The makers of Justice League embed the film in a post-9/11, post-global warming, post-Brexit, post-Trump context. But it is loud and disappointing with some genuinely unimaginative action sequences.
- Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia
The third in the Thor series, directed by New Zealand wunderkind Taika Waititi, is thoughtful, hilarious and looks magnificent.
Neo Nazi terror, a dark Instagram crush, a layman’s history of the black civil rights movement … here are the best offerings from this year’s Sydney Film Festival.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is an at times thrilling, at times bizarre, viewing experience that blends classic English myth with a gangster aesthetic.
I had the privilege of attending a private screening, the other week, of Los Angeles Overnight, an extraordinarily good new low-budget film. Unfortunately, chances are you won’t get the same opportunity…
There are five very good films nominated for the Best Picture gong and one extraordinary one.
Australian cinema has offered striking, intelligent and forceful evaluations of our national identity. Rather than play an outdated gambling game this Australia Day, why not watch the best of Aussie film?
From the Blade Runner reboot to Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot to a film about the reincarnated spirit of a dog … here is our list of the movies to look forward to - or not.
Lion, which has screened to critical acclaim around the world, seems to think it’s a political film. In reality it’s an effective melodrama that uncritically embraces a colonial fantasy of white saviours.
In a year characterised by some good films but few great ones, Paul Verhoeven’s Elle stood out as the best.
Spooky ghosts, rampaging rock gods, an escaped killer dressed as a clown: Halloween has inspired an array of creepy cinematic classics. Here’s our list of those to watch - and avoid.
The BBC recently released a list of the “greatest films of the 21st century.” This kind of list immediately raises hackles and heckles all over the place. Unsurprisingly, a conventional kind of “safe…
Weiner (2016) was one of the more popular documentaries that screened at this year’s Sydney Film Festival. I managed to catch it last week. Directed by Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman, the film documents…
This year’s Sydney Film Festival presented a panoply of films. Highlights included a sinister documentary about competitive tickling, the tale of a woman who befriends a wolf and an indie comedy featuring Viggo Mortensen as a leftie dad.
In the age of boutique TV, binge watching, and data drops of entire series, it is easy to forget the dominant function of television: the broadcasting of a stream of advertisements directly into the living…
1972: In a poignant scene in one of the key films of the decade, hottest young star Al Pacino seeks and receives advice about family and assassinations from sage patriarch Marlon Brando. The scene is from…
There haven’t been many films about witches in recent years. Stories explicitly scapegoating women as “mad” and “hysterical” seem to have fallen out of favour in popular culture, even if this tendency…
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, in The Birth of Tragedy (1872), suggested that the decline of Greek civilisation was accompanied by its increasing reification, celebration, and systematic self-affirmation…
On the eve of the 88th Academy Awards, Alejandro González Iñárritu is tipped to win his fourth Oscar – his second as Best Director – for The Revenant (2015). If he wins and The Revenant wins Best Picture…
The Coen brothers may have returned to form with the genre-spinning Hail, Caesar! It still remains to be seen if they’ll ever reach the heights of their glory days again.
From Hallmark to Hulk Hogan, we round up classic Christmas cinema. If you’re looking for sweet, schmaltzy or satirical December viewing, start here.
The Hunger Game series has drawn to a close - so what conclusions does the final instalment leave us with? This article contains plot spoilers.
So must the gentle Einstein have felt when his dreamed concept of the nature of matter flashed over Hiroshima. – John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961/2008) The brutal acts of a few terrorists…
Spectre is a return to form for the series, and the best of the Daniel Craig films, tying together the legend with a narrative that incorporates and develops the past 50-plus years of Bond.
“What is the point of studying popular films?” As barbaric as it may appear, this is a good question. It forces one to reconsider, and to some extent thereby refresh, one’s perspective on the subje
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