Film Reviews

Let’s address the obvious question first. Why would anyone pay to watch cat videos on the big screen when they can spend hours watching them for free online? The answer is surprisingly simple. Because CatVideoFest isn’t really about the videos themselves; it’s about sharing them. Part compilation film, part celebration of feline…

★★★★½ Obsession, the newest offering by Curry Barker, leans into the age‑old warning to be careful what you wish for, delivering an unexpected fusion of romance/horror that challenges the viewer’s assumptions about the nature of fixation. The film follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a music store employee who stumbles upon a supernatural toy…

★★★★☆ A hilarious yet surprisingly tender family drama, The Last Viking is an absurd journey of acceptance and the development of unconditional love. It’s also about a gaggle of folks with dissociative personality disorder who believe themselves to be the members of The Beatles. They attempt to form a band, despite having…

★★★★☆ There are certain places in the world that fascinate me despite never having visited them, and Russia is one of them. Its snow-covered forests, imposing cities, complex history and political intrigue have always drawn me in. I had just finished reading Red Notice by Bill Browder, an extraordinary account of the rise of…

★★★★★ The first time we see Pene Pati, he is not standing beneath a chandelier in one of Europe’s grand opera houses. He is wearing shorts and a singlet, pulling a lawnmower from a shed. With the physique of a rugby forward or UFC heavyweight, he does not immediately resemble the conventional…

★★★½ There’s something viscerally beautiful about a film so grounded in time and space. In our current cinematic landscape dominated by elevated horror, big blockbusters and financially safe remakes, seeing an understated film laced with raw honesty is a refreshing change. Set in the pristine, frosty white lands of Sápmi, northern Scandinavia, ÁRRU,…

★★★½ Set in Helsinki in 1930, The Kidnapping of a President, funnily enough, tells the story of exactly that: the kidnapping of President Stahlberg. What ensues is a series of incompetent events. An alcoholic Lieutenant Colonel, Eoro, drunkenly issues the call for a revolution early, enlisting a team of ragamuffins to kidnap…

★★★½ The sea is calling… or more accurately, Disney is calling audiences back to cinemas with its live-action remake of Moana. Since its release in 2016, Moana has become Disney’s most-streamed film on Disney+. Between 2020 and 2025 alone, audiences streamed 37 billion minutes of the beloved adventure, cementing its place as one of the…

★★★☆☆ There is something undeniably appealing about Glenrothan. Set against the breathtaking landscapes of Scotland, it centres around family, regret, forgiveness, and identity. Directed by Brian Cox in his feature directorial debut and starring Cox alongside Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson, the film has all the ingredients for an emotional crowd-pleaser. The story…

★★★★★ Reach for the sky…or a screen. In Toy Story 5, the rise of technology can only mean one thing…extinction for toys and relegation to a dreaded place: long-term storage. Writer-directors Andrew Stanton and McKenna Harris, alongside the team at Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, have put together an exceedingly timely…

★★★½ There’s a scene in Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz’s Another League which would be hilarious were it not so cringeworthy. A class of teenage girls receives a visit from a well-coiffed speaker, looking a lot like Margaret Thatcher. She represents the bizarrely named “Women’s Section” of the Spanish government. “What’s the…

★★★★½ Directed by Juan Carvajal, La Salsa Vive is a pulsating and insightful documentary that tells the story of two cities that share a common bond – the rhythm of salsa – from its roots in New York City to its current location in Cali, Colombia.  Through more than five decades of…

★★★★★ Thursday night saw the opening ceremony of the 42nd St Kilda Film Festival at the Palais Theatre. Following words from host Myf Warhurst and representatives of the festival, the audience was treated to ten short films from emerging filmmakers. The films spanned a broad spectrum from comedies and horror to dramas and…

★★★★☆ There was a cinematic trend in the eighties and nineties where it was near impossible to kill off the villain. In Cape Fear, Sleeping with the Enemy and Fatal Attraction, the enemy simply refused to die easily – or sometimes appeared to die twice. Echoes of the syndrome appear in The…

★★★★☆ Loosely based on Tiziano Scarpa’s novel Stabat Mater, Primavera offers a compelling portrait of music as both refuge and liberation. Through the developing bond between an orphaned violinist and Antonio Vivaldi, the film explores how artistic expression can flourish even within the constraints of eighteenth-century Venetian society. An Official Selection at…

★★★★½ Prime Minister…The Queen is waiting. Since 2009, National Theatre Live has screened world-class filmed productions across the globe. Australian audiences can experience Dame Helen Mirren at the height of her powers when the celebrated 2013 production of The Audience makes its return to the screen. Each week at approximately 6:30pm on…

★★★★☆ Inspired by a true sibling relationship, Buffalo Kids is a wholesome animated adventure film that contains just the right amount of slapstick humour to delight young audiences.  It begins with a slip-sliding action sequence as a ship docks in New York. Among those on board are two young orphans, Tom (Conor MacNeill) and…

★★★★☆ A short time ago in a cinema not very far away… Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. The first live-action Star Wars film to hit cinemas since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. In a surprising pivot away from Disney+, director and co-writer Jon Favreau takes what could have been The…

★★★★☆ Premiering Out of Competition at Cannes in 2025, Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman in the World arrives with the glossy whiff of scandal and the even glossier whiff of perfume capital. The film is loosely inspired by the Bettencourt affair, but Klifa, co-writing with Cédric Anger and Jacques Fieschi, is not…

★★★☆☆ We’re all familiar with democracy sausage. Each election, fortified by the local butcher’s bangers, we bond over the most elementary democratic activity. Well, here the sausage is collateral damage in a bin-fire argument that breaks out over a seemingly innocuous decision to upgrade a BBQ – the titular Holy Grill –…

★★★☆☆ Power Ballad sees intellectual property theft that will make your head explode and your belly jiggle. Cat burglaries and heists are always great fodder for the crime thriller. We cheered on Sean Connery when he had to straddle laser beams to reach treasure in Entrapment, and again with Michael Caine planning…

★★★½ In a cinematic landscape crowded with dystopian road films, The Run enters the conversation with familiar terrain under its wheels. Written and directed by Stephen de Villiers, this South Australian production, which premiered at the 2025 Adelaide Film Festival, follows an ageing smuggler navigating a fractured, post-pandemic world shaped by a…

★★★★★ Trust in institutions is at a tipping point. You feel it in the opinion polls. You see it in the weekly protests on the inner-city marble steps. Prosecution (Staatsschutz) is a contemporaneous reflection on our tearing social fabric. Directed by Faraz Shariat and winner of the Audience Award at the 2026…

★★★☆☆ The Talented Mr F is a German documentary that follows Berlin filmmakers, Julius Drost and Moritz Hennenberg, after their animated short film is stolen and submitted to festivals by an American, Samuel Felinton. Samuel receives critical acclaim from these festivals, multiple awards, and prize money, and gives interviews to local TV,…

★★★★☆ Written and directed by then 32-year-old Fatih Akin, Head-On (Gegen die Wand) was released in 2004 and is now showing at the HSBC German Film Festival as part of an Akin retrospective, Spotlight on Akin. It’s a story of the migrant experience, specifically the Turkish community in Hamburg, Germany. Akin, as a German citizen of…

★★★★☆ There’s something quietly charming about the film You, Always. In a landscape increasingly dominated by large-scale international productions, this is a heartfelt and proudly local Australian romantic comedy. Produced by Jaggi Entertainment, who continue to build a strong catalogue of accessible, audience-driven films, this release is another reminder that Australian productions still…

★★★½ With movie sequels trending in Hollywood, there’s nothing more stylish than bringing back a fan favourite. The Devil Wears Prada 2 does exactly this, decked out with stunning fashions, celebrity cameos, pop music, and talented actors. It’s unsurprising that it’s been so highly anticipated. According to Forbes, The Devil Wears Prada…

★★★½ Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is a mighty house brick (or three) of a novel and has been adapted many times in multiple forms. Here, director and screenwriter Éric Besnard has concentrated on the first 150 pages or so in giving us an origin story at the heart of French identity.  Jean Valjean is a…

Alphabet Lane is a quietly unsettling Australian film that explores loneliness, identity, and the fragile ways people cope when connection disappears. Written and directed by James Litchfield and set against a beautifully shot rural backdrop, the film follows Anna (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) and Jack (Nicholas Denton), a couple who relocate from Sydney in search…

★★★★☆ François Ozon’s The Stranger feels like an uneasy trance, until it shakes you awake in the most alive, vigorous way. Adapted from Albert Camus’ 1942 novel L’Étranger, Ozon’s film poses existential questions in a political climate that feels uncomfortably relevant to today. Shot entirely in black and white, the story centres around Meursault (Benjamin…

★★★★☆ There’s a quiet confidence to All That’s Left of You that immediately sets it apart from most films tackling the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Written, directed, and co-starring Cherien Dabis, the film resists the urge to lecture. It trusts the audience to sit inside the lived experience of a Palestinian family and draw their own…

★★★★☆ There’s a moment in The Deb where an intimate scene on a tyre swing under outback stars is interrupted by a high school rugby bloke rushing in, falling to his knees. A girl yells, “let me hold your mullet,” as her boyfriend spews. The Deb’s mixture of heart, hit songs, and…

There’s no shortage of reasons to head to the cinema for a filmed stage production, not least the simple pleasure of settling in with a choc top and some popcorn while someone else does the emotional heavy lifting. When that production happens to feature Toby Jones sinking his teeth into Shakespeare’s slipperiest…

★★★★☆ Set against the hum and heat of the Deep South, The Rivals of Amziah King follows Matthew McConaughey’s Amziah as he drifts back into the life of Kateri, his former foster daughter, played by Angelina LookingGlass. What follows is a loose, unruly blend of music, crime, and community, a story that…

★★★★½ An epic family saga told in muted tones and under one’s breath. That is how one can describe The Mountain Bride (Vermiglio), the sophomore film of writer-director Maura Delpero. It is a film that prostrates before the first principles of human existence – life, death, and marriage. No family on our green earth…

★★★★½ The Plague opens on a single, quiet, eerie shot underwater. We’re held for a moment beneath the surface of a swimming pool, watching, waiting. Then the surface breaks as several bodies plunge under in slow motion. Water has a way of feeling sensual and gentle but threatening at the same time,…

★★★½ Dark comedies about wealth, class and murder are hardly new territory. Saltburn and The Talented Mr Ripley have made class envy fiction all the rage. They have rarely felt quite as uncomfortable as they do in How to Make a Killing, the latest film from writer-director John Patton Ford. The film…

★★★★☆ At the heart of the botanical garden in the medieval university town of Marburg stands a Ginkgo biloba tree, ancient and patient, watching a century of lives pass beneath its branches. Across three stories set in 1908, 1972 and 2020, Silent Friend follows those who cross paths with it, their lives quietly altered…

★★★★½ A celibate religious movement from the 1700s may not sound like compelling subject matter for a musical biopic, but The Testament of Ann Lee starring Amanda Seyfried proves otherwise, presenting a female leader whose conviction and force would shake even today’s world. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival in September 2025…

★★★★☆ Premiering at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, Sorda (Deaf) won the Panorama Audience Award and has been widely praised for its authenticity and striking use of sound. Ángela, a deaf woman, is expecting a child with her hearing partner, Héctor. The baby’s arrival unsettles the fragile equilibrium of their lives, forcing Ángela to…

★★★☆☆ We’ve known since Jaws that isolating people in open water with a large sea predator is a reliable way to churn up tension, so how about a killer whale? The orca has already breached once before in the 1977 film Orca, so this isn’t uncharted territory. What Killer Whale attempts instead is to shift the current…

Are you ready for a little whimsy? From the Kinnane Brothers and Angel Studios comes Solo Mio, an old-style romantic comedy that traces a long PG-rated Hollywood lineage. Cue exotic location, engineered encounters, and goofy minor characters. Elementary school art teacher Matt (King of Queens’ Kevin James) proposes to fellow teacher Heather (Julie Ann Emery)…

Pillion is the Dom Rom Com of the year, and it’s got everyone talking. It just scooped three awards at the British Independent Screen Awards, including Best British Film and Best Screenplay, and it won the Un Certain Regard Best Screenplay Award at Cannes. Written and directed by Harry Lighton in a…

★★★★★ There are tyrants who demand monuments, and tyrants who demand cakes. The President’s Cake understands that the latter can be just as lethal. Set in Iraq in the 1990s, under Saddam Hussein and the weight of Western sanctions, Hasan Hadi’s debut feature reduces dictatorship to a child-sized task: nine-year-old Lamia must…

A father searches for his missing daughter at a rave in southern Morocco, accompanied by his young son. The country is in a state of emergency. The military arrives to evacuate the LSD-soaked ravers from their beat-driven utopia. Father and son escape the militia and follow a band of raver renegades into…

Director Paolo Genovese solidifies his dominance on the International film scene with another smash hit in the form of Somebody to Love (also known as Follemente or Madly). Following the global success of 2016’s Perfect Strangers, Genovese once again captures the humour and vulnerability in human behaviour to deliver a universally relatable narrative. Set in the backstreets of…

It may have been my post-cinema high, but DREAMS (Sex Love) has earned a spot as one of my favourite films. Poetic in all the right moments, but never showy or self-important, the film doesn’t try to be something it’s not. Instead, it tells a deeply relatable and vulnerable story of first…

The ancient story of David from the Hebrew Bible comes to life in this vibrant epic animated feature film. Created by South Africa–based studio Sunrise Animation, the film takes us on an adventurous journey that is, at its core, surprisingly human and moving. From the opening moments, David pulls you in with…

Known for delivering outrageous comedies, director Paul Feig takes a surprising detour into psychological thriller territory with The Housemaid. Based on Freida McFadden’s best-selling novel of the same name, Feig’s adaptation manages to translate the book’s mystery and suspense onto the big screen. The Housemaid follows Millie Calloway, played by Sydney Sweeney, a young woman…

In DJ Ahmet, writer-director Georgi M. Unkovski delivers a gentle, observant coming-of-age story set far from dance floors and spotlights. Rooted in rural Macedonia, the film is less concerned with musical transformation than with the quiet rhythms of adolescence, responsibility, and the tentative pull of freedom in a tightly bound community. Ahmet…

Snow falls. Wisteria sways. Faces are painted ghost-white, stitched costumes catching the light as if they carry memory in their seams. In Kokuhō, Sang-il Lee’s operatic play within a film, adapting a novel about the world of kabuki, the stage is never just a stage. It is a proving ground, a battleground, and…

From award-winning Writer/Director Emmanuel Courcol comes My Brother’s Band (also released as En fanfare or The Marching Band), a French take on the path well-trodden by English films such as Brassed Off and The Full Monty, though without the former’s depth or the latter’s full-throated comic appeal.  My Brother’s Band instead treads a middle ground, committing more to the resonances of…

Summer in Sydney comes hand-in-hand with longer days, festive cheer, and of course, Moonlight Cinema’s outdoor cinematic experience. A classic end-of-year treat, this event is an ideal summer outing for everyone! Sydney’s Moonlight Cinema is located in the lofty and luscious terrain of Centennial Park. Although our chosen film started at 8:30pm,…

What does it mean to be ‘honoured’ by a state that wants you out of sight? The Brazilian film The Blue Trail asks a question that feels alarmingly urgent in our era of performative politics and social neglect. Tereza is 77 years old and lives in a small industrial town on the…

Kelly Reichardt, the director of The Mastermind, is best known for her minimalist, character-driven films that explore everyday struggles. Interesting then, that she chose to make a heist movie in The Mastermind. The heist trope usually contains slick characters, sharp clothes, a glamorous crew of experts, witty dialogue, intricate and intelligent planning…

Last night, Brisbane’s Star Casino Leisure Deck was transformed into a mystical sanctuary of technicolour. All ages were welcomed to bask in the magnificence of deep-sea exploration for the Australian premiere of A Life Illuminated as part of the 2025 Brisbane International Film Festival. In 2012, the film’s Director Tasha Van Zandt…

Australia has a habit of treating ageing as something taboo, to segregate away. Careless, directed by award-winning filmmaker Sue Thomson, refuses that framing. The film premiered at the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. It lands with humour, anger and something more tender; a reminder that ageing is…

The glitzy zone of fast fashion meets the hermetic, brooding art world in the film Moss & Freud, written and directed by James Lucas. It’s an irresistible prospect for fashionistas and art lovers alike: Kate Moss and Lucien Freud, an insight into an unlikely pairing. Now screening at the Russell Hobbs British…

Gurinder Chadha has never been shy about mixing tones, cultures, or politics, and Christmas Karma may be her most full-throated collision yet: Dickens by way of Bollywood, pantomime, pop musical, and Brexit-era satire. The result is uneven, bold and occasionally baffling. But if you’re willing to surrender to its maximalism, it’s far more enjoyable…

The North is a meditation on how nature shakes us awake, forces truth, and reconnects us. Showing now at the Russell Hobbs British Film Festival, it’s a film of surprising power that lets the vast Scottish Highlands take the lead.  With subtle, unobtrusive direction, director Bart Schrijver invites us into the stunning…

When a group of young seekers sets up camp outside a derelict ‘baptism house’ deep in the Utah woods, you already feel the chill. Diabolic isn’t a baptism of fire. With slow early stages, it soon becomes a hallucinatory descent where faith, trauma, and possession blur until they are indistinguishable. Writer-director Daniel…

Elegance, glamour, and class are the first things that come to mind when stepping into the Palace Cinema at the Como for an exclusive whisky pairing evening. Bringing whisky and cinema together is genius and makes for an elevated evening that steps you out of the ordinary movie night slump. For the…

To the slightly absurd and melancholic soundtrack of trombone and trumpet (from composer Christiaan Verbeek), another day of endless days begins as the latest work gang of prisoners shuffle into a courtyard. Clutching their belts in a forlorn effort to keep their pants hitched on bent, emaciated bodies, they are yet more…

If you dare tread into the dark depths of the psyche, who better to lead you than the brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch? Now screening at the Russell Hobbs 2025 British Film Festival, The Thing with Feathers takes us on a harrowing ride into the world of grief. With Cumberbatch at the helm and…

It’s rare to see a sitting world leader filmed not only in press conferences or cabinet meetings but in pyjamas, half-asleep, joking about a laundry basket. Prime Minister, the new documentary about Jacinda Ardern, captures that dissonance. Directed by Lindsay Utz (American Factory, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry) and Michelle Walshe (Chasing…

Principal photography has concluded on A Day for Losers starring Jacob Sartorius, Dakota Lotus and Benji Krol. This bold coming-of-age comedy is the brand-new feature film from internationally acclaimed Melbourne-based writer-director J G Clarke (Numbered Lives) and production companies Clarke Films and Cardinal Motion Pictures.​ Produced by Clarke (Land of Bad, Numbered Lives) and David Lightfoot (Land of Bad, Numbered Lives ), the film…

I Am Martin Parr is a vibrant reflection of a fascinating photographer and his love for British culture. Director Lee Shulman artfully gives a new perspective on an elusive photographic master in this fun and thoughtful documentary.  Martin Parr’s photos are instantly recognisable for their bold use of colour and angles as…

Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, and Kaia Gerber star in Shell, Max Minghella’s retro-futurist body-horror about the perils of being born with movie star looks; you either watch them fade or scratch and claw to keep them. Gerber’s resemblance to her mother, Cindy Crawford, is uncanny enough to fuel the film’s metaphor before she…

The National Theatre Live’s screening of Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw arrives next week in select Australian cinemas. Shaw penned this controversial piece of social commentary in 1893, but it wasn’t allowed to be performed until 1902. Why? Because Mrs. Warren’s profession just so happens to be the ‘oldest profession…