From Penelope Spheeris to Kelly Reichardt; from Woody Allen to Alex Ross Perry; from Martin Scorsese to Paul Thomas Anderson; from Sofia Coppola to Lynn Shelton, and from John Cassavetes to Richard Linklater, the American independent film community continues to flourish and produce people, ideas, and cinema with a profound impact on the craft internationally.
 

 
Highlights of the festival include Opening Night event screening of Time Out Of Mind, starring Richard Gere on May 19; our New York retrospective ‘Essential New York’, including a screening of Academy Award Winning Midnight Cowboy; our ‘Essential Originals’ chapter with 1st feature films from well-known filmmakers including Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides; and films featuring some of the biggest names in the industry today including James Franco in Yosemite, Natalie Portman in Jane Got A Gun, Sam Worthington in The Keeping Room and indie darling Sarah Silverman gives a career defining performance in I Smile Back.

Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now
17 May – 8 June – Palace Cinemas around the country

www.essentialindependents.com

Competition will be drawn 20 May 2016, winners will be notified by mail.

Selma is the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic struggle to secure voting rights for African-Americans – a dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated in the epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama that galvanized American public opinion and persuaded President Johnson to introduce the Voting Rights Act in 1965. 2015 is the 50th anniversary of this pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
www.selmamovie.com

Competition will be drawn 11 February 2015, winners will be notified by mail.

The band rated the Artist Of The Decade (the best-reviewed band – on average – for the 2000s) by the aggregation site Metacritic, return this time is in support of their latest and greatest album They Want My Soul – like it’s predecessor, Transference, a top 4 debutant in the mainstream US charts.

Featuring the singles ‘Do You’ and ‘Inside Out’, They Want My Soul also looks set to replicate the achievements of their first five albums rating highly with the critics.

“They Want My Soul is chock full of guitar-driven greatness that makes it well worth the four-year wait and is bound to see it feature highly on end-of-year lists.”
X-Press Magazine (4.5 stars)

“Brilliant record, without question their best to date.” Q Magazine (4 stars)

“Beautifully made, multi-layered album.” The Guardian (4 stars)

For this tour the Austin-born 4-piece will be augmented by the inclusion of multi-instrumentalist Alex Fischel, previously a member of Divine Fits who toured Australia for the Laneway Festival in 2013 and who also feature Spoon frontman Britt Daniel.

“This band thrives on the audience enthusiasm, especially Daniels. Its his casual swagger, his showmanship, that makes Spoon concerts what they are, at times better than anything you can experience by just listening to the albums.” Alt-Daily (Sept 2014)

“Their performance at the Hollywood Forever was definitely tailored for fans who have loved the band since their early days. With a 21-song-set that included a four-song encore, the crowd was begging for more as Spoon left the stage. This show just might have been Spoon’s best performance ever.” GrimyGods.com (August 2014)

Spoon 2015 Australian Tour
Brisbane – The Hifi – Tuesday 10 February 2015
Melbourne – The Forum – Wednesday 11 February 2015
Sydney – The Metro – Saturday 14 February 2015
www.spoontheband.com

Clint Eastwood’s take on Navy Seal Chris Kyle’s (Bradley Cooper) autobiography certainly sets a scene of dread and foreboding as we follow Kyle and his descent into the war in Iraq.

Kyle is a good old boy from Texas, a former competitive cowboy and a very proficient marksman. His entry into the service is spurred on by the events of 9/11 and his upbringing with a very strong and opinionated father. This background is revealed is very broad strokes and lacks the nuance to really allow the viewer to relate to his on-screen character.

Once in the war zone, Kyle’s alpha male persona, the bleached out backdrop of the desert and the relentless graphic slaughter present such a one-dimensional portrait, it becomes difficult to connect with the film. His distance from his wife (played by Sienna Miller) and the obvious love she has for him also forms a very one-dimensional view. It’s not really until after his active service years that we see Kyle as anything other than a killing machine.

Being completely unaware of Chris Kyle’s real life story made the sting in the tail at the end of the film just that much more of a downer. Eastwood’s directorial style has always been to step out of the way of cinematic flourishes and let the main proponent’s actions define the story. Unfortunately, this time out that leaves the viewer with too much carnage and not enough characterisation.
Rob Hudson
www.americansnipermovie.com