With the initial Mad Max film trilogy, director George Miller established an idiosyncratic but distinctly Australian franchise that earned first a cult then a mainstream following and provided a springboard for star Mel Gibson’s ascent into the Hollywood stratosphere. After a mere 30 years Miller has delivered the fourth instalment Mad Max: Fury Road. The film has thus far had
Read moreA stand-up comedian doing a film about the life of a stand-up comedian seems very self-indulgent. That feeling is inescapable throughout the so-called romantic comedy/drama Manny Lewis. Popular comedian Carl Barron plays the title character, a droll, cynical, self-deprecating and often unlikeable stand-up comedian whose material often seems to be based on some disturbing child hood experiences. His off-stage life
Read moreThe high sugar content of our diet has increasingly been named in the medical literature and the popular media as a health problem. Concerned about this, Aussie actor and now director, Damon Gameau a non-sugar consumer, investigated the impact of sugar on his health by consuming supposedly healthy but sugar-laden foods such as cereals and yoghurt for 60 days and
Read moreJohn Doe: Vigilante is bound to divide audiences and evoke volatile reactions for both its subject matter and its film-making style. Taking perhaps too many thematic and plot cues from 90’s serial killer films such as Natural Born Killers and Seven, the film follows an Aussie vigilante killer calling himself John Doe who murders assorted criminals who he thinks have
Read moreTime travel is one of the most tantalising concepts in cinema. The possibility of exploring uncharted worlds of the future, of re-living cherished moments from the past or even rectifying mistakes, holds an eternal fascination. Unfortunately, very little of that fascination works its way into the quirky Australian time travel rom-com The Infinite Man. This low budget film uses the
Read moreThe genesis of Predestination seems to have been a competition to come up with the most brain-twisting time travel story imaginable. Never has a film folded in on itself quite like Predestination. Based on the Robert Heinlein short story All You Zombies and touching on other time travel and sci-fi films such as Looper, Time Cop and Minority Report, Predestination
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