By Jess Lomas August 13, 2014 Before Jimi Hendrix (Andre Benjamin) lit his guitar on fire at Monterey Pop Festival, or played Woodstock, he wore cheetah-print shirts in a struggling R&B band. So says John Ridley’s Jimi: All Is by My Side, a biopic that tries to be as independent and free spirited as its […]
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Brooklyn’s finest – ‘Appropriate Behavior’ Review
August 8, 2014 
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By Simon Miraudo August 8, 2014 Getting over an ex by getting under some strangers? That’s how Shirin plans to mourn the end of her last major relationship, although “plan” suggests there is some order to the chaos of her often disastrous rebounds. Appropriate Behavior is the sexy, soulful, snarky directorial debut of writer and […]
Continue readingDo it again – ‘The Infinite Man’ Review
August 5, 2014 0 Comments
By Richard Haridy August 5, 2014 The Infinite Man is a remarkably assured debut Australian feature that perfectly balances character and concept to give us not only one of the most tightly controlled time travel narratives ever conceived but also a genuinely sweet romantic comedy. Dean (Josh McConville) just wants to recreate the perfect anniversary […]
Continue readingRound the twist – ‘Predestination’ Review
August 1, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo August 1, 2014 “Smart” movies can be dumb fun (Inception, Shutter Island), and “dumb” movies can be secretly smart (22 Jump Street, Spring Breakers), but movies about time travel… mostly just frustrate. They exist in some sort of netherworld, caught between smartness and dumbness, kind of like this sentence. They require rigorous […]
Continue readingFolman and Robin – ‘The Congress’ Review
August 1, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo August 1, 2014 The Congress is where brutal reality meets impossible fantasy, Tex Avery meets Studio Ghibli, and director Ari Folman meets actress Robin Wright, resulting in, at the very least, a truly unique cinematic experience, and inspiring one genius headline. (See above.) Set in a near-future Hollywood that has no further […]
Continue readingEthan Hawke and Sarah Snook loop-de-loop in time-skipping ‘Predestination’ trailer
July 22, 2014 0 Comments
The Spierig Brothers – those rascally twins responsible for Aussie genre fare Undead and Daybreakers – are set to debut their new film Predestination at the 2014 Melbourne International Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala. But why wait until then when you can, at least, watch the trailer right now? Starring Ethan Hawke as a “temporal […]
Continue readingPublic frenemies – Lawrence and Holloman review
July 9, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo July 9, 2014 More anti-human than Antichrist, Matthew Kowalchuck‘s beyond-black comedy Lawrence & Holloman asks us to revel in the largely-unsuccessful emotional torture of a jerk by a sociopath. And they said cinema had run out of heroes. Based on the stage play by Canadian Morris Panych – a fan of Neil […]
Continue readingGirl, incubated – Wetlands review
July 7, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo July 7, 2014 Wetlands takes a gross thing, teenagerdom, and makes it grosser, which is like setting out to make an especially revolting movie about your last bout of conjunctivitis: any memory of the experience is probably potent enough. Still, credit to director David Wnendt, adapting Charlotte Roche’s controversial, conservative-enraging novel, for […]
Continue readingSay yes to the undressed – Under the Skin review
July 4, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo July 4, 2014 Sensory experiences such as Under the Skin defy mere words, which is going to make enthusiastically recommending it a tricky task indeed. The picture stars Scarlett Johansson as an extra-terrestrial who seduces Glaswegian men as a means of harvesting their organic material, for some alien mission we’re never made […]
Continue readingPhoto sensitivity – Finding Vivian Maier review
July 4, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo July 4, 2014 Separating the art from the artist – or the sandwich art from the sandwich artist – is sticky stuff. Maybe impossible. Inappropriate, even. But what if the art has separated itself from the artist; is lost and only found after the artist has abandoned their creative pursuits, and appreciated […]
Continue readingHicker than your average – Joe review
July 2, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo July 2, 2014 Nicolas Cage is as if the question “Turn down for what?” took human form and then starred in a bunch of direct-to-DVD thrillers. For him, there is no such thing as a ‘phoned-in’ performance. Performances should be delivered with gusto, peppered with screaming fits. It’s become harder and harder […]
Continue readingTalk Hard – Hossein Amini, The Two Faces of January
June 17, 2014 0 Comments
Drive screenwriter Hossein Amini talks to Quickflix critic Simon Miraudo all about his directorial debut, The Two Faces of January, in cinemas June 19. A review follows! Show Notes: Thanks for tuning in! Please tell your friends to subscribe to us on iTunes and feel free to leave a review. Or, follow our RSS feed. You can […]
Continue reading‘Two Days, One Night’ takes top prize at Sydney Film Festival
June 16, 2014 0 Comments
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Two Days, One Night has taken the top prize at the Sydney Film Festival, trumping favourites such as Boyhood and Locke, as well as Australian features The Rover and Ruin. Marion Cotillard stars in the picture as a woman who has a weekend to convince her colleagues to turn down a bonus and save her from being made redundant. The […]
Continue readingNo country for big feet – Willow Creek review
June 13, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 13, 2014 Notorious comic Bobcat Goldthwait, once the bane of any ear-haver’s existence, has been steadily building a solid career for himself as a director, but whodathunk a mostly terrifying mockumentary would wind up bettering his black comedies? His 2009 cult favourite World’s Greatest Dad boasted an incredible first act, only […]
Continue readingOne shot – Fish and Cat review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 13, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 13, 2014 The first name that came to mind during Fish & Cat, a two-hour and fourteen-minute Iranian film shot in just a single take, was Samuel Beckett. The next was Shane Carruth. That was not a jump I was expecting to take. Promoted as a “slasher flick,” Fish & Cat […]
Continue readingHeartbreak kid – Mommy review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 13, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 13, 2014 Xavier Dolan‘s Mommy has one of the year’s best movie moments. Two even. Maybe three. Look… it’s all great. Those who’ve seen one of the sickeningly-talented 25-year-old filmmaker’s previous works could have predicted that. His camera moves so fluidly, as if in a dream, and here, contained within an […]
Continue readingTeenage dream – Palo Alto review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 12, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 12, 2014 Much wailing and gnashing of teeth awaits any film adaptation of a beloved novel, but what welcomes the cinematic retelling of a despised one? James Franco’s unintentionally-LOL-worthy collection of short stories, Palo Alto, has been condensed, refined, and infinitely bettered by writer-director Gia Coppola, who, as you can imagine […]
Continue readingBody movin’ – The Two Faces of January review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 12, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 12, 2014 The Two Faces of January, based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1964 novel and set in 1962, comes from an era in which espionage thrillers needed only an enigmatic man in a linen suit to arouse suspicion. That might still be a recipe for dramatic tension in 2014. Just not this […]
Continue readingPersistence is futile – Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 11, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 11, 2014 David Zellner‘s Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is a real find; a curio about a collector and obsessive made for collectors and obsessives. It begins with the camera trained on a scratchy VHS tape of Fargo, and the remainder of the movie lives up to the promise of it being […]
Continue readingThe road worrier – The Rover review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 10, 2014 1 Comment
By Simon Miraudo June 10, 2014 The Rover is a hugely stressful tone poem in which on-screen characters are constantly being shot and killed by off-screen characters. That precise trick made for a startling capper to David Michôd‘s breakout hit Animal Kingdom, and he trots it out again several times in his theatrical follow-up. It’s […]
Continue readingTalk Hard – John Michael McDonagh, Calvary
June 10, 2014 0 Comments
Fresh from the Sydney Film Festival, a chat with Calvary and The Guard director John Michael McDonagh. But first: how long has it been since your last confession? Show Notes: Thanks for tuning in! Please tell your friends to subscribe to us on iTunes and feel free to leave a review. Or, follow our RSS feed. You […]
Continue readingDrag race – How to Train Your Dragon 2 review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 10, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 10, 2014 Dragons don’t kill people. Bad people with dragons kill people. So goes the lesson of How to Train Your Dragon 2, the sequel to DreamWorks Animation’s only great movie. Kids can do with that metaphor what they will, except, hopefully, apply it to drugs or guns. Written and directed […]
Continue readingCompassion play – Two Days, One Night review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 10, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 10, 2014 Two Days, One Night is paced like a joke, but it plays like a prayer. Writer-directors the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, spend the movie repeating the setup over and over again. Marion Cotillard‘s Sandra, recovering from a nervous breakdown, has a single weekend to convince each of her […]
Continue readingLosing it at the movies – Life Itself review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 9, 2014 1 Comment
By Simon Miraudo June 9, 2014 Roger Ebert, lover of women, alcohol, cinema, and life itself, is seen at the conclusion of Steve James‘ new documentary making peace with his impending death, calling it a satisfying conclusion to his narrative. He would have hated being robbed a “third act” through sudden death. That’s remarkable chutzpah […]
Continue readingYou get what you give – Begin Again review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 9, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 9, 2014 It’s called Begin Again, but why, when once was probably enough? Keira Knightley stars as heartbroken English singer-songwriter Greta, still reeling from a break-up with a newly-minted rock star (Adam Levine) whose increasing douchebaggery can be measured by the growth of his beard and widening of his shirts’ v-necks. […]
Continue readingGone in 85 minutes – Locke review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 7, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 8, 2014 Steven Knight‘s Locke makes us ride ‘shotgun’ with Tom Hardy for 85 minutes and doesn’t let us out until the final credits roll. There are worse people to be stuck in traffic with. Carrot Top. Piers Morgan. Literally any Jenner. The makers of 1996 flop Carpool tested the limits of […]
Continue readingBless this mess – Love is Strange review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 7, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 7, 2014 Love is Strange but the housing situation in New York is stranger. “Like something out of Kafka” is how Alfred Molina‘s character, George, describes it. Suddenly made homeless, music teacher George and his partner of 39 years, painter Ben (John Lithgow), have the unenviable task of begging their extended […]
Continue readingThe young and the rest of us – Boyhood review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 7, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 7, 2014 Richard Linklater spent 12 years making the bittersweet Boyhood, shooting it piecemeal with actors Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, as well as newcomers Ellar Coltrane and Linklater’s real-life daughter Lorelei. The elders play the divorced parents, and the youngers their children, lugged around Texas as their mother seeks new […]
Continue readingSister Kristen – The Skeleton Twins review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 7, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 7, 2014 Everyone’s doing it. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort have done it. Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are about to do it. Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader have just finished it. Call it Hollywood’s hottest and grossest new fad: incesting. It’s that thing where actors play both siblings and lovers […]
Continue readingTwee at last – God Help the Girl review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 6, 2014 1 Comment
By Simon Miraudo June 6, 2014 Finally, an answer to the question of what it would look like if a Belle & Sebastian album cover came to life, and under which reasonable circumstances a girl might bathe with a toy tiger, rest her head on a stack of books, or chill coquettishly on a Scottish […]
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