From psychosexual body-horror filth to satanic panic frights, Jamie Tram steps through the line-up of Melbourne’s most anticipated Halloween filmgoing event.
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Review: Beats
Brian Welsh injects this coming of age tale, set against the last hurrah of Scotland’s rave scene, with visual energy and electric nostalgia.
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Video Essay: Big Duck Richie
A celebration of those times when a guy just comes into your workplace and dances.
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Ride Like a Girl is an Affront to Feminism
Rachel Griffiths’ Melbourne Cup biopic ignores the cruelty through which its female protagonist achieves her so-called ‘success’.
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Pubic Hair and Other Lies: The Farewell
Amidst the noise of diversity and representation discourse, filmmaker Hyun Lee reflects on why she loved The Farewell.
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Review: The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt’s modern classic is adapted faithfully ― and misguidedly ― in this bloated cinematic adaptation.
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Cinemascopes: Libra
Keep your ego in check, and stand up for your beliefs (if you can decide on them).
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Review: Buoyancy
This urgent, authentic coming-of-age tale that takes a devastating look at the exploitative Thai fishing industry is vital viewing.
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Review: The Souvenir
Joanna Hogg’s fragmentary portrait of an emotionally abusive relationship is both painful and distancing.
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Finding Your Voice: An Interview with Lulu Wang
Debbie Zhou talks to The Farewell’s Lulu Wang about cross-cultural communication, building tension in a scene and coming to terms with her personal voice as a filmmaker.
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Cinemascopes: Virgo
Get organised, team up, and listen to your instincts this season.
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Taking Back the Culture: An Interview with And Then We Danced’s Levan Akin
Claire White speaks to And Then We Danced director Levan Akin about same-sex desire, claiming a traditional culture for your own, and the queering of John Hughes.
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Review: Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America
This HBO documentary offers up some alternative perspectives on death rituals, but remains limited by its Western perspectives.
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Review: Sequin in a Blue Room
A high schooler navigates the world of queer online dating in this hypnotic coming of age tale.
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Video Essay: Hae-Mi Monroe
Ivana Brehas presents a side-by-side comparison of two pivotal dance scenes from Burning (2018) and The Misfits (1961), finding parallels between characters decades and continents apart.
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Getting a Kick Out of It: An Interview with Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks’ Veronica Fury
At the Melbourne International Film Festival, Hunter Keeble talks with producer Veronica Fury about what makes an engaging documentary, the cultural impact of martial arts cinema, and the future of “films about films”.
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Review: The Wild Goose Lake
Diao Yi’nan’s expressively shot Chinese neon-noir is a pointless exercise in hard-boiled posturing.
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Review: Hotel By The River
Two occupants reflect on their pasts in a sleepy, snow-side hotel in this gentle, even-handed entry into Hang Sang-soo’s oeuvre.
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And Then We Danced: A Facebook Chat
Claire White and George Kapaklis reflect on the highlights of a tender, queer love story set in Georgia.
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#Big Truths: An Interview with Rolf de Heer
André Shannon speaks to Rolf de Heer about environmental filmmaking ahead of The Waiting Room’s VR premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
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Review: Present.Perfect.
Shengze Zhu foregrounds humanism in this pensive internet-age documentary about streaming and voyeurism.
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Review: The Day Shall Come
Chris Morris targets American intelligence with acid-laced humour in this off-kilter, spitfire satire.
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Review: In Fabric
Peter Strickland’s killer dress movie wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, but its competing stories are sloppily stitched together.
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Baby, or The Politics of Performance and Pain
Kai Perrignon challenges the state of political art in the age of cancel culture.
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Review: Beanpole
Kantemir Balagov’s sophomore feature hangs heavy with the maternal emptiness of post-war Russia.
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Review: The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão
The colours, the colours, the colours.
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Review: House of Hummingbird
This languid, slice of life portrait feels like a memory deep inside.
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Review: The Grand Bizarre
Jodie Mack’s experimental quilt of sound and colour gives “life and agency” to inanimate fabric.
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Cinemascopes: Leo
The sun is in Leo, so get glowing and dress the part.
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Notes on Band Camp: An Interview with No Time For Quiet’s Hylton Shaw
Eliza Janssen talks to co-director Hylton Shaw about her rowdy teen rockumentary, the brutal truth of post-camp blues, and safe spaces ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
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Review: Ohong Village
The intergenerational tapestry of lies between a father and son takes centre stage in this melancholic Taiwanese drama.
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Review: Crawl
This high-concept girl vs. monster thriller is a shining light in 2019’s swamp water of reboots, remakes and rip-offs.
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Huge Ackman: The Curious Case of Hugh Jackman’s Career
Sam Twyford-Moore delves beneath the shiny surface of one of Australia’s most beloved yet ‘bifurcated’ entertainers.
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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.
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Art After Artisan: An Interview with Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
André Shannon talks to Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki about his new film Saturday Afternoon in the aftermath of Holey Artisan Bakery, censorship, and how to move forward after calamity.
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Scarlett Johansson: A Tree is Born
André and Jack unpack ScarJo’s tree-related acting catalogue, past, present, and future.
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Review: The Third Wife
A child bride navigates her newfound womanhood in this sensitively directed drama.
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Parasite: A Group Chat
Rough Cut contributors, Zach, Michael, and Claire discuss this year’s witty, biting, and wildly unpredictable Palme d’Or winner.
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Populism Projected in The Brink and Reason
Faraaz Rahman examines truth and accountability in two documentaries charting the rise of populism.
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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.
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Cinemascopes: Cancer
Be the Mom and embrace your sensitivity this season.
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Review: Parasite
Bong Joon-Ho’s slippery Palme d’Or winner is another sharp take on class conflict in modern day Korean society.
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Scars as a Work of Art: An Interview with Dirty God’s Vicky Knight and Sacha Polak
At the Sydney Film Festival, André Shannon talks to actress Vicky Knight and director Sacha Polak about tattoos, electronica, and making survivor films.
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Review: Monos
This chaotically evocative thriller is a sensory, obscure look at a unit of child soldiers set on a faraway Columbian mountaintop.
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Review: The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn deftly navigate conflict and compassion between two Indigenous women with unparalleled care and intimacy.
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Review: Jesus
Japanese director Hiroshi Okuyama’s debut looks at a religious experience through a child’s eyes.
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Weird the Whole Way: An Interview with Ladyworld’s Amanda Kramer
At the Sydney Film Festival, Ivana Brehas talks to writer-director Amanda Kramer about writing, weirdness, and womanhood.
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Review: Depraved
Larry Fessenden’s human tale of broken bodies updates the Frankenstein story for the 21st century.
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Find What Affects You: An Interview With RJ Mitte
Ahead of Standing Up For Sunny’s premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Ivana Brehas spoke with RJ Mitte about mental health, the Australian film industry, and kung-fu movies.
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Revolt Against The System: An Interview with Slam’s Partho Sen Gupta
Ahead of Slam’s premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Claire Cao talks to director Partho Sen-Gupta about racial microaggressions, the rousing power of Bankstown Poetry Slam, and the strength of mothers all over the world.
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