Guardian Australia's film critic, chief critic of
Flicks.com.au and "The VR Critic" (thevrcritic.com). PHD in virtual reality. Creator of Nicolas Cage fan site The Cage Gauge:
flicks.com.au/cagegauge/New Scrubs, a delightful The Muppets special, a fresh take on Lord of the Flies and more - here's this month's biggest streaming titles, picked by yours truly
New Scrubs, Muppets and Lord of the Flies: what’s new to streaming in Australia in February
Plus Jurassic World Rebirth, Paul McCartney documentary Man on the Run, and a sharply observed dramedy about open marriages
How do you create interesting drama themed around a dog park? ABC's new, pleasurably paced, emotionally engaging series pulled it off. My review
Dog Park review – this charming comedy lures you in with dogs – but you’ll stay for the humans
Marketed as a comedy, the show is more of a light-touch drama, and it manages to sketch a fractious depiction of love that many will relate to
Caught Stealing is the Darren Aronofsky film no-one's talking about. And it's pretty damn good. My thoughts 👇
Why’s no-one talking about Caught Stealing? This crime drama slaps
Somehow overlooked, Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing is a lean, bruising crime ride that deserves to make more cultural noise.
Come for the ping-pong, stay for the panic attack. Me on why Marty Supreme is an instant classic
Marty Supreme turns the tables on sports movies, serving pure cinematic adrenaline
Come for the ping-pong, stay for the panic attack. Timothée Chalamet’s latest film defies sports movie conventions and serves a hell of a spectacle.
Remember The 'Burbs? Me on why this cult classic stands the test of time
The ‘Burbs retrospective: why this kooky suburban satire still sings
Joe Dante’s cult classic The ’Burbs exposes the dark comedy lurking beneath suburban calm—and with a new TV remake on the way, its paranoia feels more relevant than ever.
Oh me oh my. No Other Choice sure is a weird (and very good) serial killer movie. Here's my review
No Other Choice is one of the strangest serial killer movies you’ll ever see
Great word-of-mouth surrounds the release of No Other Choice, a wickedly weird and darkly funny serial killer movie that defies expectations.
"An observer from another galaxy would say that we know what’s causing climate change, but we’re not doing anything about it as a global civilisation."
The past three years were the world’s hottest on record
The world is likely to miss the Paris Agreement goals to limit global heating to between 1.5 and 2 degrees above the pre-industrial average, making climate adaptation and “net negative” policies incre...
My take on Nouvelle Vague: a super stylish, feel-good love letter to Jean-Luc Godard’s great film Breathless. Tres bien!
Nouvelle Vague and Breathless make an awesome double feature
Nouvelle Vague is a stylish, feel-good love letter to Jean-Luc Godard’s great film Breathless. Luke Buckmaster unpacks the perfect movie double bill.
Netflix is great at pumping out documentaries that make you want to hold your nose and bemoan the state of humanity. Here's my take on the latest
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story is Netflix’s latest true crime curio
Netflix delivers another jaw-dropping true-crime tale, unpacking the horrific story of Jodi Hildebrandt with some surprising restraint.
In the present moment of post-truth, Trump-era America, this excellent documentary about legendary journo Seymour M. Hersh lands with alarming force. My review of Cover-Up
Cover-Up is a bracing reminder of why investigative journalism matters
Now on Netflix, Cover-Up explores the career of legendary reporter Seymour M. Hersh and the battles behind publishing uncomfortable truths.
This biodrama about Australian tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley is well above standard, rah-rah-rah, win-at-all-costs sports fare. My review
Goolagong review – ABC drama about Australian tennis legend is deeper than most sporting biopics
Newcomer Lila McGuire is outstanding as the former world No 1, her story unfolding over three well-paced, captivating and graceful episodes
Brooke Satchwell is the highlight of Dear Life, delivering a painfully good performance as a distraught widow. My review
Dear Life review – Brooke Satchwell hauntingly good in an otherwise clunky drama
Playing a grief-stricken woman who traces the organ recipients of her late fiance, the actor outshines the rest of this cloying Stan series
Phew! This year I wrote 149 film and TV critiques - about one every two and a half days - and launched the world’s largest collection of virtual reality reviews by a single person. I'll stop writing when I'm dead. Thank you to everyone who read my work, it's greatly appreciated. Happy New Year!
From shark mayhem to porridge-making, here's the best Australian films from 2025. My annual list for the Guardian
The 10 best Australian films of 2025
Spanning shark mayhem, Nicolas Cage and porridge-making, here are film critic Luke Buckmaster’s 10 favourite Australian movies of the year
Is it just me, or are we less impressed by movie special effects than we used to be? Here's where the real creative upheavals are happening.
Do eye-watering special effects still impress like they used to?
James Cameron’s latest blockbuster dazzles with glossy spectacle, but the real revolutions and creative upheavals in motion picture technology are happening elsewhere, writes Luke Buckmaster.
[Not loaded yet]
The new Amadeus TV series is unexpectedly excellent, with a roaring pace and sizzling performances. My review.
Amadeus is back – now a juiced-up, compulsively entertaining TV series
This compulsively watchable resurrection of Amadeus is sexy, loud, and gleefully irreverent, matching the classic film’s brilliance while blazing its own trail.
The new Amadeus TV series is unexpectedly excellent, with a roaring pace and sizzling performances. My review.
Amadeus is back – now a juiced-up, compulsively entertaining TV series
This compulsively watchable resurrection of Amadeus is sexy, loud, and gleefully irreverent, matching the classic film’s brilliance while blazing its own trail.
Best intro to a novel of all time? I love it so much it's framed and hung on my wall
Mr Bean may be retired, but Rowan Atkinson’s signature brand of chaos survives in this fun new series. My take on Netflix's Man vs Baby
Rowan Atkinson brings Mr Bean-ish chaos to Man vs Baby
Mr Bean may be retired, but Rowan Atkinson’s signature brand of chaos survives in this fun new series—with awkward stunts, eyebrow gymnastics, and a baby turning his life upside down.
Ranking Russell Crowe's best performances was no easy task. He has an amazing ability to strip difficult characters of baggage, and find what makes them human. Great oeuvre, great actor.
Russell Crowe’s 20 best roles – sorted!
With Nuremberg out in Australian cinemas, we cast an eye over Rusty’s eclectic, varied and downright impressive oeuvre. Are you not entertained?
In the spirit of "best of" lists spurring conversation, I respond to Tarantino's picks for the top films so far this century. Black Hawk Down as #1? Really?!
Tarantino made a best-of-the-century film list. I made it better
Quentin Tarantino’s century-best list gets turned upside down in Luke Buckmaster’s lively, opinion-soaked re-rank guaranteed to provoke film-lover debate.
Gillian Anderson's new western, the second season of Fallout, Rowan Atkinson returns and more: here's my monthly column on the biggest titles soon to arrive on streaming
Fallout season 2, a new Knives Out and Taylor Swift’s End of an Era: what’s new to streaming in Australia in December
Plus the director’s cut of Picnic at Hanging Rock, Back to the Future turns 40 and Will Forte opens a tanning salon in Sydney
Thank you Queensland XR Hub for having me as a guest speaker at their annual Extended Reality conference in Brisbane. Being part of a creative medium in its infancy is a strangely thrilling time. The highs, the lows, the progress, the setbacks - it's all part of the excitement.
In the lead-up to next year’s creature feature Primate, I celebrate Monkey Shines - an amazing, psychologically scorching evil monkey movie
Retrospective: Monkey Shines is still the greatest evil monkey movie
In the lead-up to next year’s creature feature Primate, we celebrate George Romero’s 1988 horror classic—the only evil monkey movie that truly earns its bananas.
Rose Byrne detonates the screen in this blistering, darkly comic character study that grips like a vise. Me on the amazing If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
The brilliance of Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Rose Byrne detonates the screen in this blistering, uneasy, darkly comic character study that grips like a vise and refuses to let go.
A beautifully composed meditation on work, wonder, and lives that slip quietly through history’s cracks. My review of Netflix's superb drama Train Dreams
Train Dreams is one of the great films of 2025
Joel Edgerton has drawn widespread acclaim for his performance in Netflix’s beautifully composed meditation on work, wonder, and lives that slip quietly through history’s cracks.
Predator: Badlands turns franchise pulp into genuine worldbuilding, giving the franchise new moral terrain and unexpected softnesss. My review
Predator: Badlands is the right kind of worldbuilding
With Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg turns franchise pulp into genuine worldbuilding—giving the franchise new moral terrain and unexpected softnesss.
What if the end of the world felt…kind of lovely? My review of the genre-breaking new show from the creator of Breaking Bad
Pluribus rewrites the end of the world with a blissfully strange twist
What if the end of the world felt…kind of lovely? The new show from the creator of Breaking Bad creates a truly genre-breaking apocalypse.
Netflix’s new drama dives into the messy events leading up to the assassination of U.S. President James A Garfield. With excellent performances and a cracking script, this ain’t a dry history lesson.
Death by Lightning is a wildly entertaining ride through historical chaos
Netflix’s four-part drama dives into the messy events leading up to the assassination of U.S. President James A Garfield. With excellent performances and a cracking script, his ain’t a dry history les...
I revisit Keanu Reeves' most under-appreciated film: A Scanner Darkly. It's a visually unique sci-fi that makes a powerful message about the futility of the war on drugs
Why A Scanner Darkly is Keanu Reeves’ most underrated movie
With Keanu Reeves back on the big screen in Good Fortune, it’s the perfect time to revisit his most under-appreciated film: a mind-bending, visually unique sci-fi.
My review of Deeper - an entertaining and quite well-made film about a team of cave divers exploring New Zealand’s Pearse Resurgence cave system
Deeper review – extreme cave diving documentary offers drama but lacks a little oomph
Following a group of divers – including Richard Harris, rescuer of the Thai schoolboys – this doco is interesting but not exactly visually stunning
It says something about the eternal qualities of the late and great David Gulpilil that he continues to be at the centre of remarkable stories, even after his death. My review of Journey Home, David Gulpilil
Journey Home, David Gulpilil review – an elegant celebration of one of Australia’s great actors
This illuminating, buoyant documentary traces the 4,000km trip to return the legendary Yolŋu actor to remote East Arnhem Land
Warwick Thornton's sequel to Sweet Country has pacing issues and an emotional throughline that never quite takes hold. My review of Wolfram - a minor work from a major talent
Wolfram review – Warwick Thornton’s sequel to Sweet Country never quite comes together
Set four years after Thornton’s blistering neo-western, this film is impressively atmospheric and has strong performances, though Deborah Mailman is criminally underused
There's never been a documentary quite like The Perfect Neighbor, which uses police bodycam footage to explore how fear and racism fuel tragedy. My review
The Perfect Neighbor turns bodycam footage into a gut-punch documentary
Part true crime and part social study, Netflix’s hit documentary uses police bodycam footage to explore how fear and racism fuel tragedy.
What a weird name for a dog. But sorry for their loss.
After playing Star Wars: Beyond Victory, I’m convinced that a mixed reality racing game will one day come along and knock our socks off—but this one isn’t it
Star Wars: Beyond Victory review - flashes of ingenuity
After playing Star Wars: Beyond Victory, I’m convinced that a mixed reality racing game will one day come along and knock our socks off—but this one isn’t it. There are some lovely embellishments, inc...
Netflix’s The Twits looks gloriously off-kilter—crooked, colourful, and cheeky. But the script swaps Roald Dahl’s delicious cruelty for something sweeter. My review
Netflix’s The twits plays tug-of-war between nasty and nice
Netflix’s The Twits looks gloriously off-kilter—crooked, colourful, and cheeky. But the script swaps Roald Dahl’s delicious cruelty for something sweeter.
[Not loaded yet]
The question at the heart of this four-part series is problematically vague; no nation can be reduced to a single unifying idea. My thoughts on The Idea of Australia
The Idea of Australia review – an ambitious but overstuffed series that will make you shout ‘slow down!’
Marcia Langton, Bruce Pascoe, Grace Tame and Kerry O’Brien are among more than 60 names wrestling with the national identity in this frenetic SBS series, presented by Rachel Griffiths
Handsome cinematography and beautiful landscapes can’t revive this dreary film – and where on earth is Richard Roxburgh’s accent from? My review of the NZ zombie movie Forgive Us All
Forgive Us All review – a dead-boring zombie film? That’s unforgivable
Handsome cinematography and New Zealand landscapes can’t revive this dreary movie – and where on earth is Richard Roxburgh’s accent from?
It's rare to have this many cracking action movies premiering in the same month. Here's five adrenaline-charged new releases - from fiery rescues to criminal capers and nuclear terror.
October is a cracking month for action movies
Action movie lovers, rejoice! This month a handful of adrenaline-charged movies light up our screens—from fiery rescues to criminal capers and wartime terror.
The new film from veteran director Bruce Beresford feels old-fashioned and simplistic, and while it’s told from the heart, sentiment smothers the story. My review of The Travellers
The Travellers review – sentiment smothers Bruce Beresford’s heartfelt film
Bryan Brown, Luke Bracey and Susie Porter give great performances in this story about a theatre-maker returning home to Australia from Europe to farewell his dying mother
The “school of hard knocks” drama must deliver students in need of help; a more interesting question is what to do with the teachers. Me on Netflix's excellent new film Steve
Netflix drama Steve breathes new life into the ‘school of hard knocks’ genre
Cillian Murphy burns slow and bright in Steve, a bruising but cathartic portrait of care, chaos, and collapse inside an English reform school—now streaming on Netflix.
Matthew McConaughey plays a school bus driver barrelling through hell-on-earth wildfire in The Lost Bus, a pulse-pounding disaster movie from director Paul Greengrass. Here's my review
The Lost Bus is a terrifyingly immersive disaster movie
Matthew McConaughey steers through an inferno in this pulse-pounding film, which showcases the intense, famously restless style of director Paul Greengrass.
Mark Wahlberg sneaks, shoots, and connives in Shane Black’s twisty new heist thriller—an action flick that thrives on flipping expectations. My review
Play Dirty is exactly what you want from a Shane Black action movie
Mark Wahlberg sneaks, shoots, and connives in Shane Black’s twisty new heist thriller—an action flick that thrives on flipping expectations.
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...
The time I accidentally pissed off Paul Thomas Anderson
There’s the old saying “never meet your heroes.” But what about “never piss off your heroes”? Luke Buckmaster remembers the time he upset one of his favourite directors.
