Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Goran Stolevski Stars: Elias Anton, Thom Green, Hattie Hook. The opening night film of the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2022 was Of An Age, a queer themed drama and coming of age tale that seems to draw inspiration from the likes of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset and the classic Brief Encounter. The film is set in 1999 and centres around Nikola (Elias Anton, from the miniseries Barracuda, etc), a 17-year-old of Serbian descent. He has recently graduated from high school. He is supposed to be performing at a …
THE LONELY SPIRITS VARIETY HOUR – interview with PLATON THEODORIS
by GREG KING Interview with PLATON THEODORIS When verbose radio host Neville Umbrellaman lands in hospital, a group of unexpected performers crash his show The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour. The quirky low budget independent Australian feature The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour. The film is adapted from Nitin Vengurlekar’s theatre show The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour, and has achieved success with critics. Audiences around the country will get an opportunity to see the film and hear from director Platon Theodoris and the star and writer of the film Nitin …
Continue Reading about THE LONELY SPIRITS VARIETY HOUR – interview with PLATON THEODORIS
LONESOME
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Craig Boreham Stars: Josh Lavery, Daniel Gabriel, Anni Finisterer, Ian Roberts. An antipodean Midnight Cowboy? Sydney Cowboy perhaps? Lonesome is the sexually explicit sophomore feature from writer/director Craig Boreham, one of our finest exponents of queer cinema at the moment, and it follows his 2016 debut Teenage Kicks. The low budget film looks at the commonality of the LGBTQI+ experience of young men drawn to the big city and the allure of bright lights and excitement who feel alone, isolated and anonymous. Casey …
YOU CAN GO NOW
Reviewed by GREG KING Documentary Director: Larissa Behrendt. Trailblazing indigenous artist and outspoken provocateur Richard Bell is arguably one of our most important artists whose work has been exhibited internationally. But he is also confrontational and unapologetic in his opinions about Australia’s treatment of its First Nations people, and he also bemoans the fact that traditional aboriginal art work and paintings have now become a “commodity” amongst art collectors. Timed for a cinema release over the Australia Day long weekend, this …
BLUEBACK
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Robert Connolly Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Radha Mitchell, Eric Bana, Erik Thomson, Ariel Joy Donoghue, Isla Fogg, Eddie Baroo, Clarence Ryan, Pedrea Jackson. This earnest, well-meaning but slightly manipulative family friendly film about the beautiful bond between a teenaged girl and a fish is based on the best-selling 1997 novella written by Miles Franklin award winning author Tim Winton (Cloudstreet, etc). Like much of Winton’s work it is steeped in concerns about the natural environment and man’s connections to nature and the land …
EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Nadi Sha Stars: Jordan Dulieu, Freyja Benjamin, Martin Crewes, Gigi Edgely. A bittersweet coming-of-age drama about love and loss set against a doomed romance, Everything In Between is the debut feature for local filmmaker Nadi Sha and was shot on location around Sydney. Its universal themes and positive messages should resonate strongly with its target audience. The film centres on Jason Knight (Jordan Dulieu, from My Pet Dinosaur, etc), an introverted and troubled teenager who feels alienated and alone, and …
DISCLOSURE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Michael Bentham Stars: Matilda Ridgway, Mark Leonard Winter, Geraldine Hakewill, Tom Wren, Greg Stone. Not to be confused with the Barry Levinson directed 1994 erotic thriller of the same name, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, that looked at the issue of sexual harassment and power struggles in the workplace, this provocative and intimate drama looks at the darker side of suburban life in contemporary Australia. Two sets of parents gather together to discuss an incident involving their children, but things turn ugly as …
I USED TO BE NORMAL: A BOYBAND FANGIRL STORY
Reviewed by GREG KING Documentary Director: Jessica Leski. To most of us, boy bands like One Direction are bland, formulaic, mass produced cheesy groups that appeal to teenaged girls attracted more by their pretty looks than the depth of their lyrics. The mass hysteria with which hordes of obsessed, screaming fans greet their idols is a pop culture phenomenon that is extraordinary. This documentary looks at the cultural phenomenon of fandom and obsession. I Used To Be Normal spans three generations of obsessive, tragic boyband fans, but this is also a universal …
Continue Reading about I USED TO BE NORMAL: A BOYBAND FANGIRL STORY