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Movies
This quiet Australian horror has style in spades but not enough guts
Birdeater uses the seclusion of the landscape to build and sustain a deep psychological unease, but struggles with characterisation and pacing.
- by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen
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Megalopolis to a ‘must-squatch’: 13 highlights at the Melbourne International Film Festival
From Francis Ford Coppola’s extravagant folly to a movie about Bigfoot and the premiere of Adam Elliot’s new animation, here are our top MIFF picks.
- by Cameron Williams
Animated films are helping save Hollywood, and it isn’t just kids showing up
Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 have helped save Hollywood from a bleak year at the box-office. But it isn’t just children flocking to cinemas.
- by Nell Geraets
Psycho star’s son directs Nicolas Cage in this creepy new horror movie
Director Osgood Perkins, the son of the star of Psycho, mixes familiar scary elements in Longlegs, but adds something extra.
- by Jake Wilson
Meet the young Australian actor about to become a superstar
At 28, Australian actor Toby Wallace is going places. But he’s looking forward to the day he can just stay put for a while.
- by Karl Quinn
‘We’ve depleted our reserves’: MIFF offers $10 tickets to lure back audiences
The Melbourne International Film Festival faces its third consecutive loss, but its inaugural CEO insists it’s not about to collapse.
- by Karl Quinn
Rebel Wilson’s latest film withdrawn as actor lashes producers
Wilson has accused the producers of her directorial debut film of “viciousness”.
- by Helen Pitt
★★★½
Review
There’s no flying cow, but this Twister sequel is still highly ridiculous
Forget the sexual tension, Twisters is at its best when Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones are dodging an inventive variety of heavy objects.
- by Sandra Hall
★★
Review
Emma Stone returns for another wacky film, but sadly this is no Poor Things
If the filmmaker’s much-praised, award-winning Poor Things was the main meal, Kinds of Kindness is the offcuts.
- by Robert Moran
★★
Review
Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum’s NASA comedy fails to take off
As a marketing whiz and an astronaut, the stars have zero chemistry in the wildly overextended and flat rom-com Fly Me to the Moon.
- by Jake Wilson
‘We had $0 in the bank account’: How a little Australian thriller went from zero to hero
It was a film festival hit, but for the writers and directors behind Birdeater, it was four years of rain, sweat and tears.
- by Louise Rugendyke