Author: Carina Nilma

Office lackey day-job. Journalist for The AU Review night-job. Emotionally invested fangirl.

Film Review: The King is exhaustingly long but has moments of medieval greatness

There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare’s work to the big screen with varying results. Twice before Australians have tackled the Bard’s work with Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth both hitting the silver screen with positive critical response. Once again it seems the combination of Australian director David Michôd, with fellow…

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Film Review: National Theatre Live: Fleabag proves Phoebe Waller-Bridge in raw form is a force to be reckoned with

If you’ve been living under a rock you may have missed all the buzz about Fleabag. The British comedy-drama, written and created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge that follows a young woman known as “Fleabag” navigating life and love in London whilst trying to cope with tragedy. Waller-Bridge stars as the titular character who will often break…

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Film Review: Gemini Man looks pretty but lacks substance

For cinemagoers we’ve been inundated of late with films that are adaptations, remakes or film franchises. So it’s unusual for us to finally have one that’s an original concept, which inadvertently puts a lot of pressure on it to be worth the time and money to see. Gemini Man was originally conceived in 1997 and…

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Film Review: Joker is a thought provoking examination of the thin edge of the sanity wedge

A lot has been said leading up to the release of Joker, with some of the most common arguments surrounding whether the film was necessary and whether there would be fatigue around yet another portrayal of the Clown Prince. The trailer didn’t reveal much and left audiences a little perplexed. But after predominantly receiving positive…

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Interview: Michael Eklund on complex characters, Wynonna Earp, Dirk Gently, and his first Oz Comic Con

There are actors who make their career out of being “that guy”, able to drop in and out of inhabiting a character and then moving on to the next. Sometimes they’ll snag a role that will last a few seasons and they’ll get to leave a longer lasting impression. Michael Eklund is one of those…

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Oz Comic Con Brisbane & Sydney are about to land

As we nudge ever closer to the warmer months but not quite before the closing of the year the pop culture scene gets an injection with Oz Comic Con landing in both Brisbane and Sydney over consecutive weekends. Pop culture conventions have long left an impression on the scene particularly for fans of film and…

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Film Review: Rambo: Last Blood is an unbalanced 80s drama-action film

Beginning in 1982 with First Blood, then 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1988’s Rambo III, then 2008’s Rambo, 11 years later the Rambo saga is releasing a fifth and final film to close out the iconic action hero’s story. Originally adapted from John Morrell’s novel First Blood, it centres around the character of John…

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The Wizard’s Cauldron challenges you to test your magical mettle brewing potions

There’s a brand new pop-up in Surry Hills, Sydney that is giving you an opportunity to test your magical mettle and see if you really are a witch or wizard at heart, without having to sit under an oversized floppy pointy hat. 

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Disney D23 Expo 2019 Announcements Drop A Huge Slate Of New Content

Over the weekend Disney held its sixth D23 Expo, an event where the company gets to showcase all its forthcoming news and announcements to both the media and the general public. In a surprising turn after dropping the official launch announcement less than a week ago for Disney+ the company has come charging out of…

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Disney+ Set To Launch In Australia and New Zealand November 2019

The streaming video on demand (SVOD) market in Australia is already teeming with both paid and free services. But another heavy hitter has now laid down a challenge to the global behemoth of Netflix and looks set to shake things up. The House of Mouse is now officially bringing Disney+ to Australia from 19 November…

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Marvel’s Hayley Atwell leads a female powered Oz Comic Con Brisbane and Sydney lineup

It’s only been a couple of months since the box office dominating Avengers: Endgame rocketed through our pop culture landscape. But the demand and appeal of the Marvel Cinematic Universe hardly wavers amongst Australian audiences. So it’s no surprise that social media was buzzing with the announcement that Hayley Atwell will be making her first…

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Film Review: The Lion King is beautiful to watch but lacks the full roar

We all know that Disney reworking its own animated films into “live action” remakes is purely for the box office dollars. Those of us old enough to remember the originals, having seen them in the cinema, and blasting the soundtracks into our subconscious and poring over every bit of dialogue, are all too aware. What…

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Film Review: Rocketman blasts the Elton John musical biopic into the stratosphere

Only several months after cinema screens were graced with Bohemian Rhapsody and part of the journey of Queen’s meteoric rise to fame. We now have Rocketman, which examines another flamboyant and influential musician, Elton John, and unlike the former, this film decidedly takes a bit more of a leap both stylistically and also narratively. Because…

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First Impressions: Amazon Prime’s Good Omens is a black comedy doomsday romp

In these current dark and tumultuous times it can often seem like we’re rushing faster towards an impending apocalyptic like end. But fear not, the world continues to turn and we can rest assured that in the meantime watching Amazon Prime’s new series Good Omens will alleviate some of that tension. The show is based…

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Film Review: Aladdin is tonally inconsistent but a fun remake of an OG classic

It’s easy to be cynical about the Disney juggernaut of rolling out live action remakes of their classic animated properties. We’ve already had Dumbo earlier this year which was watchable but felt like a little misstep by Tim Burton. Next comes Aladdin, which along with The Lion King releasing July 17 will be the 1-2…

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Film Review: Pokémon Detective Pikachu (USA/Japan, 2019) is an excellent buddy comedy based off a quirky video game

Video games have generally had a fairly bad run when it comes to movie adaptations. Either they veer too far away from their source material and lose their gamer fans, or they lean too far into it and go over the heads of mainstream audiences. So when it was announced that they were making a…

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Film Review: Avengers: Endgame is the ultimate payoff for over a decade of films

It’s all been leading up to this, 11 years and more than 21 movies and it’s time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to provide a conclusion to the Avengers saga and some of its Phase One heroes. The ones who ushered in a renaissance and resurgence of comic book superhero movies. Whodathunk that back in…

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Album Review: Alexander Wolfe – Little Death (2019 LP)

There’s something funny to me referring to Alexander Wolfe as “an unknown, unheard of artist”. Most definitely to almost all Australian audiences he would be, but the British folk singer-songwriter has been releasing music since 2009. And even though it would be impossible to find one of his physical CDs in a store, he’s quite…

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Film Review: Dumbo (USA, 2019) returns with slightly less flying fanfare

2019 is going to be a fairly big slate for the House of Mouse with not one but four “live action adaptations” of their intellectual property hitting cinema screens. The first one out of the gate is the film about a baby elephant with overly large ears who can fly. Originally Dumbo was based on…

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Interview: Marc Fennell and Jan Fran, The Few Who Do and how podcasts are the future of media

The Australian media landscape is constantly shifting as technology disrupts how people access and absorb news. We’re seeing downsizing in the publishing and publication sector such as newspapers and magazines. Social media means fast but not always reliable or qualitative information. Interestingly enough the rise of podcasts has seen them become not just for entertainment…

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Film Review: Captain Marvel (USA, 2019) is an inspiration for being less of a hero and more of a human

It’s taken 20-something movies but MCU has finally released their first female led superhero movie and despite some controversy leading up to its release we can rest assured that Marvel’s seemingly endless good streak continues.

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First Impressions: STAN’s Miracle Workers is a weirdly relatable existential workplace comedy

What do you get when you take a reluctant easily distracted God, a bunch of overworked angels and a bet that has the continued existence of Earth on the line? The new 7 episode mini-series on STAN called Miracle Workers, based on the novel “What In God’s Name” by series creator Simon Rich gives us…

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Interview: Nothing But Thieves’ (UK) Joe Langridge-Brown on their upcoming Australian tour, revisiting demos, and Love Island

English rock band, Nothing But Thieves, are heading Down Under next month for a mini-tour after a busy 2018 of touring and festivals, even finding the time to release a new EP What Did You Think When You Made Me This Way. Ahead of their dates in Perth, Adelaide and the Central Coast, which mark…

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Film Review: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (USA, 2019) is a fitting end to a coming of age saga

When Cressida Cowell’s book series How To Train Your Dragon was developed into a film, its success took the world by storm and spawned a number of television series, short films, video games and even live performance shows. Now the third, and final film installment has arrived with How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden…

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Film Review: Mary Poppins Returns (USA, 2018) is a delightful return to the whimsy and magic of Disney musicals

Disney once again mines its own intellectual property for more family fun over the holiday season. Their recent trend of recreating their animated features into new “live action” films has been an ongoing and generally successful juggernaut. However with Mary Poppins Returns, they’ve opted for a new take on the Poppins tale.

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Film Review: Ralph Breaks The Internet (USA, 2018) is more than just memes and viral videos

When 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph was released it conceptually took video game nostalgia and the joy of arcade games and brought that idea to life. This time in Ralph Breaks The Internet (aka Wreck-It Ralph 2) the sequel ups the ante by taking our two main characters from their comfortable video game realm into the much…

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Liam Neeson coming down under this Summer to promote Cold Pursuit

He’s an acting icon, with an impressive list of dramatic roles including Schindler’s List, Rob Roy and Kinsey. But more recently he’s made a name for himself as a gritty action star courtesy of the Taken trilogy, The Grey and The Commuter. Now Irish actor Liam Neeson will be coming down under in the middle…

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5 films to watch after you’ve seenOverlord

When a small group of American soldiers are thrust into a German-occupied French town. Their mission to take out a radio tower takes a terrifying turn when they discover Nazi doctors conducting human experimentation in order to create super soldiers. With the release of the World War II action plus zombie super soldier laden Overlord…

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Film Review: Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse (USA, 2018) is a dazzling near perfect comic book movie

Of late comics fans have been spoilt for choice when it comes to seeing their favourite superhero being depicted on the big screen. The Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe have been battling it out for the eyes and dollars of fans. So when word spread that another Spiderman movie would be on its…

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Film Review: Overlord (R18+, USA) is a thrilling WWII action horror mashup

What do you get when you take a World War II action movie and smash it together with some monster horror Nazi-sploitation? You get the wild, bloody, gory ride that is Overlord. A film that has clearly defined good guys, bad guys, a hefty dose of patriotism and some reanimated super powered super soldiers to…

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