Last year’s standout Aussie film, Talk To Me seems to have broken ground for Aussie horror films internationally. Appearing to benefit from this is supernatural horror/comedy Late Night With the Devil which has apparently been a sensation in the US after generating a serious buzz at the South-By-South West Film Festival. The film takes what had become a slightly tired
Read moreThe Gen X nostalgia train rolls on with latest resurrection of an 80’s favourite, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. The original Ghostbusters from 1984 was a fun mix of sci fi, supernatural spookiness and zany comedy. The film worked in part because of the concept and director Ivan Reitman’s deft orchestration of its various elements but mostly because of the cast: Bill
Read moreWith his perceptive and articulate dramas like Sideways, The Descendants and Nebraska, director Alexander Payne was establishing himself as one of the major film auteurs of the new millennium. His stellar reputation as a filmmaker was tarnished somewhat, though, with the 2017 sci fi themed social satire Downsizing which featured on some critics’ turkey lists. Now, he makes a welcome
Read moreLook out Generations Y and Z, your cool cultural icons are now becoming retro nostalgia. The latest acquisition is high school clique comedy Mean Girls which was originally filmed in 2004 and propelled Lindsay Lohan to stardom. Like the Colour Purple, Mean Girls was turned into a stage musical that has itself been adapted into a film. The buoyant preview
Read moreLike David Lynch in the 1990s and 2000s, Yorgos Lanthimos has brought dark humour and surreal artistry at least a little closer to mainstream cinema. He’s skewered relationships and social conformity in The Lobster, elitist power structures in The Favourite and the suburban family in The Killing Of a Sacred Deer. Now, he turns his darkly comic gaze to sexism
Read moreThe suspiciously named Bottoms is a gleefully silly, occasionally witty and slightly subversive teen comedy in the tradition of Heathers and Booksmart with a touch of Fight Club. The film throws feminist and queer politics into the mix but is mainly a quirky and acerbic comedy. Friends PJ (Rachel Sennot who cowrote) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri, The Bear) are desperate
Read more