Features – ROUGH CUT

‘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.

Features

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.

Features

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.

Features

The Joys of Not Understanding ‘Tenet’

Nolan’s confusing action flick has Elroy Rosenberg thinking about the very nature of art and ambiguity.

Features

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.

Features

Reflection: ‘Happiest Season’

Tina Huang reacts to Clea DuVall’s lesbian Christmas romcom.

Columns, You Tried

You Tried: Nicole Kidman in ‘The Paperboy’

Kidman’s transformative role brings power and authenticity to Lee Daniels’ pulp film.

Features

New Cinephilia: The Rise and Rise of A24

Rhea Thomas dives deep into the independent US studio’s cleverly constructed public image, from ‘Midsommar’ merch to the reinvention of Robert Pattinson.

Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

‘Ema’ and the Explosive Composite of the Dance Film

Pablo Larraín’s latest film is a metaphysical exploration that gives into the domination, submission and total openness of the senses.

Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

Lessons in Tenderness from ‘First Cow’

Kelly Reichardt’s quiet film offers examples of kindness amongst the exploited.

Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

The Slippery Substance of ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’

Matilda Dorman deciphers the hollow political and social resonances that lie with a quasi-fictional film about a bar on closing night.

Columns, You Tried

You Tried: Uma Thurman in ‘Batman and Robin’

Thurman is the sole performer in this goofy BatFilm to not only perfectly reflect Schumacher’s weightless camp, but to enrich it.

Sketch & Study, Sydney Film Festival

Sketch & Study: ‘A Year Full of Drama’

Marta Pulk documents a teen’s shifting sense of self, as she is tasked with watching 224 plays in 365 days.

Features, We Are One: A Global Film Festival

Fantasy and Loneliness in ‘Tremble All You Want’

Curated by Tokyo International Film Festival, Akiko Ohku’s 2017 comic romance deftly explores the dangers of idolising relationships when it halts an engagement with real-life.

Features

The True Apocalypse Trilogy

Rory Doherty looks at three films set before, during and after apocalypses, and uncovers how they reveal the strain global catastrophes can have on human life.

Sketch & Study

Sketch & Study: ‘Under the Skin’

Jonathan Glazer taps into the poetic potential of cinema, bringing an original and alternative cinematic vision to life.

Features

Real, From the Heart

Reflections on the enduring power of one scene from John Cassavetes’ ‘Husbands’.

Sketch & Study

Sketch & Study: ‘Uncut Gems’

The last thing you should try to do when watching the Sadfies’ latest film is surface for air.

Cinemascopes, Features

Cinemascopes: Pisces

A time of heightened sensitivity, mystical intuition, and death.

Columns, You Tried

You Tried: Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Joker’

Is it just me, or are things getting crazier out there this awards season?

Features, Hyperlinks Film Festival

The Cyber-Chaos of ‘0s & 1s’

Eugene Kotlyarenko’s proto-desktop film details life on the precipice of total internet poisoning.

Features, Hyperlinks Film Festival

Stuck Between Presence & Absence: ‘Demonlover’ and ‘Mating’

Two films from Static Vision’s Hyperlinks Film Festival explore the type of connections that flow from relational forcefields both online and IRL.

Cinemascopes

Cinemascopes: Aquarius

Trip out, detach (with intention), and change the world.

Features, Hyperlinks Film Festival

Those Grey Men in ‘Leave the Bus Through the Broken Window’

A winding trip through Hong Kong’s art world digs at the cryptic muddle of art.

Features

‘The Lighthouse’ in Three Parts

Isolation, repression, two bodies, and a lingering stench.

Features

The Unexceptional Hero in ‘A Hidden Life’

Terrence Malick’s latest opus brings to the fore the unconventional heroism of ordinary people.

Features

Tactile Affects in ‘J’ai Perdu Mon Corps’ (‘I Lost My Body’)

After watching Jeremy Clapin’s new film in a Parisian theatre, Lauren Ironmonger reflects on the incorporeal power of touch.

Features

‘Little Women’, ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, and the Significance of Materiality

Indigo Bailey admires Céline Sciamma and Greta Gerwig’s visions of female artistry – of something tangible, intimate, and real.

Features

What Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ Tells Us About Film In 2019

Elroy Rosenberg spotlights Scorsese’s creative ambition in the midst of 2019’s slick, focus-group filmmaking.

Columns, You Tried

You Tried: Richard E. Grant in ‘Spice World’

Grant’s highly-strung manager nearly turns a 90s cinematic wannabe into girl group gold.