The first Wolf Creek film was a landmark in Australian horror cinema, taking what could have been a mindless slasher or torture porn scenario and turning it into a tense, well-acted, superbly-shot, genuinely menacing slow-burn thriller; it did for slasher movies what Alien did for sci-fi horror. Based loosely on both the Ivan Milat and Bradley Murdoch cases, Wolf Creek
Read moreNebraska is exactly the sort of film that generates instant Oscar buzz, a quirky yet solemn tale of crumbling dreams and redemption steeped in Americana and anchored by an idiosyncratic Becket-esque performance. Bruce Dern plays irascible scraggly-haired old drunk Woodrow Grant who, sadly, floats in a state between retirement and encroaching dementia. Mistakenly believing that a sweepstakes letter guarantees him
Read moreThere’s little doubt that writer/ director Scott Cooper is a fan of The Deer Hunter as he sets his latest film, Out Of The Furnace, in a Pennsylvania steel town, has major characters returning from a contentious war and has in Christian bale, a lead character who, like Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter, is taciturn, resourceful, goatee-bearded and
Read moreMost films are aimed at particular demographics: Hollywood blockbusters pander to 14 year old boys and teen lit adaptations to adolescent females. Chilean film Gloria, is that rare commodity, a film aimed at women aged over 40. Falling somewhere between relationship drama, oddball comedy and self-empowerment parable, the film sees 50-something divorcee Gloria (Paulina Garcia) awkwardly attempting to re-enter the
Read moreIt’s classic album time once again on Built For Speed and this month we head back to 2003 for The White Stripes “new rock” masterpiece Elephant. We also have plenty of fine new music from Australia and overseas including Jeremy Neal and The East Brunswick All Girls Choir. On the movie front we take a look at two films based on
Read moreLiam Neeson’s latest film Non-stop will no doubt have had action junkies salivating. The no-nonsense title and a poster that features Neeson blasting away with a pistol in the middle of an aeroplane cabin, suggests a Taken-style parade of relentless and mindless action. Those who delight in cinematic carnage may, however, be slightly peeved to discover that, aside from a
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