It’s one thing to be knocked off your feet by a top horror flick, it’s another entirely to find out they shot it down the road from your childhood home. Set in a quiet suburban […]
Author: Glen Falkenstein
Glen produces film, theatre and television news, reviews and commentary for a number of outlets, covering Festivals, interviews and events.
Glen lives in Sydney where he enjoys making short films.
Tweets @GlenFalkenstein
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE
Compelling if flawed, the one thing you can’t fault here is the title. Driving right at the heart of the radically different notions that makes this film tick, The Other Side of Hope manages to […]
INGRID GOES WEST
Ingrid Goes West, like so many good satires, is barely so. The growth of social media and Instagram in particular has not been the subject of broad filmic introspection as the industry, fairly contending with […]
THE WORKER’S CUP
Going beyond the headlines of Qatar’s controversial bid for the 2022 FIFA tournament, The Worker’s Cup focuses on a very different but by no means less compelling competition, that of the workers building the stadiums. […]
PHANTOM BOY
A boy. A cop. A reporter. A crime. A supervillain, and a phantom. Thankfully, there’s nothing too regular about French animation Phantom Boy, a pleasing fantasy feature for kids everywhere. Leo (Alex Gagnol), confined to […]
SPOOKERS
Filling an old psychiatric hospital with scary clowns who frighten tourists might seem like a strange way to spend your days, but then you haven’t met this family. The perfect backdrop for a theme park […]
THAT’S NOT ME
Sometimes all you need is a good lead and a good idea. Wannabee actress Polly Cuthbert (Alice Foulcher) has to deal with the newfound on-screen success of her identical twin sister (also, Alice Foulcher). Constantly […]
MRS K
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that criminals, assassins or anyone with a ‘particular set of skills’ won’t be enjoying an early retirement. Mrs K (prolific performer Kara Hui) and her husband are forced out of their […]
THE PARTY
The colourful personalities in The Party would make for better dinner guests than entertainment. Fusing the bottle society-comedies and Whitehall farces emblematic of Stoppard’s early output to which this effort doesn’t quite hold a candle, […]
UNA
Theatre, however powerful, often struggles to translate to film. Based on the play Blackbird, Una’s eponymous twenty-something (Rooney Mara) finally tracks down the man who abused her as a child (Ben Mendelsohn), too promising he […]
78/52
If someone asks you to name Alfred Hitchcock’s most enduring contribution to cinema, you’re probably going to say something about the shower scene in Psycho. Here’s a whole movie to tell you why. Iconic for […]
BRIGSBY BEAR
Imagine being stuck in a bunker for 25 years and your only point of pop culture reference was a bad TV show. A fish out of water in every sense, James (Saturday Night Live’s Kyle […]
ELLIPSIS
It’s the Sydney Film Festival – you’d expect there to be at least one love-letter to the city. Conceived, rehearsed and shot in less than two weeks, anyone traipsing between Festival venues will recognise any […]
KING OF THE BELGIANS
Fusing the tried-and-trusted tropes of road movies and modern political satire, King of the Belgians offers just that bit more than the average mockumentary. Shocked by a sudden upheaval in his homeland and a declaration […]
MALIGLUTIT
You don’t need a dozen state of the art cameras to produce a good film, you just need a good place to point one. The equipment reportedly covered in sheepskin for the north-Canadian shoot […]
WE DON’T NEED A MAP
We Don’t Need A Map chronicles Thornton’s exploration, amongst other reflections on Australian society, on that most fairly contentious of symbols the Southern Cross. Himself a subject of controversy for previously positing the perspective, […]
GAME OF DEATH
These are the last people you would want to be stuck in a horror movie with – it makes for a great flick. The appropriately named Game of Death is only as literal as […]
WONDER WOMAN
The best DC film in five years, Wonder Woman leaps far, far over what was a very low bar. A slog of an opening filled with trying exposition aside, Wonder Woman would not be the […]
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES
The fifth and probably not final Pirates of the Caribbean film is called Dead Men Tell No Tales. The title, or any other ship-shape proverb, would prove immaterial, but for the fact that the franchise […]
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2
There are only so many sequels that live up to the original. There are even fewer that threaten to eclipse it. The successor to the film all your friends told you about and that you […]
The Fate of the Furious
Cars. Fast cars. Faster cars. Exploding cars. Fast cars exploding. A submarine. What more could you want? If this sounds like your cup of tea, strap in for what is now unquestionably the biggest action […]
BERLIN SYNDROME
Every traveller’s worst nightmare – Aussie backpacker Clare (Teresa Palmer), following a brief fling with Berlin local Andi (Max Riemelt) and visit to his home discovers that he has no intention of letting her leave. […]
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