04 May

All romantic comedies require some suspension of disbelief from an audience. These films often exist in a world of hyper-reality where two polar opposite characters somehow fall madly in love with each other. When a studio offers up something like Long Shot, a romantic comedy starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, it's hard not to raise one eyebrow in question of this film's plausibility. The other eyebrow raises to join it when you learn the pair play a flawless U.S. Secretary of State and a scruffy unemployed journalist. Three...

14:35 / Reviews
4 Likes
02 May

It's been 25 years since Australian cinema produced a top quality romantic comedy. Over two decades after Muriel's Wedding, our local film industry has barely touched the genre, let alone delivered a film worthy of rivalling anything America or the UK can dish up. How wonderfully refreshing it is to see something like Top End Wedding appear in our cinemas. Even more invigorating is the fact it's written, directed, and starring members of our Indigenous community. Standing as both a gorgeous love letter to Indigenous culture and an utterly charming...

08:58 / Reviews
1 Like
24 Apr

The time has come to say goodbye to one of the most successful and ambitious franchises in cinema history. With a three-hour spectacle to wrap up this phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Endgame is the blockbuster fans have been aching for. It's taken us 11 years and 22 films to arrive at this point. Thankfully, the wait has been entirely worthwhile. Curb your anxiety at the door. Marvel Studios have done it again. With a moving impact few blockbusters could ever hope to deliver and an array...

15:49 / Reviews
2 Likes
14 Apr

Just one week after the superhero genre gave us a Big-style blockbuster with Shazam!, we're being offered up a by-the-numbers reverse version. Taking inspiration from the Tom Hanks classic, Little flips the age transformation and genre of its protagonist, which, for better or worse, is mildly refreshing.  By all accounts, this was the brainchild of young star Marsai Martin, who pitched the idea after seeing Big for the first time at the age of 10 and thus now becomes the youngest executive producer in Hollywood history, making your 10-year-old look entirely lazy. It's...

12:01 / Reviews
0 Likes
02 Apr

It's been a rocky road for the DC Extended Universe. From the dizzying delights of Wonder Woman to the hyper-colour mess of Suicide Squad. From the delicious ridiculousness of Aquaman to the dark and sloppy disaster of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And it's hard to forget what should have been their crowning glory but was perhaps their worst misstep with Justice League. Constantly compared to their rivals at Marvel Studios (a reminder it's okay to like both cinematic universes), it's been a case of one step forward,...

21:14 / Reviews
1 Like
27 Mar

As we head towards our ninth year of Disney live-action re-imaginings, we're starting to reach the point of exhaustion, particularly when we realise we've got not one, not two, but three of them in 2019. These films represent a cash cow for the studio they simply cannot ignore. Audiences keep turning out in droves to watch the animated films of their childhood reworked into visual spectacles that have mostly artistically failed more than they've soared. Few films from my youth have meant more to me than the tale of...

03:32 / Reviews
3 Likes
06 Mar

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken many interesting turns over the last few years. We've seen the dazzling efforts of Ryan Coogler to inject Black Panther with an authenticity that provided black cinematic representation like never before. We've witnessed the quirky adventures of lesser-known entities like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. And we've seen the culmination of the entire franchise with last year's gloriously devastating Avengers: Infinity War. In 2019, Marvel Studios maps a course through uncharted territory by finally placing a female character as the lead in their latest...

00:20 / Reviews
4 Likes
25 Feb

Well, it's all over for another year, and one of the most topsy turvy awards seasons is finally behind us. In the end, the hostless ceremony itself was far from the cataclysmic disaster many had predicted. If only the same could be said for several of the winners. There were shocks and surprises aplenty, with many us finding our final predictions tallies languishing somewhere in the teens. After the season we've had, it's the ceremony we should have been expecting. But there's still much to celebrate, so before...

19:07 / Awards Season
1 Like
24 Feb

It seems the days of smooth preseasons are well and truly gone. It's been another rollercoaster of an awards seasons, and not just because the Academy has made all sorts of baffling and idiotic decisions with their ceremony that's left us all highly anxious for what we're about the experience. For the umpteenth year, we head into the ceremony without a clear Best Picture frontrunner and no one has any concrete idea what film may actually win. Of course, that's rather exciting. In past years where an unstoppable force...

09:39 / Awards Season
2 Likes
23 Feb

We've reached the end of The Jam Report's closer look at each of our eight nominees for Best Picture, and it seems only fitting we close on perhaps the most divisive nominee of the bunch. With critical and audience reaction split right down the middle, Adam McKay's Vice has equal servings of supporters and haters. Many celebrated its adoration this awards season. And just as many have denounced it. With nominations across the board, can McKay go all the way this time? Let's take a look. Why it could...

15:07 / Awards Season
1 Like