September, 2012

It’s hard to imagine Australian film reviewing culture without veteran critic David Stratton. But could retirement be on the cards? In the latest instalment of Meet the Critics, Stratton drops a bombshell.

Writer/director Rian Johnson’s acclaimed time travel assassin-for-hire pic stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the same character. But does it offer anything new?

The pitch for Australian creature feature Bait must have been simple: there are sharks. They’re in a supermarket. But is it possible to take such a premise seriously?

“The 1980s, forever recalled with a mixture of fondness and regret as that spandex-clad, white glove, tufted hair and jumpsuit riddled decade taste forgot, was as much a transitional period for special effects cinema as it was the fleeting fashion for which it is best remembered.” In the latest edition of Australian online film journal [...]

Attack the Block (2011), The ‘Burbs (1989), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1958/1978) and throwbacks to old school “something funny’s in the water” mysteries blend into a pulpy shake of low-brow laughs and aliens-amongst-us adventure in The Watch, director Akiva Schaffer’s blokey comedy about a group of concerned citizens in an apple pie American town who form [...]

Click here to listen to the latest episode of The Parallax Podcast Is director Behn Zeitlin’s acclaimed festival favourite Beasts of the Southern Wild a rousing drama or…poverty porn? Is Ruby Sparks, a rom-com from the makers of Little Miss Sunshine, the best film Woody Allen never directed? All this, a double Jason Segel DVD special and more on [...]

Imagine you’re a no-name actor keen to make it in the movie business. You live in California and respond to a generic casting call for an indie feature film called Desert Warrior. The casting call describes it as a “historical desert drama set in the Middle East” to be shot in LA at backlot locations [...]

Hollywood’s business model is in serious trouble, so the narrative goes. So why are big film studios making more money than ever? This week I wrote for Crikey News, discussing why the death of Hollywood has been greatly exaggerated. Head over here to read it.  

Director Benh Zeitlin’s poverty-stricken tragi-drama, Beasts of the Southern Wild, is a bit of a beast itself — by turn bold, audacious and unfathomable, a high-powered grab for hearts and minds that has gallivanted through 2012 festival circuits, collecting a storm of kudos and conversation. Zeitlin plonks audiences headfirst into ‘The Bathtub’, a poor Southern Delta [...]

After a midday screening of Kath and Kimderella, the author of this blog post attempted to write a review but collapsed in front of his keyboard. An hour and a half later he awoke, woozy and disoriented, the following words appearing on his screen.  “It’s called the silent killer,” a voice gloomily intones as the [...]

Director Lynn’s Shelton’s love-triangle-with-a-twist dramedy Your Sister’s Sister (which opens in select cinemas nationwide this week) is the best kind of micro budget American indie: a thoughtful, engaging, and, in its own unprepossessing way, daring feature built on strong performances and interesting characters. After making a scene at a memorial party for his late brother [...]

Click here to listen to the latest episode of The Parallax Podcast In this episode of The Parallax Podcast, myself and co-host Rich Haridy ask: has Wes Anderson become a parody of himself? We discuss his latest, Moonrise Kingdom, then French director Leos Carax’s art-on-steroids romp Holy Motors. On DVD we cover off on Rampart, starring Woody Harrelson as a corrupt cop, and writer/director Ti [...]

There is something more than a mite odd about writer/director Wes Anderson’s latest production, Moonrise Kingdom, the smugly aloof and visually beautiful flick that kicked off this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and almost certainly not for reasons the celebrated king of cinematic quirk intended. “It feels hard.” “Do you mind?” “I like it.” That’s an exchange [...]