Ann Vickery Deakin University Growing up in Australia in the 1970s, I much preferred the hijinks of Han Solo and Chewie to Princess Leia’s sexualised damsel in distress. My sister and I spent an entire summer pigging out on Choc Wedges and Barney Bananas so we could collect the
Ari Mattes University of Notre Dame Australia People often roll their eyes when they hear about a major Hollywood studio re-releasing a film from its back catalogue to cinemas. Director’s cuts, “reduxes” and remastered prints can seem like cynical corporate moves, re-commodifying a long dead vision of the world.
Adrian Danks RMIT University It’s hard to imagine that Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas is 30 years old. A massive influence on contemporary filmmakers ranging from Quentin Tarantino and Fernando Morales to David O. Russell and Paul Thomas Anderson, it remains one of the peaks of Hollywood genre filmmaking. GoodFellas
Daryl Sparkes University of Southern Queensland Ten years on from its release, and hitting cinemas again, Christopher Nolan’s Inception still puzzles and intrigues. It is one of those films in which you discover something new each time you watch it. Or, more likely, it makes you reinterpret what you
Daryl Sparkes University of Southern Queensland It wasn’t the first time I’d crashed a film set. My first was the 1984 film The Coolangatta Gold. You’ll recognise me in one of the shots because I’m the only person wearing jeans on a beach. Many years, and
Phoebe Macrossan Queensland University of Technology Jessica Ford University of Newcastle While many teen films fade away never to be heard of again, Clueless, a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, has remained in the cultural consciousness since its 1995 release. Maybe it’s the catchy soundtrack, or familiar
Ben McCann November 1959. Film director Alfred Hitchcock is at his commercial and critical peak after the successes of Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959). So what does he do next? A black-and-white made-for-TV movie hastily shot, with no big-name actors and a leading actress who takes a shower,
Inger S. B. Brodey University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The latest film adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic “Emma” is a visual feast of color, pattern and texture. It’s also a bit too perfect. The colors are too vibrant, the skin too clear, the homes too opulent,
Roslyn Petelin The University of Queensland When a literary luminary such as Thomas Kenneally declares so early in 2020 that he is certain a “more original” novel “will not be published this year”, the reviewer faces a challenge. The book in question is The Dictionary of Lost Words, the debut
Even so grim a year as 2020 has to have at least one bright spot. That bright spot must surely be Bill and Ted Face the Music. The eponymous pair return after a 25-year hiatus for a most triumphant conclusion to the beloved 80s comedies. The plot is familiar enough:
In a particularly cutting episode of Extras, Kate Winslet’s character wonders about Hollywood’s fixation on Holocaust movies. “I don’t think we really need another film about the Holocaust, do we? It’s like, how many have there been? You know, we get it – it was grim, move
Bianca Coleman theplumlist.com Your first look at the latest season of Netflix’s royal drama: expect new faces, fresh plot lines and stunning visuals to keep you hooked. Season 4 of one of Netflix’s shining jewels, which covers the life of Queen Elizabeth II from 1977 to 1990,
Bianca Coleman theplumlist.com HBO once again marries superstar Nicole Kidman to David E Kelley for what is currently a thrilling and dramatic miniseries of six episodes. Following the success of Big Little Lies and its subsequent second season, The Undoing could well follow the same path. Kidman, aged 53
Jen Webb University of Canberra In a new series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. Detective fiction is my go-to when I need to wash away the exigencies of everyday life. I’m not alone. Sales and TV viewing figures show the enormous popularity
Daryl Sparkes mercatornet.com I’m a film-maker who became an archaeologist who became a film-maker who became an academic. I’ve had films screened at the Maleny film festival all the way to Cannes and everything in between. As well as a Senior Lecturer in Film Production I am
Giselle Bastin Flinders University Peter Morgan’s fourth season of The Crown faces perhaps its greatest challenge so far. The 1980s was one of the most documented, catalogued, debated and scrutinised decades of the House of Windsor. Morgan will, no doubt be keenly aware of viewers using telephoto lenses to,
