The idea of human bodies being enhanced with technology has been a frequent sci-fi theme for decades with Robocop and The Six Million Dollar Man just two examples. Aussie writer director Leigh Whannell explores this theme in the futuristic action flick Upgrade but ads a sniff of the violent horror for which he became renowned with the disgusting Saw franchise.
Read moreBrothers’ Nest is the latest collaboration between brothers Shane and Clayton Jacobson, the pairing that brought us the breakthrough Aussie hit Kenny. Brothers’ Nest, a Cohen Brothers-esque murder drama infused with family resentment and a touch of Hitchcockian creepiness is, however, a very different beast to Kenny. Shane and Clayton play Terry and Jeff, two middle-aged brothers who have decided
Read moreA film that focuses on the period in which Mary Shelly wrote her sci-fi horror classic Frankenstein should be a thrilling prospect for anyone with a literary bent but director and co-writer Haifaa al-Mansour has transformed the biopic, Mary Shelley, into a slightly steamy, mildly gothic romance between two Derek Zoolander-approved really really good-looking people. Elle Fanning plays Mary Wollstonecraft
Read moreOn-screen text at the beginning of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, the sequel to the much lauded 2015 drug-crime drama Sicario, delivers what seems to be a disturbingly ‘conservative’ message about people smuggling across the Mexican-US border, much like the sort of statement we might expect from a certain oddly-coiffured world leader. It appears that this film may have shelved
Read moreThis Friday ‘Built For Speed’ reviews the hotly-anticipated sequel to 2015’s ‘Sicario’ with ‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’. We also take a look at gothic romance and literary icons with ‘Mary Shelley’. There’s many fines tunes with new Aussie tracks, classics featuring legendary guitarists and drummers and an assortment of indie rock from across the decades. Don’t forget our regular preview
Read moreThere’s an important scene early in The Leisure Seeker in which retired English teacher John (Donald Sutherland) regales a perplexed fast food waitress about the simple poetic beauty of Ernest Hemmingway’s prose. The idea is that poetry can be found in the apparent banality of everyday events. While this middling meditation on ageing doesn’t fully capitalise on the potential of
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