I look at the biggest streaming titles arriving in Australia this month - including new Alan Partridge, Kathryn Bigelow's acclaimed nuclear war thriller, and the latest from comedian Tim Robinson

Mark Wahlberg sneaks, shoots, and connives in Shane Black’s twisty new heist thriller—an action flick that thrives on flipping expectations. My review

There’s the old saying “never meet your heroes.” But what about “never piss off your heroes”? Me on the time I upset one of my favourite directors www.flicks.com.au/features/the...

Did This Is Spinal Tap accidentally give us Donald Trump? Just kidding. Kind of. Here are my thoughts on their new movie—and the tangled extension cords of pop culture

Ah yes: the opportunistic city slicker who exits the fast lane and rediscovers the important things in life. My review of new Australian film Kangaroo

There’s an electric energy to Paul Thomas Anderson’s #OneBattleAfterAnother, says @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social, who calls it "an exhilaratingly well-made, teeth-gnashing action thriller that unfolds on the ground, close to the gutter"

Critic like me simply must grumble about the glut of sequels and spin-offs clogging up our screens. But I’ll always have time for new adventures from outback sleuth Jay Swan.

Every frame is like a painting in Kogonada’s beautiful romantic drama. But, do we really feel this work, or admire it from behind glass? My thoughts

The title "Australia 3D" brings to mind two equally terrifying possibilities. The first: a smorgasbord of stereotypical Australian images. The second: another version of a terrible Baz Luhrmann movie. Thank god this film is neither.

The great irony about this film is that its characters save the world by using the devil’s music. I put my fingers in my ears and attempt to understand its phenomenal popularity

The hollowness of AKA Charlie Sheen feels almost fitting - as if the show is conceding that in Hollywood, spectacle is its own reward. My review of Netflix's entertaining tell-all

Blurred reality and redefined storytelling - @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social travelled to Venice Immersive, a haven for virtual and mixed reality enthusiasts held annually as part of the Venice Film Festival.

Blur is an amazing mixed reality and immersive theatre experience telling a cautionary tale about the dangers of genetic mutations. I experienced it at this year's Venice Immersive

My review of ghost movie Went Up the Hill - one of those stiff, formally austere productions that critics feel obliged to describe as “meditative” or “cerebral” www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

Are mixed reality headsets the future - or A future - of live theatre performances? The implications for set design, staging etc are massive. Read my piece on L'Ombre, a wild cross-reality musical I saw in Venice

My passion for virtual reality brought me to Venice as a guest of the Venice Film Festival. I spent most of my time on a tiny island, which lies dormant until it becomes Venice Immersive - an entire island of virtual and mixed reality experiences. There's nothing else in the world like it.

The original The Running Man is a messy, neon-soaked joyride, but its flaws give Edgar Wright’s upcoming remake plenty of room to improve.

My new buddie Ron Pearlman. Spent an evening hanging out with him at a small film party in Venice. Very approachable, lots of great stories. He told me "I want to die on set. After they call 'action', before they call 'cut'".

There are insanely beautiful sights in Touching the Sky, a 360 documentary that follows athletes pursuing the ancient dream of human flight. My review

Premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival, this beautiful, melancholic VR experience uses objects to explore the stories of flood survivors

Sometimes I thought Kangaroo Island was about to devolve into Hallmarkian slosh, only for the film to more or less get me back on side. My review

The ancient human dream of flying lives eternal - as a 360 degree documentary wonder in #TouchingTheSky @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social, now back on terra firma, reveals more...

Taika Waititi, Yael Stone and Ian Thorpe are among the big names lending voices to Imagine, a chaotically strange animation drawing on Indigenous perspectives. My review

Have you noticed how films about the end of the world are more thoughtful than they used to be? Me on a new genre: the "apocalypse, maybe" movie

Who wants a war movie AND a shark movie? My review of the wildly entertaining Beast of War

I wrote some words about the late Australian critic David Stratton - who inspired me as a teenager, when I was cutting my teeth as a film critic, and was kind to me throughout the years. Vale.

The new The Naked Gun feels fresh ironically because it seems to belong to another era in comedy—when everything was about the joke, and nothing else mattered.

Phew - it sounds like it's going to be ok (for ALIEN fans, not necessarily this new show's characters) going by @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social's reaction: "Big, heavy, ruminative thoughts one moment; hands over your eyes the next. This is a fine addition to Alien franchise."

This atmospheric supernatural VR game embraces a simple yet profound truth: that stories are rooted in places, and places in turn tell their own stories

The Alien franchise crashes into TV with smart sci-fi, savage scares, and a freakin’ gnarly eyeball monster. Me on the excellent Alien: Earth

Ah, the pleasures of the time loop comedy! Me on a new Australian film about a young woman who uses time-travelling tequilla to relive a NYE party again, and again, and again...

The flavour of the dialogue jokes in the new Naked Gun movie reminded me of this great gag from Police Squad

Finally, after all these years, Australian television launches its first-ever mystery series set in a coastal town. I’m joking, I’m joking...

Here's what I can't get my head around re: lucid dreaming. How does somebody know that they're aware they're dreaming, while they're dreaming, and not just dreaming that they're aware that they're dreaming?

Does Hank Hill represent hope? Should he get the Nobel Peace Prize? Me on the return of the still excellent King of the Hill

Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests: is there any role Sam Neill can’t play? Here's my ranked list of his 20 all-time greatest performances www.theguardian.com/film/2025/au...

Big titles arriving on streaming in August include pulse-pounding drama Conclave, Netflix's latest murder mystery series and a new animation from the creator of BoJack Horseman. My monthly column

I'm a fan of the Happy Gilmore movies, which make me LOL. Me on how the sequel connects to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth template. Not to, you know, get too serious...

"One could pen an infinite array of words about this film and its incalculable panoplies of meaning." @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social keeps it finite, if feline...

After nearly three decades as a film critic, I might have finally written my masterpiece

I revisit the excellent and under-appreciated VR horror game Westworld Awakening, which reinvigorates the Westworld premise with an interesting take on the “simulation inside a simulation” scenario.

It lacks the stakes and pace of the first season, but the ABC’s comedy about a autistic man and his recently discovered British family has enough to satisfy viewers. My review of Austin season 2

Acclaimed French coming-of-age drama Holy Cow deserves its reputation. Me on a film full of heart, hormones, and Comté dreams

Friendship is a rare combination of comedy and thriller, with Tim Robinson blurring the line between weirdo and deranged menace. My review

Westworld Awakening is a massively under-appreciated VR game from 2019. It reinvigorates, and expands, some of the most interestings ideas from the TV show

James Gunn’s new superhero movies flirts with big ideas, then treats moral ambiguity as if it’s kryptonite. Me on the politics - or "politics" - of Superman

Jurassic Park/World movies never admit that bringing dinosaurs back from extinction, and refusing to let this film franchise die, come from the same place: corporate greed.

What are your favourite book-to-movie adaptations? Here's 10 of mine

I wholeheartedly believe the words in this headline. Perhaps I can convince you too...

Australian readers: here's seven excellent docos to stream, celebrating the culture and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Overseas readers: hopefully some of these are available where you live too