There’s cultural value in projecting Australia on screen
Australians respond warmly to ‘Australianness’ on screen, but local authenticity isn’t a requirement of industry or funding bodies.
Film
National treasures
Nathalie Baye and Cecile de France enjoy the sort of career success that many Hollywood actors only dream of.
Now even Tom Hanks is caught in the web of wokery
Hanks says today only a gay actor could play the role that earned him an Oscar in the 1993 film Philadelphia. Wrong. Actors do not need to mirror the person they are portraying.
Festival honours local filmmakers and artists
Homegrown filmmakers and artists took a well-deserved bow at the Sydney Film Festival’s closing gala on Sunday night.
Top Gun Tom Cruise calls time on sucking up to China
Top Gun: Maverick isn’t just an unashamed celebration of US values, it also throws a two-fingered salute at Beijing.
There’s nothing new about fake news
Two hundred years ago in Paris, journalists accepted bribes to write favourable articles and reviews for anyone willing to pay for them.
A new Hemsworth in Spiderhead
The Thor star plays a man in charge of human guinea pigs in this character-driven movie in need of a lot more character.
Same-sex Disney kiss a step too far for some
Disney’s latest animation, Lightyear, which features a same-sex kiss, has been denied release in more than a dozen mainly Muslim countries.
But then there was marriage
Benediction tells how British poet Siegfried Sassoon was a prominent member of an unofficial society of gay artists who congregated in London between the wars.
Baz at his best will rock the Oscars
I think the 30-year-old American actor Austin Butler, aka Luhrmann’s Elvis, will win best actor at the 2023 Academy Awards.
A few good presidents
Aaron Sorkin, the prolific – and wordy – playwright and screenwriter, says the world still needs heroes that don’t wear capes.
Next stop, Sydney
The Sydney Film Festival’s first full-scale program since 2019 is packed full of cinema’s hottest tickets.
Life finds a way
Actor Sam Neill on working again with the Jurassic Park cast, the splendid vintage at his winery — and why his best mate is a pig.
This young Aussie has Hollywood all shook up
Fast-rising star Olivia DeJonge reveals why playing Priscilla Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic Elvis was her most daunting role to date.
Poised for love and loss
Mothering Sunday succeeds both in its evocation of an erotic love affair and in its treatment of bereaved families who, despite their affluence, can never replace all that they’ve lost.
More to life than ‘Happiness Index’
A teacher wonders if he should abandon his students in Bhutan to chase his dreams of being a singer in Australia in the extraordinarily beautiful film Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.
‘My goal is to have one global phenomenon’
Ever since he self-published his first novel at the age of 19, Matthew Reilly has been proving people wrong. Now he faces his biggest test … can he take over Hollywood with his new Netflix film, Interceptor?
Beijing has Top Gun in its sights over Taiwanese flag
Tom Cruise sequel may be banned in lucrative Chinese market because of his character’s leather bomber jacket.
Stranger than fiction
The Stranger attracted the kind of critical attention usually reserved for the mainstream attractions at Cannes Film Festival.
Brutal class satire wins Cannes Palme d’Or
The most moving part of the ceremony was the best actress award that went to Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi.
High-society satire sharpens all points of the Triangle
While Triangle of Sadness won the main prize, Australian director Gina Gammell was recognised for her debut film War Pony.
Maigret, vulnerable young women navigate 1950s Paris
Louise is kicked out of her ex-friend’s engagement party. Some hours later she is found stabbed to death on the street.
Samara Weaving a knockout star
The 30-year-old actor has won me over with romantic comedy The Valet, which is more sweet than bitter.
Close-up: the system finds its stars
Who will be our next Cate Blanchett or Russell Crowe? There must be something in the water, as talented young Australians are taking over the stage and screen.
Goodfellas star Liotta found dead
Hollywood icon Ray Liotta, who rose to fame in the legendary gangster film Goodfellas, has died at 67 while filming a movie.
Arts rainmakers see more ways to source funds
Arts philanthropy has embraced the digital age, with the constraints of the pandemic spawning new schemes to buttress the cultural bottom line.
Out of the wings comes a strong, diverse cast
Asian-Australians make up a fair portion of our population and that fact is finally being reflected on stage and screen.
What celebrated novelist Hannah Kent did next
Acclaimed South Australian novelist Hannah Kent explains why her creative leap into screenwriting was so nerve-wracking.
Aussiewood draws on a deep talent pool
There’s a story behind Aussiewood and why our homegrown stars and local industry play well on screens big and small around the world.
Must-see movie has sets, drugs and rock ’n’ roll
The new pop biopic from director Baz Luhrmann plunges, early on, into a morphine dripper and does not ever, realistically, tonally, return.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/page/32