#HouseOfGuinness, freshly dispatched on Netflix, is about as typical a (Peaky Blinders creator) Steven Knight project as you’ll find, says @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social: "It’s fun and it’s sloppy in equal measure."

With just a week to go until #ShowMeShorts returns to cinemas - celebrating its 20th birthday - this year's awesome award nominees have been announced. www.flicks.co.nz/features/sho...

In November 2012, a strange thing happened to @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social. He was excited to meet in person one of his favourite directors: Paul Thomas Anderson, who was promoting his Scientology-themed drama THE MASTER. But things got very awkward when Luke accidentally pissed PTA off...

It’s perhaps surprisingly enjoyable to spend time with these guys again, writes @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social: "McKean, Guest and Shearer never seem to be working hard for laughs—which regularly landed for me and the audience I was among."

Each year, NZ's #BirdOfTheYear election is a national/international sensation run by @forestandbird.bsky.social. We asked this year's campaign managers who their winged candidates most reminded them of from the worlds of film & tv - check out their picks, gawk at beautiful birds, remember to vote!

DiCaprio's turn in #OneBattleAfterAnother is the funniest performance of the year, says @roryjdoherty.bsky.social: "A welcome evolution of an unmissable trend in the A-lister’s career: playing sad sack losers whose stupidity and incompetence threatens to collapse their whole life."

As @liammaguren.bsky.social knows, "many will disagree with the choices below. Some may even write to my editor. I will then channel the spirit of Aotearoa’s #Taskmaster Jeremy Wells and his assistant Paul Williams and meet all criticisms with palpable indifference"

As much as #TheBoys, and college-set spin-off #GenV, present themselves as the barbed alternative to modern comic book monotheism, they’ve been around long enough that we’ve (gasp!) started to care, says @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social - beyond what they can just serve to us as a punchline.

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"

When school’s out and the kids are underfoot, who are the only heroes that can help? Those comfy cinemas hosting school holiday screenings and saving your sanity…

The actual plot of SLOW HORSES can be perfunctory, which belies the “spy thriller” label. The real focus of every episode is really a stage for the games of loyalty, family, rejection and relationship dramas. OK, and farts. Cat Woods looks at what makes the show tick.

Resident bad movie lover Eliza Janssen outdoes previous entries in regular column The A to Z of Trash by taking on a masturbatory FIFA pic. It's a stain on many careers including Sam Neill (as shady João Havelange - Kiwi playing a Brazilian) & Tim Roth (as Sepp Blatter - Brit playing a Swiss man)

Jacinda Ardern’s time as PM coincided with some of the most tragic, turbulent events in modern Aotearoa history. @stevenewall.bsky.social speaks with PRIME MINISTER co-director Michelle Walshe about a new doco that captures the early optimism, pandemic challenges, and recent reflections

Romantic drama is very damn pretty - one of the best-looking films of the year - but the cost is to create a distancing effect, says @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social

October brings the pain with #TheSmashingMachine, the horror with #TheBlackPhone2, the chuckles with #GoodFortune, the heartache with #EleanorTheGreat, and the... well... whatever you wanna say about #Bugonia Get a taste for next month's cinema releases with this vid by @liammaguren.bsky.social

a jude law x justin kurzel reunion makes BLACK RABBIT sound very good on paper, but it’s got that streaming series problem of a strong start, a strong end, and then eight hours of wheel spinning

One of the reasons this stuck to the zeitgeist like phosphorescent mud is its energy, writes @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social: "it’s bam-bam fast, not so much unfolding as exploding, like overripe fruit stuffed with firecrackers."

A-listers Jason Bateman and Jude Law play brothers caught in a co-dependent death spiral in #BlackRabbit, set amongst New York City’s fine dining scene. Yet, @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social finds it’s a hard show to really sink your teeth into.

Embrace the national taonga that is te reo Māori just a little tighter this te wiki o te reo Māori with some great local screen content. @liammaguren.bsky.social is here with a selection of recent reo-revelling films and shows released in the past year available right now for you to stream.

AKA CHARLIE SHEEN is saturated with tales of indulgence and excess, says @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social Sheen is more than happy to play his last ace card: the former megastar candidly recounting how he partied too hard, went further than anyone else, and sailed over the edge.

Aotearoa’s leading international short film festival, #ShowMeShorts is back, with 127 screenings taking place in 40 cinemas and community venues nationwide this October - as well as industry events, panel discussions and workshops for filmmakers (and even a couple of films by Flicks staff!)

Now 30 years young, what exactly makes #ToyStory a cinema miracle? As @liammaguren.bsky.social details, they aren’t just films for kids - they’re films you grow up with.

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.

Boomers have THE BIG CHILL. Gen X has REALITY BITES (sorry!). And Millenials have… uh… @amamelia.bsky.social makes the case that "unromantic comedy" #Splitsville might just be the final form of the Millennial movie

There's not long to wait, with some of the big pics from Venice arriving in cinemas as soon as next month... @roryjdoherty.bsky.social reports back from the fest, with plenty to add to your watchlists.

A potential double bill has sparked online buzz recalling the Barbenheimer portmanteau, in what’s been dubbed #Lesbianupthehill @stephenarussell.bsky.social talks with the directors of #LesbianSpacePrincess and #WentUpTheHill about their coincidentally-synced cinema releases.

Say goodbye to our little friend (and a bunch of other movies and shows).

GEN V and ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING return this month: plus, tantalising new dramas with A-list talent. It’s going to be a big one.

No one ever really needed #OnlyMurdersInTheBuilding to stay relevant, but as @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social notes, it’s a more canny show than we give it credit for... "Somehow, season five of tackles both the plummeting social reputation of billionaires and the threat of ChatGPT psychosis."

When @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social says that the first season of #ThePaper seems just about as good as The Office ever was, understand we’re comparing ten episodes of a brand new sitcom with new characters and new actors, with 201 episodes of a sitcom audiences have etched into their brains...

Some big pics are already back on the big screen after impressing at recent film festivals.

No more stunts. Time for action. We're erasing $5M in un-payable medical debt in partnership with @unduemeddebt.bsky.social. Find out more in the link below and get tickets now! Go to the movies, do some good. https://bit.ly/3UN91hS

THE TOXIC AVENGER is back! @stevenewall.bsky.social chats with writer-director Macon Blair about the joy of video stores, the pleasures of ripping people’s arms off onscreen, of blood sprays, practical effects and more... @the-toxic-avenger.bsky.social hits cinemas this week

Forget #Barbeheimer - which captured imagination as the films were polar opposites. #PrincessMononoke and #28YearsLater, on the other hand, pair like a bow and arrow, says @liammaguren.bsky.social

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...

Cinema's not a contest, sure, but we ranked our 20 faves of the fest anyway. The best of NZIFF, as selected by Rachel Ashby, Matthew Crawley, @adamfresco.bsky.social, @liammaguren.bsky.social, @stevenewall.bsky.social, @itskatie.bsky.social, @danielrutledge.bsky.social, @ssarahthomsonn.bsky.social

The first time our intrepid correspondent watched Abel Ferrara's #BadLieutenant, he turned it off after 30 excruciating minutes. 20-something years later, @mattglasby.bsky.social tries again...

In 2025 many culture-dominating media entities remain (Marvel, Harry Potter, Labubu - to name just a few), notes Dominic Corry. "The problem is that infinite jokes are made about them within seconds of them existing, and their satirical possibilities are almost instantly run into the ground."

Season two of #Peacemaker still remains immature and violent in a way that some people will love (@clarisseloughrey.bsky.social and, yes, us) even as others find tedious. And it's clear @jamesgunn.bsky.social has a great affection for the 11th Street Kids, Peacemaker and his crew.

Stomach the juvenile humour of #Fixed, and you’ll see Genndy Tartakovsky’s Netflix comedy lean towards its strongest assets: animation and character design. @liammaguren.bsky.social draws comparisons with REN & STIMPY, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE and FRITZ THE CAT.

After taking #GutInstinct (one of 2024's strangest, boldest Aotearoa features) international, @dillamonster.bsky.social's faux public service announcement/audiovisual purification programme is available to watch at home via New Zealand streaming service AroVision - and at an encore cinema screening

Ari Aster’s first film grounded in a real, specific moment, #Eddington features just as much dread and uncertainty as his films about cults, demons, and psychosexual odysseys. The director shares more about the pic (where everybody’s brain is now wired differently) with @roryjdoherty.bsky.social

"Down there it’s pitch black. You can get dehydration, disorientation, claustrophobia, panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, visual and aural deterioration." #TheDescent is 20, dig deep in this extract from The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film (2025 edition) by @mattglasby.bsky.social

Liam Neeson has one card to play in new #TheNakedGun, says @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social: "And boy does he play it, with Terminator-like focus on that core objective: make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh."

Our NZ International Film Festival reactions keep coming - #Exit8, #Predators, #SorryBaby and #SentimentalValue are among new entries from @stevenewall.bsky.social, @liammaguren.bsky.social, @adamfresco.bsky.social, @itskatie.bsky.social, @danielrutledge.bsky.social, Rachel Ashby & Matthew Crawley

"I knew I was in safe hands when #AlienEarth introduced its Xenomorph penis-end of the head first." With that, @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social's piece on the show gets off to one hell of a start, too - reassuring us that Noah Hawley knows what he's doing in building something new from core elements.

#WeaponsMovie might just be a masterpiece, writes @tonylstamp.bsky.social. Crucial to its impact? "The feeling of watching this thing fall into place - particularly with an audience who are figuring it out along with you - is sublime."

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."

Time’s often unkind to techno-thrillers, so how did a show from last decade crack the code? Cat Woods revisits #MrRobot: "Today, HACKERS is cringeworthy, and THE MATRIX has been co-opted by conspiracy theorists. But, MR. ROBOT remains thoroughly relevant, perhaps more so than in 2015"

Romance is not dead... And neither is time-travelling romance for that matter - as @dmbjourno.bsky.social discovers with new #Outlander prequel #BloodOfMyBlood