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My Dinner With Cinema, Video Essays

My Dinner With Cinema: Wong Kar-wai

In the first edition of Rough Cut’s new video essay series centering on food in cinema, Tyrie Aspinall pieces together images from Wong Kar-wai’s sensuous filmography.

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Interviews

Billy the Kid, in His Own Words

Billy Price looks back on his experience as the titular subject of Jennifer Venditti’s 2007 documentary.

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Columns, Crew Cuts

CREW CUTS: What’s the best piece of media you’ve discovered during self-iso?

The Rough Cut crew celebrate the best books, good habits, and comfiest cinema they caught up on whilst self-quarantining.

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Reviews

Review: ‘I Am Woman’ is Your Semi-Annual Groovy Reminder of the Power of Music

The Helen Reddy biopic is firmly formulaic and second-wave, but it still manages to inspire.

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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.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘Women Make Film’, and How, In This Epic Documentary Chronicling the Female Gaze

Mark Cousins’ gargantuan series on female directors is captivating and aspirational from every one of its 14 hours.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Death, Lesbians, and Disappointment in ‘Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)’

It may be a meaningful step forward for Australian queer cinema, but this lesbian teen rom-com offers little outside of representation.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘The Tango of the Widower and Its Distorting Mirror’ is Little More Than A Fragmented Reflection of Former Greatness

Filmed in 1967 and reconstructed in 2020, Matilda Alexander ponders Raúl Ruiz’s Chilean cinépoem, which brims with visionary ambition.

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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.

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Features, Melbourne International Film Festival

Lessons in Tenderness from ‘First Cow’

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

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘Corpus Christi’ is a Clear-Eyed Drama about Faith and Fraud

There are no simple truths in this bittersweet, confronting film of a delinquent Polish youth masquerading as a Catholic priest.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Adolescent Panic of ‘Shiva Baby’

Emma Seligman’s debut feature is an affecting examination of the pressures, anxieties and insecurities of young womanhood.

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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.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: Artificial Unintelligence in ‘Coded Bias’

Shalini Kantayya’s documentary is a methodical look at facial recognition algorithms which avoids being by-the-numbers.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: The Dread of Waiting in ‘La Llorona’

This slow-burning Guatemalan ghost story deals with heavy questions about complicity and justice.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Melbourne International Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: Animation

In this year’s impressive Animated Shorts line-up, three films elevate the mundane through style and tone.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Melbourne International Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: International

In this year’s heavy-hitting International Shorts line-up, three women-centric films stand out, exploring separate facets of female isolation.

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Melbourne International Film Festival, Reviews

Review: ‘The Plastic House’ Tends To A Garden of Isolation and Grief

The repetitive imagery and near silence of Allison Chhorn’s experimental film may cause pandemic-era viewers to reflect on their own daily routines.

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Reviews

Review: Mortality Confronted in ‘Father to Son’

Hsiao Ya-chuan crafts a rewarding, if at times confounding tale of paternal love, politics, and temptation.

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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.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

A Quiet Observer: An Interview with Jakeb Anhvu

James Walsh talks to the director of ‘A Hundred Years of Happiness’ about blending in as a documentary filmmaker, and using an observational approach to allow his young Vietnamese female subject to speak for herself.

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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.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘Descent’ is a Cathartic Deep Dive That Takes Your Breath Away

Nays Baghai crafts an empathetic portrait of ice freediver Kiki Bosch, exploring how the traumas of her past led her to the extreme sport.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘Rosemary’s Way’ Introduces Audiences to the Australian Hero We Need Right Now

It’s hard not to fall for the community spirit and gentle charms of Ros Horin’s sophomore documentary feature.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Superstition as Anesthesia in ‘Zana’

Set in the aftermath of the Kosovo war, Antoneta Kastrati explores the stigmatisation of female psychology in her unflinching narrative debut.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Review: ‘Sea Fever’ is a Moody Deep-Sea Sci-Fi

Watery characterisation and borrowed genre tropes leave this thriller down among the dead men.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: Animation

Although ‘GNT’ and ‘The Quiet’ are animated, they’re far from two-dimensional.

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Reviews, Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival 2020 Shorts Round-Up: Live-Action

‘Her Own Music’, ‘Mukbang’, and ‘Idol’ tell their stories of adolescence and social media madness sensitively – and quickly.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

Translating Between Two Worlds: An Interview with Nays Baghai

Michelle Wang speaks with the director of ‘Descent’ about the physical and psychological journey of filming an underwater exploration of the soul.

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Interviews, Sydney Film Festival

The Illusions of Idolatry: An Interview with Alex Wu

Ahead of ‘Idol’’s Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Alex Wu talks about his short film, the one-take structure, and being influenced by Lee Chang-Dong and Asghar Farhadi.

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