The latest series of Doctor Who wrapped up on the weekend with the completion of a startling two-episode finale: Dark Waters and Death in Heaven. This season we’ve seen what is perhaps the darkest, edgiest…
International law is clear on whether sexual consent is possible when civilians are faced with armed soldiers.
Instagram/Furymovie
Brad Pitt says his new Oscar-tipped film Fury is “a real study in leadership and learning to command respect and because of this, I am now a better father”. But while many reviewers have commented on the…
Positive portrayals of people with mental illness exist in the media but these are the exception rather than the norm.
Network Ten
When Homeland first aired in 2011 starring a CIA agent with bipolar disorder, Carrie Mathison (played by Claire Danes), it was commended for its realistic portrayals of people with mental illness. Courtney…
Screen production can enhance our understanding of the complexities of human experience.
locrifa/ Shutterstock.com
In the film industry, research is commonly understood as audience research. Films, in contrast, are entertainment or a form of audiovisual communication. But can film-making also be a form of academic…
Outlander might draw on the conventions of romance, but it’s a mistake to dismiss it as “just” romance.
Fox
Television series Outlander made its debut on the small screen in August this year, to the acclaim of both reviewers and fans. Critical tongues are wagging, tumblr gifs abound, and Etsy has been inundated…
2010’s Animal Kingdom – one of many films to benefit from the legacies of the Whitlam government.
EPA/Simon Mein/Sony Pictures
Filmmakers and audiences – indeed Australian arts and screen culture more broadly – owe a deep debt of gratitude to Gough Whitlam and the government he led. Although the foundations had been laid by Whitlam’s…
How does a woman make art history, asks !Women Art Revolution, an American documentary that screened at the Melbourne Festival.
Melbourne Festival
The central premise of American director Lynn Hershman Leeson’s film !Women Art Revolution (2010), which screened at the Melbourne Festival over the weekend, is summarised near its conclusion: “When artists…
Come play with us. For ever. And ever. And ever.
Alex Eylar
Yesterday the Danish Toymaker Lego announced its plans for a reality TV show to be launched in 2015, rumoured to be based on the idea of Master Builders, the top “construction workers” in the insanely…
Kjellberg argues his low-budget method is a ‘winning concept’.
YouTube.com
Does the name Felix Kjellberg sound familiar? How about PewDiePie? … Still nothing? Clearly you’re not one of the 31 million subscribers to YouTube’s most successful channel, PewDiePie, starring 24-year-old…
David Fincher’s film shows the desolation of failed suburban promises.
Twentieth Century Fox
The film Gone Girl (2014) is dividing critics along gender lines. Men see it as a gripping, fresh thriller while women have expressed alarm over a range of issues. Chief in recent days is criticism of…
The suspense of reality TV hangs on viewers’ votes for contestants. Can social media predict winners and losers?
AAP Image/Nine Network/Paul Broben
Darryl Woodford, Queensland University of Technology and Katie Prowd, Queensland University of Technology
Reality television, alongside shows such as Q&A – which may be Reality TV in all but name – frequently drives social media conversations about the Australian television industry. Big Brother, currently…
A fundamental aspect of drama is the need for rising tension.
Maria
A special thing happened in August this year: Foxtel launched BBC First, a premium channel showcasing the best of contemporary British television drama. As a global channel that chose Australia as its…
The warmest, most welcoming home of cultural nationalism is appeal to the provenance of “our stories”. Real Australian stories are made by Australians, for Australians, using only Australians, and only…
There’s more than one way to decode ABC’s The Code.
ABC
ABC’s six-part political thriller The Code is shaping up as the most challenging political thriller on Australian television since the BBC’s House of Cards (1990). And, like the BBC series – and its recent…
If you think of the enduring screen partnerships – Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Grahame Kennedy and Bert Newton – few are based on equality of authority and mutual respect. But elements of equality…
Sir Richard Attenborough, pictured here with his wife Sheila Sim in 2007, was passionate about access to high quality arts for everyone.
EPA/ Gerry Penny
When I was appointed to the role of director of the Richard Attenborough Centre in 2005, while excited about the new job, I assumed that the founding patron Lord Attenborough would just be a name on our…
Wiig and Hader are well cast and convincingly play the troubled ‘Skeleton Twins’.
MIFF
As the Melbourne International Film Festival draws to a close for another year, what better way to finish than with a comedy? Well, not quite. Craig Johnson’s latest release, Skeleton Twins, starring Kristen…
Blues singer Marlene Cummins is the subject of Rachel Perkins’ latest film, Black Panther Woman.
MIFF
I sing this song. I sing it for my sisters. For I feel the backbone of our struggle in this country, Trying to keep it together. Koori Woman – Marlene Cummins Rachel Perkins’ latest documentary, Black…
US actor Robin Williams has been found dead aged 63 in his home in Marin County, California.
AAP/ Tracey Nearmy
American actor and stand-up comedian Robin Williams has died today, aged 63. Barack Obama posted a statement about his death and noted, in a rather odd turn of phrase, that “he arrived in our lives as…
Jodorowsky saw Dune as a chance to bring 1970s avant-garde ideas to mainstream audiences.
MIFF
One of the big attractions at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year is Frank Pavich’s documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013). The film retells the story of cult Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s…