Show Notes
Hollywood heavyweights Ridley Scott and Josh Brolin discuss Scott's latest film, The Dog Stars, an epic post-apocalyptic thriller also starring Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce. Set in a world ravaged by a virus that has wiped out most of humanity, the film follows the survivors left to contend with roaming scavengers and a brutal new reality. Jason speaks with three exciting emerging directors, whose films feature in MIFF's Bright Horizons competition: Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker Sophy Romvari, whose acclaimed debut feature is Blue Heron; New Zealand director Paloma Schneideman, whose Big Girls Don't Cry premiered in competition at Sundance; and award-winning Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi, whose debut feature Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep premiered in the Un Certan Regard section at Cannes. Presenter, Jason Di Rosso Producer, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Ross Richardson Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown
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Clayface director James Watkins, along with actors Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie, discuss bringing DC's shape-shifting villain to the screen as a dark body-horror thriller. Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom discusses Tenzing, her film about Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phunsok), whose historic ascent of Everest alongside Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston) changed the course of mountaineering and shone a light on the man behind one of the world's most famous expeditions. But to begin this episode, Jason shares his thoughts on the buzziest film of the moment, You Can See Everything, which arrives in cinemas next month. The film sees Nathan Fielder take on the Elizabeth Holmes story.
The Diplomat returns with another season of high-stakes political intrigue, while Ethan Hawke leads the very good neo-noir comedy The Lowdown. Jason Di Rosso and Wenlei Ma are back on The Couch with their verdicts.
Following the sad news of RJ Mitte's passing, we're revisiting our Top Shelf conversation with the actor best known for playing Walter White Jr. in Breaking Bad, widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. In 2019, Mitte joined us in the studio to reflect on the films and television that shaped him, sharing some of his favourite screen classics and the performances that left a lasting impression.
Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility returns to the screen for a new generation, with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles stepping into the iconic roles of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The A-list duo discuss re-imagining one of literature's most enduring stories. In the harrowing new documentary Naza, anonymous Israeli whistleblowers describe the remote killing of Palestinians in Gaza during recent military operations. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (No Other Land), the film uses its nocturnal setting to explore surveillance, accountability and moral distance, making it one of the most powerful and unsettling films of the year. Dragana Jurišić is a photographer and filmmaker from the former Yugoslavia. Her documentary The Balkan Cowboy (screening at the Adelaide Film Festival), follows the folklore of a larger-than-life amateur filmmaker whose homemade Westerns captured her imagination as a child, and sets her on a path to shooting her own Western using locals from across the splintered Balkan divides, to create a new story that pieces together a history fractured by war crimes. La Bola Negra has emerged as one of the most talked-about films of the year. The ambitious Spanish-language drama from Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi weaves stories of love, memory and queer identity across generations, and is already being tipped as a serious Oscar contender after a celebrated festival run.
Two new television dramas reviewed: the ABC's Dustfall, which investigates a harrowing sexual assault case after a teenage girl is found with amnesia in a sugarcane field, and HBO Max's War, a series starring Sienna Miller and Dominic West that follows a bitter, high-profile divorce.