Indie Film Network Australia

Featured Stories

Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

17th February
Romance and Romantic Comedies, a genre to be taken seriously?

14th February
Review: My Week With Marilyn

12th February
Review: J.Edgar

12th February
Review: Chronicle

10th February

17 Feb

Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Stephen Daldry – Drama – 2011 – U.S.A.

I only ever had contempt for this film as I thought it was the epitome of Oscar garbage. I chose not to see this film for the same reason I did not want to see The Iron Lady. I’m not going to say that this film blew me away above all expectations, because it didn’t. This film is set in the midst of September 11 as an incredibly smart and unusual young boy attempts to reconnect with his father who died that day, ‘the worst day’. It is always different relying on a child to tell a story, especially one with the density of this film. As it was adapted from a novel, the story is extremely compacted and fast paced (at points). This film had many downfalls and may not deserve its Oscar nomination, but I was really determined not to let my prejudices get in the way of enjoying this heart warming film. At its heart, this story is about grief and the core-shaking repercussions that follow severe loss.

Filed Under: Featured, Mainstream Films, Oscars, Reviews

14 Feb

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Romance and Romantic Comedies, a genre to be taken seriously?

by Nicole

They don’t make romance and romantic comedies like they used to and they have therefore become a dying genre. Prior to the late 90s the clichés characteristic to these films were still enjoyable whereas now they are more so forgettable. Many pass off the genre as a series of repetitive conventions and a vehicle for Hollywood manipulation; I beg to differ. If we look back over the last few decades it is clear that there is a certain art to capturing the elusive and complex emotion called love.

Filed Under: Featured, Film Culture, Foreign Films, Indie Films, Mainstream Films, Uncategorized

12 Feb

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Review: My Week With Marilyn

by Nicole

Simon Curtis – Drama/Biopic – 2011 – U.S.A/Britain

Many films have attempted to explore the psyche of Marilyn Munroe, one of the most famous women to have lived. She is an interesting topic, one of glamour, excitement, mystery and slight insanity and film attempts to uncover that. The young Colin Clark wrote a book documenting his work with Sir Laurence Olivier on the film The Prince and the Showgirl, however, there was a chapter missing that documented a week. This was his week with Marilyn Munroe and this film is based on that chapter.

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Filed Under: Featured, Indie Films, Oscars, Reviews

12 Feb

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Review: J.Edgar

by Nicole

Clint Eastwood – Drama/Biopic – 2011 – U.S.A

J. Edgar, a film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a film of unrealised potential that will leave viewers disappointed but only due to what they know could have been. Technically, this film is entirely competent and the performances are skilled as they work with the limited screenwriting they are provided with. This film showcases many interesting stories but the problem is that they compete for the attention of the audience rather than intertwining to tell the complex and fascinating story of J. Edgar Hoover.

Filed Under: Featured, Mainstream Films, Oscars, Reviews

10 Feb

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Review: Chronicle

by Nicole

Josh Trank – Action/Drama – USA -2012

Chronicle is the latest found footage offering that takes a significantly different approach. Instead of mimicking the highly successful horror films in the genre, this film is an action film. Chronicle follows three teenagers with a handheld camera as they find a strange glowing life form that provides them with super powers. The story develops in an extremely interesting way and the performances of the three young boys are fantastic. The film techniques employed are also more organic than traditional found footage films as we are never confined to the use of a singular camera and are instead provided with more insight from multiple cameras.

Filed Under: Featured, Mainstream Films, Reviews

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Indie Film .net.au is not about elitism, it's about equity. We take the view that historically, from the French New Wave to Postwar Tokyo, some of the best films made with the longest lasting impact were also often not the commercial blockbusters.

Indie films, indie movies and independent cinema is not supposed to be a strictly defined category, but a general culture where all films, no matter how left field, should be appreciated and given a chance. When we say indie films, we don't even mean they must be by independent studios, we just mean good films which don't get talked about as much as they should. Of course, we will also be giving more than fair coverage to mainstream films and good films from all other categories, from foreign to classic to cult.

Aside from reviewing and ranting about indie films all around the world, our mission is also to make indie film culture and independent cinemas more accessible to the wider public in Australia. This includes write ups of all the indie film dives and festivals happening around the country, as well as pre-release reviews of notable indie films.

At Indie Film .net.au, we give all good films their time of day.

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