TV & Streaming

Series Review: Bupkis is a semi-autobiographical comedy series that defines the charm of creator Pete Davidson

Whilst some could accuse Pete Davidson of repeating (or, re-Pete-ing, sorry) himself in Bupkis, given that he already gave us an “inspired by” piece in 2020’s The King of Staten Island, his 8-episode dramedy series at least gives the actor/writer more breathing room to delve into what makes him tick and heighten the situation accordingly….

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Interview: Katie Cassidy on surviving Arrow and the power of the fan base

After being Taken in the Liam Neeson thriller of the same name, surviving the wrath of a seasonal serial killer in Black Christmas, but succumbing to the killer instincts of Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare On Elm Street, Katie Cassidy‘s film career may not have always seen her make it to the final credits, but…

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Series Review: Dead Ringers is a deliciously depraved thriller led by a stunning, dual Rachel Weisz

You have to hand it to the creative team behind the new series Dead Ringers for having the gumption to remake a piece that was birthed from the mind of one David Cronenberg.  The darkly-driven filmmaker’s 1988 psychological thriller – which followed his 1986 horror success The Fly – starred Jeromy Irons in a dual…

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Interview: Jim Cummings on voicing your favourite characters, from Pooh and Tigger to Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Aladdin

“Tell the kid he’s got it,” said the legendary Mel Blanc with a smile, after listening to a young man’s first demo tape of cartoon character voices. The year was 1984, “the kid,” was Jim Cummings. Since then, the kid has gone on to give life and voice to some of America’s most beloved animal…

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TV Review: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 5 remains richly addictive but feels lost in elaborate subplots

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has returned for its fifth and final season, after an uneven yet still charming fourth iteration, which left us with a slightly hopeful ending—Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) staring up at a snowy billboard featuring ‘The Gordon Ford Show’. For my first impression of this season, I watched the first four…

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Interview: Stephen Amell on Arrow, Heels and being surprised by his own career success

Most well known for his titular role in the television series Arrow, based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, Stephen Amell has long been part of the comic culture since the series first aired in 2012.  After 8 seasons, Amell has retired the hood (or has he?) and has since incorporated his own professional…

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First Impressions: Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies doesn’t quite ascend in the manner akin to the original musical

There’s something kind of ironic in Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies aiming to ramp up the female empowerment.  As seems to be the norm now for familiar property, the creators of this prequel series have essentially refashioned it for modern audiences and, in the process, made it feel like a separate entity entirely to…

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Interview: Heather Graham and Jesse Metcalfe on their new faith-based true story drama, On A Wing and a Prayer

Arriving just in time for the Easter weekend, the credence of a family in peril and the determination of the stranger who can save them come together in On A Wing and A Prayer, a faith-based drama streaming on Prime Video from April 7th. Directed by Sean McNamara, written by Brian Egeston, and based on…

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Film Review: Tetris is a far more thrilling tale than audiences will expect about the game’s creation

As we’re seeing superhero films flounder under audience fatigue, there’s a new subsect of IP being explored in a particularly exciting fashion; and it has nothing to do with sequels either! (Although, given how well received Creed III, Scream VI, and John Wick: Chapter 4 have all been, sometimes following through on existing titles isn’t…

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First Impressions: Rabbit Hole; Kiefer Sutherland’s ever-twisted action series provides effortless binge service

Flirting with the type of action-heavy chaos that served his character for 9 seasons on the surprisingly resilient 24, Kiefer Sutherland embraces coincidental lunacy and a healthy supply of narrative twists for Rabbit Hole to deliver on its promise on the type of genre fun born from political thrills and double-crossing intent. Given just how…

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TV Series Review: Class of ‘07 is a refreshing and riotously funny celebration of female friendship

Class of ‘07 is an apocalyptic comedy set during a ten-year reunion at an all-girls high school, which soon becomes the only surviving part of a sunken Sydney. It could have easily been terrible. The eight-episode Prime Video series had big ambitions, with an ensemble cast, multiple complex storylines, flashbacks, and an end of the…

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Film Review: Boston Strangler is a fascinating, yet familiar, true crime drama anchored by Keira Knightley

There’s a formula adhered to and a lack of mould breaking throughout Matt Ruskin‘s Boston Strangler, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t an effective take on an establish genre, with his script executing compelling narrative arcs and supplying the always-watchable Keira Knightley a role with sense and purpose. She stars as Loretta McLaughlin, a…

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Action speaks louder than words for Chris Evans and Ana de Armas in Ghosted trailer

Romantic gestures just don’t get the same reaction as they used to.  At least not when it comes to Cole (Chris Evans) and realising that the enigmatic Sadie (Ana de Armas) isn’t returning his calls for a reason other than that she’s ghosting him – she’s a secret agent. Oh, that old chestnut! Rocketman director…

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Interview: Alex Bain on what she’s learned as the Prime Video Buff, streaming recommendations, and her goals moving forward

The last time Peter Gray spoke with Alex Bain, the Queensland-born film fan had secured the job of her (and, let’s face it, mostly everyone else’s) dreams; that of the Prime Video Buff. Working under the Prime Video Australia banner, Bain was the voice of recommendation and reason as she took over their social media…

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5 things we learned from Rian Johnson’s director’s commentary for Glass Onion

Those of us that still collect physical media will be all too aware of the oft-golden special feature that is the director’s commentary.  But, in perhaps a sign of the streaming model cottoning on that it needs to up its game when it comes to packaging a film, Netflix have sanctioned writer/director Rian Johnson to…

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Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special: Harley pushes love to the limit in this rip-roaring DC Valentine’s special

Harley Quinn : A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special follows from the third season of Harley Quinn, airing on Binge in Australia and HBO Max in the USA. It’s a show that has prided itself on being outrageously vulgar, taking beloved DC characters and pushing them to the limit of adult animation humour. But they’re…

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Interview: Jessica Watson and the cast and crew of Netflix’s True Spirit

At the age of 16, Jessica Watson attempted solo global circumnavigation.  Departing in Sydney on October 18th, 2009, and returning on 15th May 2010, her incredible, untapped journey saw her cross the equator in the Pacific Ocean before crossing both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. A Young Australian of the Year Award recipient and awarded…

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Teen Wolf

Film Review : Teen Wolf: The Movie is back for one more bite!

It’s been five years since we said goodbye to the residents of Beacon Hills and the majority of its cast moved onto bigger projects allowing them to become household names. Bringing all these characters together again and having them moved from teens to adulthood was a big gamble to see if fans would return and…

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Film Review: Shotgun Wedding offsets its traditional romantic comedy sensibilities with bloodshed and a scene-stealing Jennifer Coolidge

If there’s one thing you can rely on when it comes to the romantic comedy genre, it’s that if there’s a wedding involved Jennifer Lopez can’t be too far from the fray.  The reliable superstar knows how to play the genre game, but if any audiences are concerned that Shotgun Wedding will play things a…

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TV Review: The Last of Us is the perfect video game adaptation

Translating a video game to screen is no easy feat. There have been so many examples of terrible franchises that companies try to cross over and while some work (Sonic, Detective Pikachu) more often than not they fail spectacularly (Resident Evil on Netflix, Monster Hunter, Silent Hill). What these adaptations fail to understand is an…

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Short Film Review: Kiddo is an unsettling and individually interpreted horror film

Kiddo, a short film written and directed by Brett Chapman, is an oddity, to say the least. And that’s meant in the most complimentary of fashions, as the supremely bizarre, always unsettling outing announces itself as an original, individually interpreted horror film that’s likely to sit differently (and divisively) with its audience. In fact, it’s…

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Interview: The cast and creators of Stan’s thrilling new Australian crime series Black Snow

The biggest challenge with cold cases is finding out who people were back then. Who killed Isabel Baker? Such is the logline for Stan Australia’s thrilling new limited series, Black Snow.  In 1994,  seventeen-year-old Isabel Baker was murdered. The crime shocked the small town of Ashford and devastated Isabel’s Australian South Sea Islander community. The…

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Interview: Alex Bain on becoming the Prime Video Buff; “I can’t be authentic about something if I don’t love something.”

Following a nation-wide search, Prime Video Australia have secured their “Buff”. Queensland-born Alex Bain has secured the illustrious Prime Video couch for the next three months, where she will be the streaming service’s voice of recommendations and reason – all the while being paid $40,000. As she settles into her first month of catalogue shuffling,…

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Interview: Anna Diop and Nikyatu Jusu on navigating the horror elements of Nanny with lived-in emotion

In the psychological horror fable of displacement Nanny, Aisha (Anna Diop), is a woman recently emigrated from Senegal and hired to care for the daughter of an affluent couple (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector) living in New York City.  Haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind, Aisha hopes her new job…

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Film Review: Nanny is a haunting human drama bathed in a supernatural temperament

The term “elevated horror” gets thrown around a lot nowadays.  And as much as supposed film purists like to rib on such a phrase, it’s undeniably becoming a subgenre of the horror space, allowing dark, heavy topics and deep exploration of characters to exist within the structure of a scary story. Such is the mentality…

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First Impressions: National Treasure: Edge of History needs to uncover more excitement in order to match the spirit of its filmic predecessors

Though it’s created by Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, the screenwriters of the two National Treasure movies, and has links through the casting of guest-spotted performers Harvey Keitel and Justin Bartha, National Treasure: Edge of History has very little of the ultimate charm and adventurous spirit of its predecessors. The films – 2004’s original and its…

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Tim Minchin

Digital Review: Tim Minchin: Back delivers on the old songs, new songs and f**k you songs

Chameleon comedian and musician, Tim Minchin has had some busy years working in theatre and on films. After an eight-year break away from live touring, he returned to the live stage with his show, Back, only for Covid-19 to hit. Filmed live at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in the UK, Back is a clever blend…

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Interview: Christmas Bloody Christmas writer/director Joe Begos on seasonal horror, practical effects and shooting on film.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and fiery record store owner Tori Tooms just wants to get drunk and party, until the robotic Santa Claus at a nearby toy store goes haywire and makes her night more than a little complicated. Santa Claus begins a rampant killing spree through the neon drenched snowscape…

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Film Review: Meet Cute; a time travel comedy you’ll want to go back and warn yourself from watching

Live. Date. Repeat. The ideal first date and that titular mentality that so many romantic comedies bank on is a concept that, in real life, we wish could be so cinematically charming.  And the idea that a film would take such a concept and build a time travel-influenced narrative around it sounds incredibly promising.  What…

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Interview: Hushidar Kharas, head of Prime Video Australia and New Zealand, on searching for “the Prime Video Buff”

Australians are obsessed with content, with new research from Prime Video Australia revealing the average Australian has watched 67 movies and TV series this year alone. With tens of thousands of titles to choose from on Prime Video, choosing what to watch can be hard. And let’s be honest, sometimes you just want to leave…

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