kitsch, cute.
George Clooney and Meryl Streep (who voice Mr and Mrs Fox) share vocal strings with an A-list supporting cast including Willem [...]
Director Ana Kokkinos charters 24 calamitous hours in the lives of a collective of disaffected youth and their disaffected families in Blessed, a heavy duty high-falutin’ character drama that seems to be built on proffering one timeless adage: it ain’t easy being a kid and it ain’t easy being a parent. The title refers to [...]
Fans of jet-black indie director Todd Solondz (pictured left) – the salty-tongued auteur of lewd, indecorous and acidic-funny comedy/dramas Happiness, Palindromes and Welcome to the Dollhouse – will raise an anticipatory eyebrow at the rabble rouser’s latest, Life During Wartime, which premiered last week at the Venice Film Festival. It is a sequel of sorts [...]
Angry knee-high aliens that look like Gremlins crossed with bodybuilding Munchkins hatch a nefarious plot for world domination in Aliens in the Attic, attacking a group of lamo American kids who while on a weekend away with their families become unwitting saviours of the world. No, this movie ain’t opting for social realism, though the [...]
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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
In Search of Beethoven
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Phil Grabsky - director of In Search of Beethoven
Jonathan auf der Heide - director of Van Diemen's Land
Ana Kokkinos - director of Blessed
Jeremy Saunders - key art designer
Robert Connolly - writer/director of Balibo
Les Chantery - star of Cedar Boys
Bert Deling - director of Pure Shit
Warwick Thornton - writer/director of Samson & Delilah
Sergei Dvortsevoy - writer/director of Tulpan
Adam Elliot - writer/director of Mary and Max
Mark Forstmann - writer/director of Monkey Puzzle
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