Next time you’re looking for a film to see at the cinema, take note of the reviews you’re reading and who wrote them. How much is the gender and age of the author influencing what you see?
Les Mis first opened its doors in London 30 years ago. Its success remains unparalleled.
Magda Szubanski in one of her most famous roles - Sharon Strzelecki - in Kath and Kim, with actors Gina Riley, Peter Rowsthorn, Glenn Robbins and Jane Turner.
Paul Jeffers/AAP
Magda Szubanski’s engaging debut memoir, Reckoning, is an exercise in precisely that: reconciling the past. It is also a celebration of the life and career of one of our greatest comedians.
Award winning film The Wolfpack tells the story of five brothers who’ve spent most of their lives confined to a New York apartment. It raises questions about the ethics of documentary filmmaking.
Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go now?
courtesy Pathe Films
The Arab Women Film Festival seeks to deconstruct misunderstandings about women in the Arab world and its diasporas, and provide a more nuanced view of the challenges faced by Arab women today.
Horror director Wes Craven was perhaps best known for his Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
His tombstone may say Craven, but the director carved a bold and memorable niche in the horror genre.
A still from the 2015 film ‘Necktie Youth’. Film in South Africa needs to undergo radical change if it is to shed the shackles of the past.
Urucu Media/Hanro Havenga
I suggest we take a couple of hours tonight to watch (or re-watch) The People Under the Stairs. And then we can relegate Craven, and the film, to the dustbin of history, sticking them under the stairs where they belong.
Science in the Cinema this year sorted fact from fiction in the 1982 cult classic Bladerunner.
ElectricDynamite/flickr
Medical research can be complex and difficult to understand, but cinematic representations of mad scientists who speak gobbledygook add to the confusion. An annual event separates fact from fiction.
Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard get it on in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
a.heart.17/flickr
A gesture of desire, sexuality and the erotic, the screen kiss has often been subject to censorship and controversy. But for directors game to bend the rules, the kiss can be a subversive act.
Filmed in 29 days on a shoestring budget, Downriver’s bush setting and narrative twists give it an expansive feel. It is a visually stunning piece, with superb performances and an utterly gripping story.
The biopic Straight Outta Compton tells the story of rise and fall of Los Angeles rap group NWA.
Automotive Rhythms/flickr
Jonathan Gold, the only restaurant critic to have won a Pulitzer Prize, has a charming curiosity for food. Laura Gabbert’s new documentary focuses on Gold’s penchant for seeking out the hidden treasures of LA.
Set in what seems like an eternal dusk, Tangerine is breathtaking in its beauty and garishness.
Images courtesy of MIFF
US director Sean Baker’s Tangerine is a film that’s queer in both storyline and filmmaking approach. Featuring trans actors and shot on an iPhone 5S, it teases with ideas of authenticity and truth.
Liv Corfixen’s documentary seems motivated by a fascination and fear of immersion in the creative process.
Images courtesy of MIFF
Liv Corfixen’s documentary about her husband captures the creative pressure and mounting doubt following the unexpected success of his most commercially viable film, Drive.