Features – ROUGH CUT

Melbourne International Film Festival 2019: Top Picks

The Rough Cut team pick out the weird, the compelling, and the essential out of this year’s 375-strong MIFF catalogue.

Features

Scarlett Johansson: A Tree is Born

André and Jack unpack ScarJo’s tree-related acting catalogue, past, present, and future.

Features

Parasite: A Group Chat

Rough Cut contributors, Zach, Michael, and Claire discuss this year’s witty, biting, and wildly unpredictable Palme d’Or winner.

Features, Sydney Film Festival

Populism Projected in The Brink and Reason

Faraaz Rahman examines truth and accountability in two documentaries charting the rise of populism.

Features

Mother Knows Best: I Am Mother, and Searching For Non-Sexualised AI

The AI at the heart of Netflix’s latest sci-fi plunge opens up provoking questions of femininity and motherhood.

Cinemascopes

Cinemascopes: Cancer

Be the Mom and embrace your sensitivity this season.

Features

Merchant of Melodrama: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Traumatised Characters

Zach Karpinellison examines the timeless brutality of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cinema.

Cinemascopes

Cinemascopes: Gemini

Get weird, embrace your duality, and lighten up this season.

Features, Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival 2019: Top Picks

The Rough Cut team are here to help you compile the must-sees of the Sydney Film Festival, which have unveiled their biggest program yet.

Features

The LEGO Movie 2 Wants You To Break The Cycle

Samuel Harris tracks back to his own childhood LEGO obsession to untangle the clever commentary that lies beneath the innocuous optimism of The LEGO Movie’s sequel.

Features

This Is It, We’re Finally Leaving Neverland

Matilda Dorman reflects upon the revived abuse allegations against Michael Jackson in 2019’s two-parter documentary, Leaving Neverland — through a personal comparison to the 2009 concert film This Is It.

Features

Thank You For The Music: Coming Of Age in Muriel’s Wedding

P.J Hogan’s 1994 cult classic might just be the most honest Australian coming-of-age film ever made.

Cinemascopes

Cinemascopes: Taurus

Luxuriate in earthly delights, but stay grounded this season.

Features

The Halphabet: 26 Vital Parts of Hal Ashby

Eliza Janssen alphabetises the ‘shaggy humanism’ of Hal Ashby, in light of a release of a documentary on the prolific American director.

Cinemascopes

Cinemascopes: Aries

Channel Aries’ headstrong energy this season.

Features

Making Bigotry A Thing of The Past

Why is Hollywood so obsessed with looking backwards, rather than addressing today’s injustices?

Features

Moving and Shaking: Embracing the Uncertainty of Teen Sexuality in Giant Little Ones

Michael Sun investigates the state of teen queer cinema after the feel-good optimism of Love, Simon.

Alliance Française French Film Festival, Features

Video Essay: ‘Last Year At Marienbad’ and The Doobie Brother’s ‘What A Fool Believes’ Are About The Same Thing

Eliza Janssen finds an unlikely connection between Alain Resnais’ 1961 arthouse drama and a 70s yacht-rock single.

Features

A Cat Jumps Out From The Darkness: In Defence of Jump Scares

Why hasn’t the jump scare graduated to the same respectability as the horror genre?

Features

Oscars 2019 Round Table: A Group Chat

The Rough Cut team bring to you an unconventional chat ahead of the 2019 Academy Awards, bantering predictions, conflicts as critics, and Oscar campaigns.