MWFF • 5th July 2025

NEUTRON STARS, CONNECTION, AND ANCIENT SPACE EGGS: AN INTERVIEW WITH JP, CREATOR OF POND (2022) — MWFF

The arrival of autumn brings shorter days and a bite to the air that’s regrettable to most, but for cinemagoers, it marks the highly anticipated return of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival (MWFF). No stranger to the MWFF scene is Jennifer Piper, or ‘JP’, a multidisciplinary artist working across the stage, screen, and radio. JP’s extensive portfolio exhibits a tangible throughline of honesty and curiosity that imbues her projects with a disarming authenticity.Following her award-winning MWFF...

Viva Jillian Gibb

8th October 2025

Helen Garner: A proprietor of the truth*

Much to the envy of anyone who has ever had to put pen to paper, Garner claims to have never suffered writer’s block; in fact, she often finds her need to write overwhelming, inconvenient even. Her plethora of works, including 17 books published after Monkey Grip, stand as testament to this.

RMITV • 5th July 2025

MIFF 2024 Film Review - The Substance — RMITV

If there was ever a flick to skip the popcorn on, it’s this one. Coralie Fargeat’s latest film, The Substance (2024), is a stomach-churning concoction of body horror and comedy that makes for an insanely monstrous watch.  Freshly 50, Elisabeth Sparkle’s (Demi Moore) sparkle is fizzling out; her skin is less smooth, her hair less voluminous and her limbs less limber. The true horror is yet to begin, but for her Hollywood manager, Harvey (Denis Quaid) – no, not that one, but gee what a coincidence...

Design by Ananya Ojha

Catalyst • 5th July 2025

On Our Love for the Morally Ambiguous Character

If morality teaches us to seek out the good and cast aside the bad, why do these questionable characters remain so pervasive?

RMITV • 5th July 2025

Film Review - NT Live: Vanya — RMITV

In the 127 years since Russian playwright Anton Chekhov published his four-act tragicomedy, Uncle Vanya, there have been countless adaptations; some good, some bad and some downright ugly (in the best way). In the spring of 2023, the play hit London’s West End stage once more but, this time, with a twist. Simon Stephens’ radical reimagining of Chekhov’s work, adeptly titled Vanya, took the form of a one-man play, helmed by none other than Andrew Scott. Now available to the public via National Th...

Catalyst. • 5th July 2025

What The Fake!

Picture this: it’s 1907, and you’re traversing a windy, dirt-clad path in Bendigo’s Kamarooka Shire. Every now and again, a breeze disrupts the tangled eucalypt canopy, beckoning in strobes of light and illuminating crowds
of critters as they dance through the undergrowth.
Peaceful, right? Now imagine

Catalyst • 5th July 2025

Films That Romanticise Naarm/Melbourne

Naarm (Melbourne). It’s renowned for its graffitied laneways, exceptional coffee, and truly dismal weather (…you can’t have it all).


But the city holds an essence to it that’s less discernible, a quality that, though undeniable, remains hard to pin down. This is where the true magic of cinema prevails; with its power to hold a mirror up to the world, it allows us to take a step back and get a glimpse into just what makes Melbourne, well, Melbourne. As it happens, there are a raft of truly ro...

5th July 2025

The Room Next Door (2024) Review

Perhaps Almodóvar set out to placate our fears
of death, but somewhere along the way, he shot past placation and into numbness. Is this better than fear? I fear not.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels

8th October 2025

Pauline Kael: The Critic’s Critic.

Kael’s provocative approach was career-defining, hers certainly, but perhaps more so for those who followed in her footsteps.

MWFF • 5th July 2025

We Were Dangerous — MWFF

Deemed unfit for 1954’s polite society, Nelly (Erana James), along with a motley group of her peers, is shipped off to Te Motu’s School for Incorrigible and Delinquent Girls. “Shipped” is used in the literal sense as the group finds themselves dumped on a remote island, previously home to lepers and prisoners of war. Set against the rugged coastline of New Zealand’s Ōtamahua Island, it’s difficult not to get swept up in the sheer beauty of the landscape. Cinematographer María Inés Manchego drive...