Don’t take the Mickey: Disney warns on copyright loss
Steamboat Willie, the 1928 short film where Mickey first appeared, will lose copyright in America at the end of next year, potentially opening the door to adaptations using the character.
Film
Little Women author ‘may have been non-binary’
Louisa May Alcott, the author of the influential 19th-century novel Little Women, did not fit into a binary gender model, a literary expert claims.
David Stratton, Stephen Romei reveal their best films of 2022
From Banshees to Mad Gods, superheroes and superstars, there were several standout films in a tough year for cinema. The Australian’s movie buffs present their picks of the bunch.
Sublime tale of death of friendship
The Banshees of Inisherin, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as a couple of friends who have a falling out, is the best film of 2022.
Unwrap a holiday movie from Spielberg, Robbie and Hanks
Your guide to the best films coming to the big screen over the summer.
Fangs for the memory: it’s 100 years of horror
A new exhibition explores the making of the first great vampire movie.
Banned novel’s thrilling affair on film
“Are you afraid?” she asks him when the affair is in full swing. “I bloody well am,” he admits.
Reimagining one of fiction’s leading ladies
Frances O’Connor talks about her “pretty feral” childhood, forging a path in acting and directing her first feature film.
Colin Farrell and the necessity of emotional baggage
Rare is the actor who offers up mention of a drug dealer within minutes of meeting a journalist. But Colin Farrell is that rare thing.
‘It felt Olympic walking out onto that set every day’
Zimbabwean-born, Perth raised actor Charmaine Bingwa on growing up between two cultures, being a queer role model, and what it was like to work alongside Will Smith in Emancipation.
‘A lot of masculine men are dying in record numbers’
As he makes his film directing debut, ex-footy player and boxer Matt Nable says the toxic masculinity debate is being reduced to a ‘bullshit’ cliche.
The Lost King, riveting yarn from 81-year-old director
A woman becomes obsessed with restoring the reputation of Richard III and discovering where his body was actually buried.
Avatar: sink or swim?
Avatar: The Way of Water looks good but so would a David Attenborough documentary if someone handed him $US400m, and he’d film real animals not CGI ones.
Smith finds redemption but does he deserve an Oscar?
Nine months after he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards Will Smith is back as a slave on the run in Black Lives Matter movie Emancipation. The verdict is in.
The king and I
One woman’s search for the truth is finally getting the recognition it deserves in a film helmed by directing royalty.
Stars at Noon: Plenty of skin in Nicaragua-set thriller
Director Claire Denis indulges her evident interest in sexual scenes, with Margaret Qualley, who survives by prostituting herself, frequently appearing naked.
Kirstie Alley’s cause of death revealed
A spokesperson for the late actress, who died from a “recently discovered” disease, has confirmed her official cause of death.
Lining up to see Kentucky’s Cocaine Bear
Black comedy Cocaine Bear lands in cinemas next year. While the film features a bear who embarks on a fictional killing spree, the true story is just as strange.
This has nothing on Home Alone and Bad Santa
Violent Night is part Die Hard Santa, part rich-but-stupid people satire, part schmaltzy Christmas-still-matters homily.
Celebrating the rise of women in Hollywood
Some of the industry’s biggest female achievers carried the torch for a truer onscreen representation of their place in the world at the annual Women in Film awards in Los Angeles.
Teenage cannibals film is indigestible
An 18-year-old girl chomps off the finger of one of her pals at a sleepover. And that’s just the beginning.
Flashdance singer Irene Cara dies
Fame and Flashdance singer Irene Cara has been found dead inside her Florida home at the age of 63.
70s suburban conformity put under the microscope
Don’s Party captured the enduring anxieties of election nights in the Australian psyche; that sense that the world could change overnight if we drunkenly barracked hard enough.
You may not want seconds
A $US1250-a-head degustation takes an “increasingly bizarre and nightmarish” turn in The Menu starring Anya Taylor-Joy.
From Maid to the edge of mainstream
Actor Margaret Qualley is blessed with the beauty of her famous mother Andie MacDowell, but her movies have taken a more adventurous path.
Crowe’s new film a ‘disjointed mess’
It’s been a long time between directorial drinks for Russell Crowe. But even if his latest film is full of imperfections, we can forgive him.
Plastic surgery ‘is like cutting your tongue out’
Film director Charlotte Sieling attacks our ‘sick society’ for pressuring women to go under the knife, as she launches her film about a largely forgotten Danish queen
Guests you’d rather not entertain
The People We Hate at the Wedding ticks all the required boxes for a movie about nuptials: the bachelorette party, the rehearsal dinner, the drinking, the vomiting.
Stomach churner an endurance test
A 15-minute vomiting scene is challenging viewers of Triangle of Sadness.
Playing the ‘hero’ who exposed Weinstein
Relishing the role of a fearless newspaper editor in her new film She Said, Patricia Clarkson is every bit as forthright as the women she tends to portray on screen.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/page/27