London Film Festival Review: Chain Reactions
A camera flashes to illuminate a skull dripping with putrid flesh. A young woman walks tentatively toward an unassuming but strangely malevolent house beneath a bright blue sky. A red wall adorned in…
Review
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NYFF Review: Blitz Marks Rare Misstep for Steve McQueen
Until now, Steve McQueen has never taken his audience for granted. With Blitz, however, he’s done just that, presuming the story of a mother and son searching for each other amidst the chaos of WWII t…
A Different Man is an Absurdist Masterpiece
Aaron Schimberg’s debut feature Chained for Life is a film about a questionable ‘European Auteur’ making what is clearly a low budget exploitation movie flirting with ideas of eugenics, monstrosity, a…
The Bikeriders: Americana Through the Eyes of Anthropological Director Jeff Nichols
‘What are you rebelling against?’ ‘Whaddya got?’ The Wild One With The Bikeriders, anthropological director Jeff Nichols makes his welcome return to feature filmmaking after years of languishing in…
Ghostlight is a Brave, Tender, Exquisite, and Unforgettable Experience
A ghostlight in theatre tradition is the single light kept burning in the theatre after all others have been extinguished. It is one of the many rituals adopted by theatre folk such as never saying “G…
Embracing the Beautiful Chaos: A Journey of Self-Discovery Through Girls Will Be Girls
There’s something undeniably captivating about the world of teenagers in film. These characters navigate the ups and downs of adolescence with a mix of sass and vulnerability, embodying the complexiti…
NYFF: Luca Guadagnino's Queer Holds Mirror Up to Two Different Artists’ Careers
The term “unadaptable” gets thrown around whenever a piece of literary fiction is primed for film/television and has thus, however inaptly, been applied to William S. Burroughs’ Queer. Written, as one…
Greg Jardin's It's What’s Inside is a Glittering Rollercoaster of Chaos, Betrayal, and Party Games Gone Wild!
Everyone loves a good party game, but what happens when the stakes get dangerously high? It’s What’s Inside takes that familiar fun and twists it into something much darker. Greg Jardin, serving as bo…
Spotlighting Brilliant Thrillers in 2024: JT Mollner's Strange Darling & Zoë Kravitz's Blink Twice
Two thrillers in 2024: One directed by JT Mollner (second feature), the other by Zoë Kravitz (directorial debut). One is a non-linear narrative twisting the crime thriller/slasher genre on its head wi…
Jason Yu's Sleep is a Haunting Descent into Darkness with the Fragile Threads of Love and Vulnerability
Our bedrooms are sanctuaries, intimate spaces we retreat to for solace and comfort, often shared only with those closest to us. Yet, these very places of refuge are also where we are most vulnerable,…
Apartment 7A: A Haunting Prequel That Reimagines Rosemary’s Baby Through a Modern Lens, Exploring the Complexities of Motherhood and Identity
The shadow of Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic Rosemary’s Baby continues to loom large over the horror genre, casting both reverence and scrutiny. This landmark film redefined domestic terror, sparking a…
NYFF: The Brutalist is a Monument to the Past About Building the Future
The Brutalist screens at the New York Film Festival on 28 September & 11-12 October. It will also screen at the Adelaide Film Festival on 26 October & 2 November. Brady Corbet’s mammoth rise-…