Culture
Movies
Half-yearly report card: the best pop culture of 2023 (so far)
What you should have watched, listened to, read and clicked on in the first half of the year.
- by Robert Moran and Melanie Kembrey
Latest
★★★
Review
The new Spider-Man is utterly bewildering – but it’s all part of the plan
If you’re excited to hear that the 1970s Japanese TV version of Spider-Man has a cameo, this is definitely the movie for you.
- by Jake Wilson
This would be a truly bold move for the Fast and Furious franchise
Whenever a car chase scene begins, I let out a bored sigh so strong it blows my dogs across the room.
- by Deirdre Fidge
How a director’s life-changing trip around the Pilbara became a movie
As a teen, Nyul Nyul and Yawuru director Jub Clerc went on a trip with other at-risk kids. It’s the basis of her debut feature.
- by Stephanie Bunbury
Mystery Road star’s ghosts: ‘sometimes I can feel them nearby’
In-demand actor Mark Coles Smith has returned to his home in WA, where he says his relationship to time and space changes.
- by John Bailey
★★★★
Review
A feel-good film about hating banks? With a cameo by Def Leppard? Sign me up
If you’re only going to watch one movie about a karaoke-singing Lancashire businessman on a mission, you should make it this one.
- by Paul Byrnes
Janet, Buddha, and the film about their family that is anything but neurotypical
‘Because We Have Each Other’ follows the Barnes/Sharrock family as they find belonging and acceptance in a neurodiverse family that thrives on their differences.
- by Nell Geraets
Succession’s Sarah Snook stars in first Australian film in five years
In Run Rabbit Run, the actor plays a divorced fertility doctor whose daughter Mia becomes obsessed with a white rabbit.
- by Garry Maddox
★★
Review
This Stephen King story is scarier on the page than the big screen
The Boogeyman is a familiar horror set-up, with bloodless set pieces and flashing lights to distract us from the fact not much is going on.
- by Jake Wilson
★★★★
Review
Coming-of-age story looks predictable, but finds sweet spot in outback
Life is tough for 16-year-old Murra in Sweet As. But that changes the day someone puts a camera in her hand.
- by Sandra Hall
Tina Turner, a thoughtful soul on the set of a Mad Max film
In the harshest conditions, there was nothing of the diva about Tina Turner when she shot Beyond Thunderdome.
- by Garry Maddox