8 January 2016
There’s a lot of like about The Revenant, a harsh tale of survival circa 1823 where frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) struggles against impossible odds – well, an Indian attack followed by being mauled by a bear and then fellow survivor John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) leaves him to die, only he doesn’t, which is bad news for John.
25 December 2015
Remember how, earlier this year, Pixar made pretty much the ultimate Pixar film in Inside Out? Well, this is pretty much the opposite of that.
24 December 2015
For the last 10 years three friends – Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) – have spent the night before Christmas partying hard to take Ethan’s mind off his dead parents.
23 December 2015
It’s the 1920s, and Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) is the toast of Copenhagen’s artistic scene. His wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander), also a painter, asks him to model a dress for one of her works, and gradually he begins to spend more and more time living as a woman named Lili.
22 December 2015
The fight for women’s right to vote – or “suffrage” – took different forms all over the world, but in the United Kingdom in the years before World War One, a lengthy struggle with little progress led to a growing radicalisation of the movement – which is a tricky thing to dramatise.
20 December 2015
If there’s one thing that can be said about the movies we saw in 2015, it’s that there was a lot to choose from.
11 December 2015
More a Rocky reboot than a sequel, by focusing on a new fighter with his own issues – while largely sticking firm to the traditional Rocky formula – Creed revitalises the series by putting a new spin on the old clichés.
10 December 2015
Like all major holidays, Christmas is a time for movies where a whole lot of people have individual stories that may or may not come together for a big rousing conclusion. Love, Actually has had the holiday to itself for far too long; now it’s time for the extended Cooper family to stake their claim.
10 December 2015
Not so much a follow-up as a new angle on Joshua Oppenheimer’s harrowing examination of the Indonesian anti-communist massacres of 1965, The Act of Killing.
8 December 2015
If you’ve ever wondered exactly how to make a story about a couples’ low-key marriage woes actually watchable – if for no other reason than to sell that secret to the ABC to spice up their “quality dramas” – By the Sea has it sorted. Just make sure the couple is insanely good-looking.
7 December 2015
Thirteen years ago, Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was a member of a L.A. anti-terrorism task force frantically trying to prevent another 9/11.
6 December 2015
Some studios – we’re looking at you, Pixar – make kids movies that are aimed more at what adults think kids want to see.
4 December 2015
The Lance Armstrong story is one of the more compelling in recent sporting history, and while Stephen Frears biopic largely sticks to the surface facts, that’s more than enough to paint a startling picture of ego run amok.
2 December 2015
If you don’t know what’s going on by now you never will.
23 November 2015
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Freeheld – the based-on-a-true-story tale of a New Jersey cop (Julianne Moore) who, when diagnosed with terminal cancer, was not allowed to transfer her pension to her partner (Ellen Page) – is the many angles it finds to make an audience cry.
18 November 2015
When her stage mother sister Beth (Portia de Rossi) returns to Australia and is promptly arrested for drug possession, Caroline (Robyn Butler) is left to look after her niece, teenage international superstar Honey (Lucy Fry).
16 November 2015
Ah, horror punk. To be honest, I’d forgotten this genre of music had existed, despite being super into it back in early to mid-high school. Mixing the “screw you” attitude of punk with anything and everything horror-themed, bands like The Wrath – a quintet from the Gold Coast – specialise in music that’s designed to freak you out as well as make you have a good time.
16 November 2015
In the never-ending struggle to find new ways for a rom-com couple to “meet cute”, Man Up stands out. When committed, yet somewhat unhappy, singleton Nancy (US actor Lake Bell) is mistaken for his blind date by Jack (Simon Pegg), she decides to go along with it, leading to a fun time with a pretty big sword of doom hanging over it.
15 November 2015
It’s easy to forget just how much the James Bond movies have improved in the Daniel Craig era – or it is until you see Spectre, which might not be a bad Bond movie but certainly has the kind of flaws that make it a less than brilliant outing for the UK’s number one spy.
13 November 2015
In 1989, the sequel to one of the greatest ever movies about time travel was released, and then itself became one of the greatest movies about time travel. While 1988’s Back to the Future was fantastic, it was set in a world we’d already seen and lived through.
13 November 2015
As a band from the ’90s, Suiciety are one of those bands that definitely still have it all these years later. Since releasing their debut record Deeper Vision and making the top 10 list for The Age’s Albums of the Year.
9 November 2015
It’s 1957, and Cold War tensions are high, which means defending an accused Soviet spy is a bad look for insurance lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks). But with the world watching, the Americans feel that justice has to be seen to be done, even with a guilty verdict locked in.
5 November 2015
Twelve years ago at university Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) lost their virginity to each other. Now Jake is a happy and financially successful womaniser, while Lainey is sabotaging any chance at a real relationship by clinging to the man (Adam Scott) she was originally trying to sleep with 12 years ago.
5 November 2015
Ever thought of taking LSD and binging on a marathon of The Simpsons? No? Me neither. However one man did just that this past week, and documented his findings on Reddit. The man known as doobieschnauzer wrote the following:
