Michael Haneke depicts contemporary life better than most directors half his age. Nobody can place a camera like Michael Haneke. Director of cinematic endurance tests (Funny Games) and aggressively perverted relationship comedies (The Piano Teacher) Haneke has a fondness for…
Skewers loneliness to an almost uncomfortable degree Even with the strictest sense of community, a tight-knit group can still strike a sharp note of loneliness in the individual. That’s certainly what Menashe (Mensashe Lustig) experiences, as the the titular protagonist…
The kind of film few directors still get to make Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed Phantom Thread, is an anomaly in today’s Hollywood. He’s what you could call an auteur (a director with a distinctive style and rigorous control over…
The Melbourne Women in Film Festival (MWFF) kicks off in the last week of February with a well-crafted program including contemporary and classic feature films, short movie screenings, and eye-opening panels and discussions. Supporting the work of women screen practitioners across…
Familiar beats in this coming of age tale feel fresh under Gerwig’s camera eye. Greta Gerwig is one of those artists who you can’t help but notice. If it isn’t a film about her or her character, she’s still probably…
Brilliantly self-assured debut feature that serves as a reminder for just how visceral cinema can be. Early on, something happens in Coralie Fargeat’s thriller Revenge that’s so implausible, so difficult to let pass as a believable turn of events in…
Lost Gully Road In the Q&A following her film, director Donna McRae explained that she shot Lost Gully Road in the Dandenong Ranges. These isolated, lushly green hills that appear frozen in time are a perfect setting for films. McRae…
There’s nothing quite like a picnic on a mild summer evening. What’s even better is when there’s also a good movie on the big screen, yummy food and the gentle sound of the ocean in the background. Well you can…
Jasmine Jakupi and Addison Heath understand why audiences endure great horror films. When I asked Jasmine Jakupi and Addison Heath, directors of The Viper’s Hex, why movie-goers love horror movies despite their intentions to scare you and make you uncomfortable,…
Deeply affecting, works both as a drama and a horror. Some directors just ‘get’ horror. Adam Macdonald, with his second feature after 2014’s tense survival flick Backcountry, has a film that improves on his first effort (which was already pretty…