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The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival is in Melbourne until May 23 and in Canberra from May 22-25. Hannah Carrodus reviews three of its highlights. Click on film title for details and times. The Panama Papers “Who’s surprised that bad guys hide their money? Nobody is saying that’s a surprise,”McClatchy reporter Kevin Hall muses in The
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Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet was a significant cinematic experience for 12-year-old me. The lush aesthetics, the baroque-meets-alt rock-meets-pop soundtrack, baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio – it all mingled to ignite a fierce, burning passion that could only be expressed through an entire bedroom wall plastered with magazine clippings. Of course, we know the
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What comes next? While those watching Game of Thrones may be waited with bated breath for each new hour or so, for the characters time marches on regardless. Despite conquering their greatest supernatural enemy, they still need to clear the bodies from the fields, tend to their wounds and revel in their victory. After fighting for
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Umberto Eco’s 1985 essay that was the centrepiece of his book, Faith in Fakes, asked questions about why United States “culture” is so big on what he called “hyper-reality”, in particular the huge popularity of simulated experiences in theme parks. What the great Italian semiotician would have thought of the so-called “tribute show” we can
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For the entire length of Game of Thrones, it has been the Night King and the White Walkers who have been presented as the overarching true villains of the piece. For eight seasons we’ve had it drummed into us that the battle against the dead was really all that mattered. The very first scene of
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Shot on Super 16mm film in black and white, Yen Tan’s 1985 is an intensely felt, claustrophobic and deeply moving portrait of one young man’s closeted life in Reagan-era America. Drawing finely calibrated performances from his leads and deploying an almost desperately restrained filmmaking style, a gentle sadness radiates throughout Tan’s film. Set in the dwindling days of 1985, Cory Michael
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Is Avengers: Endgame one of the worst blockbuster movies ever made? Should it even be called a movie in the first place? In a blistering critique exploring the final instalments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the culture that allowed these stupendous productions to prosper, critic Luke Buckmaster raises important questions about the current state
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Kim Williams, a former CEO of Foxtel and the Australian Film Commission and now Chair of of the Copyright Council, argues that governments and policy makers have realised that Big Tech has been true to its word: it really has broken things. In my recent trips to Canberra as Chair of the Copyright Agency there has clearly been a
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Some people watch Game of Thrones purely for the swords, sex and dragons, others for the political manoeuvring, character interplay and dense themes. Most fall somewhere in between, but for those who are of the latter persuasion, this was as good as Game of Thrones gets. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a delight from
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Finally, it is here. The excitement around this season premiere has been more akin to a sporting final rather than a TV show. Viewing parties have sprung up like weeds, while some workplaces are even running screenings at work to try and negate workers taking GoT sickies. While plenty of other big budget dramas and fantasy epics
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