Best Australian Films of 2023
Before we dig into 2023, let’s take a short jump back to October 2021. Stage 1 of the Australian Feature Film Summit (AFFS) was taking place online, providing producers, distributors, exhibitors, and…
Reviews
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Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw Presents the Injured Psychology of a Seemingly Cursed Wrestling Family
The Iron Claw releases in Australian cinemas on 18 January 2024. The qualification “Inspired by a True Story,” does a lot of heavy lifting in Sean Durkin’s American tragedy The Iron Claw a film based…
The Zone of Interest Manifests the Banality of Evil
“The life we enjoy is very much worth the sacrifice.” – Rudolf Höss Hannah Arendt famously coined the term “The banality of evil” when ruminating on the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann, who had fam…
American Fiction Gives Jeffrey Wright His Well Deserved Moment in the Spotlight
Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction is an adaptation of Erasure a postmodern literary satire written in 2001 by Percival Everett. Over twenty years later and the issues Everett raised about the commodif…
Eileen is a Perverse Delight About Obsession and Cruelty
“Love will make you crazy, Eileen. You’ll probably never understand that.” Jim Dunlop Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie) lives in small town 1960s Massachusetts. She’s twenty-four-years-old. She has n…
Heath Davis' Christmess is the Major Miracle Independent Australian Cinema Needs
There is a certain absurdity about celebrating Christmas in Australia with all the Northern Hemisphere trimmings. It’s hot. People are exhausted. Roasting a turkey on a day where the temperature can b…
Bottoms is Violently Funny and is One of the Cleverest Comedies of the Year
From its throwback poster parodying and/or paying homage to Revenge of the Nerds (1984) to its literal no holds barred crass comedy, Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott’s Bottoms is both a throwback and…
Uproar is a Political Coming-of-Age Story that Stands as a Triumph for Aotearoa New Zealand Cinema
Comments made on the racism still inherent in New Zealand Aotearoa by Taika Waititi incited a lot of push back. Isn’t New Zealand just the pleasant little country where Peter Jackson made The Lord of…
Silent Night Is John Woo Stealing from Himself With an Audacious, Messy, Tightly Choreographed Action Flick
Imagining the reactions to Silent Night, John Woo’s first American outing in years as being labelled derivative is utterly laughable. If the film is derivative of anything, it’s John Woo stealing from…
Ena Sendijarevic's Sweet Dreams is a Carnivalesque Piece of Cinemas That Spares No One
How storytellers and filmmakers address pernicious evil is widely varied. For some verisimilitude and realism documenting atrocities is key. For others, such as writer/director Ena Sendijarevic, a fun…
Joaquin Phoenix’s Tired Napoleon Stretches the Idea of Common Knowledge into Fiction
There’s a comic by the artist Bestie which I saw as a kid, and it’s stuck with me ever since I first read it in Sunday morning cartoons. On the left is Napoleon laying on a bed, legs spread while José…
Copa 71 Reaffirms the History Books for a Monumental Moment in Femme Football
Copa 71 screens at Perth Festival from Monday 20 - Sunday 26 November 2023 James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay’s energetic documentary Copa 71 is a routine sports tale of the underdogs (women’s footballe…