You might be sick of video calls by now, but ‘Language Lessons’ celebrates their awkward and intimate power to connect us.
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‘The Most Beautiful Boy In The World’ is a pornography of suffering
Elroy Rosenberg reflects on the troubling MIFF documentary about Björn Andrésen’s life as an object of aesthetic attraction — and then pity.
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Review: ‘The Macaluso Sisters’ paints the slow passage of grief
Emma Dante’s unconventional Sicily-set drama poignantly captures, over decades, the mourning between sisters after a tragic accident.
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Review: The Dematerialised Vistas of ‘Land’
Snow-capped peaks, rolling hills, pine trees, log cabin, woodchop block and axe, fire, middle-aged white woman staring pensively into the distance.
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False Proximity in ‘Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine’
Alex Piperno’s surreal film is a tight synthesis of utter, lacklustre realism and dream logic that lulls one into belief in the unreal.
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Recreating The Synergy Between Painter and Painted: An Interview with Sis Gürdal
Debbie Zhou speaks to Sis Gürdal about conveying hidden colonialism in her short film, her striking visual style, and the tensions of working as an overseas Turkish filmmaker.
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My Dinner with Cinema: Lynne Ramsay
Ramsay’s characters, lost in their own daydreams, create worlds out of piles of food to break free from their painful realities.
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Poetic Memory: An Interview with Shannon Murphy
Ahead of the BAFTAs, Claire White caught up with the director of ‘Babyteeth’ about the imagery of an Australian summer, young love, and depicting teenagers with care and celebration.
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My Dinner With Cinema: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Using food, Hirokazu Kore-eda grounds his body of work within the mores of social realism, threading themes of family and memory.
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Review: The Bright, Waxy World of ‘Minari’
Lee Isaac Chung’s gentle tale of assimilation and cultivation steeps in something universal.
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I Haven’t Felt This Good in Ages: On Being Sober and Watching ‘Another Round’
Thomas Vinterberg’s boozy dark comedy explores the pleasure, pain, and ambiguities of alcohol — and challenges us to see both drinking and sobriety in a new light.
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Prisoners of a System: An Interview with the Creators of VR Series ‘Prison X’
Annabelle Ots speaks to Prison X’s Violeta Ayala and Roly Elias about pushing the boundaries of co-authored storytelling, fighting against a techno-totalitarian future, and the irony of freedom in colonised spaces.
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My Dinner With Cinema: Agnes Varda
The foods featured in Varda’s films reflect the simple staples of everyday life – as equally nourishing as they are sublime.
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The Joys of Not Understanding ‘Tenet’
Nolan’s confusing action flick has Elroy Rosenberg thinking about the very nature of art and ambiguity.
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Alight, alight, alight: On Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Greenlights’
A fellow alum of Gorokan High School, Sam Twyford-Moore breaks down the Texan Best Actor winner’s less-than-illuminating autobiography.
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CREW CUTS: Festive Edition
The Rough Cut staff’s favourite cinematic bon-bons, including the best of Nancy Meyers and Billy Wilder.
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Reflection: ‘Happiest Season’
Tina Huang reacts to Clea DuVall’s lesbian Christmas romcom.
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Be Your Own Cheerleader: An Interview with Jessica Bendinger
Eliza Janssen discusses music recommendations, screenwriting advice, and social media doom-spiralling with the writer behind teen classics ‘Bring It On’ and ‘Stick It’.
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It’s My Job to Have Fun: An Interview with Aunty Donna’s Zach Ruane
Ivana Brehas speaks with the comedian on the surreal connection between Aunty Donna’s Netflix sketch series and ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’.
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On Art, Cinema, Technology, and Cancel Culture: An Interview with Sandra Wollner
Michelle Wang speaks to the director of ‘The Trouble with Being Born’ about the film’s intersectional exploration of identity, relationships, sexuality, and technology.
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CREW CUTS: Noirvember
Coens, ‘neon-noir’, and Gun Crazy dominate our roundup of hardboiled faves.
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Review: David Byrne’s ‘American Utopia’ is an Electric Ride
Spike Lee’s filmed version of David Byrne’s Broadway show captures a feeling of infectious enthusiasm and energy.
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Review: Disney + LEGO + Lucasfilm + Christmas = ‘The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special’
Tansy Gardam unboxes this curious brand-tastic product, which is at the very least an improvement on the ‘78 special.
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Review: ‘The Twentieth Century’ is the Most Fun You’ll Have Learning About Politics All Year
Matthew Rankin’s debut feature is a surreal quasi-biopic set in a delicious nightmare world of Canadian politics.
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My Dinner With Cinema: Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino’s irredeemable characters find themselves in direct incongruity between food and violence.
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Review: ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ is a Softly Spoken Tale of Female Self-Determination
Eliza Hittman’s naturalistic drama is at its most tender, yet hard-hitting when it says nothing at all.
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Review: The River Tale in ‘Voice of Siang’
In his debut documentary, Joor Baruah creates a delicate and stylised visual anthropological treat, foregrounding the controversy of dam construction with issues of frontierisation and borderlands.
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You Tried: Nicole Kidman in ‘The Paperboy’
Kidman’s transformative role brings power and authenticity to Lee Daniels’ pulp film.
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Review: Violence’s Aftermath in ‘Jwlwi – The Seed’
This multilingual film sheds light on the conflict between various ethnic militant groups and the state armed forces across two decades in India, but finds hope in future generations.
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CREW CUTS: Scary Movies
Cronenberg, witches, and bleak Aussie horror reign supreme this spooky season.
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