Numerous arrests and a slap in the face from border security guards could not contain Amin Palangi’s Love Marriage in Kabul from finding its audience. The documentary is set to screen in March at the Byron Bay Film Festival. After the drowning of her six year old son, Mahboba Rawi made a promise to save…
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Reese Witherspoon produces and stars in Wild, the story of a young woman whose life falls to pieces and her journey to put herself back together, based on the bestselling memoir by Cheryl Strayed. The film opens with Cheryl alone in the American wilderness, clearly at the end of her tether. A series of flashbacks…
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‘I’m super sexy but messed up. I like spanking and sex,’ Christian Grey said sexily. The above quote isn’t spoken dialogue in the film Fifty Shades of Grey. But it could be. Before I get into analysing this film I would like to point out how patronising and aggravating all the think pieces on Fifty…
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Stepping out of the theatre after watching Birdman, one thought kept going through my head: where has Michael Keaton been hiding all these years? As one of the most beloved comic actors of the 80s, with iconic films such as Beetlejuice and Mr. Mom, along with playing the Dark Knight in Tim Burton’s Batman…
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This clip of a mutant giant ninja dog received more views on YouTube in 2014 than any Australian movie trailers. It’s a sad fact that we’re better known for our kangaroos than we are for our Luhrmanns, and that even great Aussie films like Samson and Delilah won’t scrape up half the sales of shitboxes…
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World War Two films don’t often show us what happened behind the scenes. Most often they are intently focused on depicting the horror and destruction of the front line, and not the work of mathematicians, engineers and scientists who used their minds rather than brawn to end the war. One such mind was Alan Turing,…
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Hollywood rarely turns the camera upon itself. If it does, Oscar-bait biopics about dead actors and filmmakers are usually the way it goes. Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg’s latest exploration into the grotesqueness of the human condition, depicts the horrors of Hollywood’s narcissistic psyche, relishing in showcasing the demonic egomania and envy that fuels…
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Everyone knows that complex and empowering female characters are difficult to find in mainstream films. But there are some who have stood out and become the changing faces of feminism in cinema. In this monthly column, Jade Bate looks at her favourite film heroines who are strong, empowering and kick ass. Female friendship is one…
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Christopher Nolan has to be one of the most polarising filmmakers of the modern age. Just start a conversation in the presence of “Caped Crusader” fans about his Batman Begins, The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises, and watch the sparks start to fly: those who liked the films, those who didn’t like them…those…
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‘All too often representations of women’s strength overlook the cost of that strength, where it rises from, and how it is called upon when needed most.’ Roxane Gay, What We Hunger For Totalitarian nation state Panem is in chaos. When Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) shot her arrow into the force field of the second Hunger…
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I was absolutely overjoyed when I was offered the chance to review My Old Lady. I think it was because I could get a credit on my resume out of the 2 hours of my life that otherwise would have been written off. That’s not true, those 2 hours weren’t a write off; I considered…
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This Is Where I Leave You tells the story of four siblings who get together for seven days under the same roof for the first time in years following the death of their father. Sharing space the house they grew up in forces this family to confront their many issues and personal deficiencies. There is…
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Equality is everyone’s business. This is the overriding theme of Pride and it is communicated in the most compelling and uplifting way. If I hadn’t been immediately sold on that (which, of course, I was) I would’ve been sold on absolutely everything else about this film. It’s the summer of 1984. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher…
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WARNING: This review contains SPOILERS. Do not read any further unless you’ve read the book, seen the film, or are happy to be spoiled. David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s 2012 bestselling crime novel Gone Girl has finally hit the screens, and to tell the honest truth, it’s amazing. Amy (Rosamund Pike) and Nick (Ben…
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