Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on September 17, 2026.

(MA15+) ★★★★

Director: Will Lovelace & Dylan Southern.

"What'd ya say, ya fookin' fook?"

The intro to Don't Look Back In Anger spins through the Oasis story at breakneck speed - they wrote some good songs, became the biggest band in the world, then broke up in 2009 because the Gallagher brothers were a pair of hot-headed twats. The end.

Then in 2024, it was announced that hell had indeed frozen over, pigs were flying, and the Gallaghers were getting the band back together for a 41-date world tour the following year. Cue much derision from the media about how many dates Oasis would get through before one Gallagher bottled the other and the whole thing got called off. 

But this doco, which covers the rehearsals and reunion tour, manages to (miraculously) rewrite the Oasis narrative. Despite its prickly start, this is not a fly-on-the-wall expose of everything going wrong, but rather a tale of forgiveness, redemption and two dickhead brothers maturing just enough to realise they created something that actually means something to people.

Don't Look Back In Anger doesn't do anything extraordinary compared to other music docos, but it has great content it uses wisely, building momentum throughout to end with something kinda magical. Of course the film is a celebration of Oasis, but what it captures is a band in the process of rewriting its own history, and an adoring fanbase ecstatic to see it happen.

The performances are shot well, though Oasis were never an exhilirating live band - Liam just stands there and occasionally puts a tambourine on his head, Noel just plays his guitar. What really sells the many live bits is a) these are great songs made for arena-sized singalongs, and b) the fan responses. There are countless shots of fans weeping with joy at the experience. Outside the stadiums, fans liken the reunion to the second coming of Jesus, gather on hilltops outside the arena to listen, and repurpose Oasis songs to fit their soccer team. It's like a religion.

The community of music is a key element of Don't Look Back In Anger. But even better is the story of the Gallaghers, who never say sorry or talk out their differences. Instead they just somehow get over all the bullshit and discover a newfound respect for each other and their music. Having tens of thousands of people singing your songs back to you every night, after an absence of 15 years, is bound to do that to you, but seeing it happen is oddly heartwarming.

In between the fans and gigs, we get to hear from the Gallaghers. Liam is still a twat, Noel slightly less so, but somehow they're endearing and offer something vaguely appproximating maturity. The fact that the doco contains their first joint interview in over 15 years tells you everything you need to know.

In a somewhat contrived but utterly perfect part of the film, a priest gives a sermon to a handful of parishioners about forgiveness, redemption and respect. It's an ideal summary of the doco. 

If you can tolerate the music (and you should because Noel writes bloody great songs), then this is a must-see music documentary.

The Dog Stars

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on September 3, 2026.

(MA15+) ★★★

Director: Ridley Scott.

Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, Allison Janney.

Not pictured: the stars.

Ridley Scott knows a thing or two about survival - Alien and The Martian are among two of the best survive-against-all-odds movies of all time. 

But rarely has surviving the end of the world seemed so languid, bucolic and rural as it does in The Dog Stars, Scott's adaptation of the post-apocalyptic novel of the same name by Peter Heller.

There are moments of terror (including a truly creepy end to the second act), but for an end-of-days situation it's surprisingly chill. What this leaves room for are some thoughtful takes on whether kindness and goodwill can survive the apocalypse.

Aussie actor Elordi stars as Hig, a pilot/mechanic who is one of the few survivors of a killer pandemic. He lives in a self-sustaining compound in Colorado with a former soldier named Bangley (Brolin) and a dog called Jasper.

While Bangley is content to see out the post-doomsday days in their easily defendable ranch, Hig wonders if civilisation still exists, and whether it's even worth carrying on.

This post-armageddon world seems fairly pleasant and survivable. There's fishing trips with your dog, flying your plane over beautiful landscapes, hanging out with the nearby Mennonite community, and visiting your oddly untouched family home. Yes, there are marauding hordes and some truly abominable horrors out there, but in The Dog Stars they tend to feel like they've been dropped in from a different film. The horrors of survival are not the major danger - it's the yearning that'll get ya.

The film kinda ambles along until it hits its truly messed up section, which tips proceedings into horror territory briefly. These moments are the ones that are going to stick with you the longest after the credits have rolled.

That's partly because everything else is weirdly nice. In between the psychotic gangs roaming the landscape, this is a futuristic film yearning for a simpler time, in a roundabout way. It enjoys its beautiful landscapes (Italy standing in for Colorado) and wonders what it's all about. At its heart it questions whether survival is compatible with kindness. 

Elordi carries the film well, Brolin is great in slightly one-note roll of the grizzled war vet, while Pearce and Qualley add a spark to things when they turn up. 

The Dog Stars is Scott's 30th film as director. He's made some real stinkers from time to time (The Counsellor remains one of the worst films I've ever seen), but this ain't one of them. It's mid-tier Ridley - not his best work, not his worst. Just nicely in the middle. And oddly pleasant for a post-apocalyptic vision.

Yesterday Island

(MA15+) ★★★★

Director: Sam Voutas.

Cast: Ivan Aristeguieta, Florence Noble, Francis Greenslade, Genevieve Neve, Luke Saliba.

"Last time I order a bucket of KFC on Uber Eats."

It's one thing to have a great high concept, it's another thing to turn it into a great 90-minute film.

The elevator pitch for Yesterday Island is basically "Groundhog Day: The Island", but it's more than that. This tightly contained Australian comedy also happens to be a cunning morality play thanks to its neat plot mechanic - the only way off this time-loop isle is to find someone to replace you. So who would you doom to a single eternal day on a sub-Antarctic island in exchange for your own freedom?

Yesterday Island doesn't labour its ethical quandary but makes it work. There are a few leaps of faith for the audience, but by and large it's successful in making you laugh and think.

Amos (Aristeguieta) is the poor sucker lured onto the island and forced to figure out its riddle, then find someone to take his place on the ever-repeating isle. But how do you con someone you don't like to visit you on an island south of Tasmania? And how do you just leave them there?

Yesterday Island's very dry, straight-faced sense of humour helps sell its fantastical plot, while also making the most out of it. Running gags are the order of the day, and they make the film's deliberate repetition work in its favour.

The entire movie is compact - one set, few locations, small cast, tight story-telling - which adds to the claustrophobic nature of it all. The feeling of being trapped shines through, bringing a neat sense of tension to this absurd comedy.

Its solid cast of little-known actors (Mad As Hell's Francis Greenslade is potentially the biggest name here) does a great job, particularly Aristeguieta, Noble, and Neve. Aristeguieta has the difficult task of carrying the toughest part of the film and manages it pretty well, Noble bounces nicely off Aristeguieta when the story turns into a two-hander, while Neve's role as a sort-of-villain adds spice to the final act.

There are a few lines that clunk here and there, the ending is wild, and the film's internal logic strains at times, which may leave you scratching your head after the credits have rolled. But this indie comedy-sci-fi poses fascinating questions, has a few laughs along the way, and shows that you don't need big bucks to tell stories with big ideas.

The End Of Oak Street

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on August 20, 2026.

(M) ★★★

Director: David Robert Mitchell.

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery.

No pants, just sacks.

I've often wondered why there aren't more movies about dinosaurs outside of the Jurassic Park series. Dinosaurs are cool, yet they don't seem to turn up in a lot of films. Or not enough for my preference.

Part of the problem no doubt is how to wedge them into a plot in a new way - we've done de-extinction (the Jurassic Park series), dino planets (65), and lost worlds/islands/jungles (going all the way back to The Lost World in 1925).

So full points to The End Of Oak Street, which takes a novel approach to injecting dinosaurs into a film - by transplanting an entire neighbourhood from 1982 into the Mesozoic Era via a loosely explained phenomena.

This temporal displacement puts regular 1982 dysfunctional family the Platts on the menu for a huge number of dinosaurs, as their once-quiet suburban home becomes an apocalyptic nightmare.

If you watched this trailer and expected this to be some kind of slightly dark but slightly funny family adventure, you'd be dead wrong about the second bit. The End Of Oak Street is a daylight horror with next-to-no sense of humour. It's more of a survival film than anything else - once the "event" happens and the dinos appear, this is a balls-to-wall nailbiter.

It's a shame because a sense of humour or at least a sense of self-awareness might have elevated this to something truly special. Instead this is a serviceable actioner with a surprising brutality to it, yet is oddly po-faced in the face of its plot's absurdity.

McGregor and Hathaway are totally comfortable playing this straight, especially the latter, who channels the great scream queens with a touch of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley - she effortlessly switches from terrified to gun-toting and back again in the face of the insanity. In between, they're a believable couple going through a very rough patch in their marriage, thrown into a prehistoric nightmare.

With most of the action taking place in sunlit suburban streets, so there's no hiding the CG in the dark or the rain, but there's no fear because the effects look great. It's also in the film's favour that we see things we've never seen before. An allosaurus and a titanoboa star in two of the most nail-biting scenes, which will live long in the memory.

Maybe the rest will prove memorable as time goes on (even its bold-if-questionable ending). But for now this surprisingly grim dino-thriller is a good time-filler, without being as fun as you'd think.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on August 6, 2026.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton.

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo, Marisa Tomei, Liza Colón-Zayas, Michael Mando.

"Can those who want to stab Spider-Man please form an orderly queue?"

There must be written on a wall at Sony somewhere the maxim "When in doubt, make a Spider-Man movie". It's more than likely that same maxim is now pinned to the walls of Marvel Cinematic Universe HQ.

For Sony, Spider-Man has been its golden goose. Not even its rotten-egg Spidey spin-offs (Kraven, Morbius, Madame Web) have been able to taint the webspinner's appeal, and the studio has continually been able to wallcrawl its way back to Queens, make another Spidey movie, make a shit-ton of money, and feel good about its lone Marvel property all over again.

But over at the MCU, an unexpected malaise has set in. Despite great reviews for Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts*, the only film out of the last five MCU outings to make mega-bucks (or break-even) was Deadpool & Wolverine. And so, when in doubt....

Thus we have the fourth stand-alone Sony/MCU Spider-Man outing. Given how good of a send-off No Way Home was, one could cynically presume Brand New Day has been driven more by Sony and the MCU's desire to make serious bank than scratching a creative itch.

But that's too cynical, even for me. Because, wouldn't you know it, Brand New Day is actually really, really good. Some fans and critics are calling it the best Spidey film to date, and while it doesn't top No Way Home for me, it's another great example of a movie that understands its hero and its audience, and delivers in spades.

Picking up some years after a spell wipes Spider-man's true identity from the collective consciousness, Peter Parker (Holland) finds himself alone, and throwing himself into being Spidey more than as being himself. But when his own powers start to evolve, he begins to question who he even is anymore, and whether he really can do everything all by himself. 

The first solo Spidey outing in five years features a more adult Peter Parker than we've seen before, and that plays into the movie's themes of evolution and growth. There are some other spoilerific ideas that this feeds into as well, but the main aim of the film seems to be "what does Spidey do when he was no one around him?".

The answer is a fascinating snapshot of the very problem facing a lot of lonely young men - they get angry, frustrated, and violent, and lash out at the world. While for Spidey, much of this is a manifestation of his powers mutating, it's hard to ignore the underlying "angry young man" subtext permeating the film. Throw in that Punisher is the ghost of Spidey Yet To Come, and that the villain is on a similar course of lashing out, and you get yet another Spidey sequel with good thematic depth to it.

Another new aspect to Spidey is that he's far more "street-level" in Brand New Day than he's been for a while. No more multiverse shenanigans or SHIELD missions - he gets around in his home-made (though admittedly hi-tech) suit, works with cops, and swings around the streets of New York. It's a satisfying throwback to the characters origins, as are the cameos of Punisher, Hulk, and Black Widow, which help to make the film feel part of the MCU, without labouring the point.

Holland is an exceptional actor and we've seen that in and out of the MCU. Brand New Day is no exception. With minimal Aunt May, MJ or Ned to bounce off, Spidey is on his own a lot, or flitting from one encounter to the next, meaning that Holland has to do more heavy lifting here than in any previous Spidey-film. And he's great, carrying the film with ease, as the cameos wander in and out of the movie.

There's a more down-to-Earth approach in Brand New Day than we've seen in a Spidey-film for a while, even compared to Homecoming. And it's great. It really feels like the Spider-Man comics of old, where he would swing through the skyscraper canyons of New York, catch a villain, chat with a cop, bump into the Punisher or Black Widow and swing off on his merry way to his next adventure. There are even plenty of Easter eggs to old-school comic book covers to really drive that point home.

Even with this street-level approach, there are some killer action sequences. A battle with Hulk, another with the Hand, and street-chase involving a tank and the Punisher are among the highlights. It's fun, it's action-packed, and it rarely feels long despite its two-and-a-half-hour run time.

Tom Holland can't be Spider-Man forever, but so long as he keeps starring in films this good, I hope he is.

 

The Odyssey

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on July 23, 2026.

(M) ★★★★★

Director: Christopher Nolan.

Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Bill Irwin, Elliot Page, Benny Safdie.

"Verily, we have defeated the broom people, and taken their heads for our hats."

No other story could be more fitting for the talents of one of history's greatest directors than one of the greatest stories known to humankind. And the fact that the resulting film is one of the greatest movie adventures of all time should also come as no surprise.

What's truly fascinating about Christopher Nolan's absurdly good take on Homer's The Odyssey is how Nolan has tweaked a millenia-old story and actually improved it. The story skips about fluidly and its pieces fit together perfectly. He repurposes parts of the story to make them resonate deeper and hit harder, somehow creating the definitive version of one of history's tales, reaching into the narrative to pull out themes that might not have been there to start with. 

For those who don't know their Iliad from their Odyssey (ie. me), this is the story of Odysseus (Damon), who leads an army to Troy, hides in a giant wooden horse, defeats the Trojans, and then tries to go home, which turns out to be more difficult than fighting the Trojans. 

  

Nolan's screenplay and directorial vision are impeccable. The way he positions the sacking of Troy in the story, the way he uses it to feed into the wider themes, the way he reconfigures the lotus-eaters and Calypso (Theron) - it's perfect. He folds elements of the original story into each other to make something whole and flawless from a story and thematic perspective. The Odyssey becomes so much more than an episodic monster-of-the-week story, and instead becomes a tale of how when we undo the niceties of society, we undo society itself, how when we turn gifts and kindness into tricks and war, we unmake the world, how when we treat the less fortunate with contempt, we insult the gods themselves. It's a powerful message in any time, let alone the present. 

Nolan, aside from pulling together an utterly compelling story, delivers it on the big screen with sombre skill. The sun rarely shines in this world - it's an often overcast and grey world, but one that still somehow looks amazing. His preference for practical effects and real locations shines through too. There are obvious CG moments that are impossible to pull off otherwise (the cyclops Polyphemus and the many-headed monster Scylla for example) but where it can be done for real, he does it. 

The sacking of Troy, for example, is one of those sequences that many directors would turn into a CG bonanza that makes it look like every other CG bonanza going 'round. If Nolan has used a lot of CG, it's unnoticeable. It looks like he built Troy and he burnt Troy. And every scene is lit with subtlety - this is definitely not Kubrick shooting Barry Lyndon by candlelight, but it give the same vibe, and it's beautiful to behold.

The cast is as exemplary as you would expect. Damon is his usual respectable, dutiful self. We tend to underappreciate his performances and status as an actor because his filmography isn't littered with flashy character roles or Oscars wins. But he's great at what he does, and he does it magnificently here, bringing gravitas and vulnerability to the role of Odysseus.

He's surrounded by stars delivering great but unflashy performances - Hathaway, Pattinson, Holland, Leguizamo, Bernthal, Theron, and Patel are all fantastic. No one outshines anyone, and all deliver.

Nolan's tale keeps the gods themselves at arms length, but embraces enough fantasy to make it feel mythological and enough reality to make it feel real. Despite its runtime, it never feels long, and there are odd moments of humour to leaven the heavy tone.

This is the best blockbuster of the year, and it's likely to be as big as Ben Hur when awards season rolls around, which it thoroughly deserves.

Supergirl (2026)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on July 9, 2026.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Craig Gillespie.

Cast: Milly Alcock, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jason Momoa, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet.

Supergirl inspects a bus of the future in Supergirl: Buses Of The Future.

DC faces a tough task - reboot an entire superhero megafranchise in the midst of a culture suffering from "superhero fatigue" (a fatigue's that's been around for over a decade, apparently).

But they've started strong with last year's Superman, and are two-from-two with this Superman-adjacent sequel, which has been unfairly derided by many.

Combining the goofy space hi-jinks of Guardians Of The Galaxy and some apocalyptic baddies and moods out of Furiosa, Supergirl is a surprisingly dark sci-fi adventure that does a good job of making a character with goddess-like powers feel very human (and surprisingly easy to defeat), while creating a universe that's both fun and scary to play in.

This ain't your parents' version of Supergirl though. In this outing, she's an alcoholic, hiding from her powers, her destiny and her cousin (Corenswet's Superman). That's until a big bad named Krem (Schoenaerts) kills the parents of Ruthye (Ridley) and threatens Supergirl's beloved dog Krypto.

 

In what looks like being the first of a bunch of ambitious choices by DC's head creative James Gunn (the next film is Clayface, a lesser-known Batman villain), the darker angle is an interesting and welcome one for Supergirl. Painting her as a hard-drinking quasi-nihilist is fascinating, and though the inevitable softening comes, there is still a nice Mad Max aesthetic and attitude to the baddies that ensures the blood never really washes off the storyline completely.

Aussie actress Alcock does a fine job in a complicated role. While her drunk acting leaves a little to be desired, she conveys the inner turmoil of her character well, and ensures Supergirl comes off as a layered individual. Less so, the big bad, though this is not the fault of Schoenaerts, who does a fine job in making Krem dispicable. It's just a shame the character has no other qualities about him, other than looking like a Mad Max extra and being a horrible person. 

The only other main character is Ruthye, and Ridley does a fine job (especially for a kid) at giving her character depth. There are cameos that are interesting as well, helping to flesh out the bigger universe, and Momoa's short visits as Lobo certainly light up proceedings.

But the key thing to appreciate here is the tone. Supergirl treats its characters seriously, makes its world feel lived in, and even works hard to find ways to limit the heroine's limitless goddess-like powers. It can feel contrived at times but it all seems to fit, and it makes a good fist of its themes around seeking revenge and meaning in a life. Supergirl carries around a lot of grief related to where she's come from, and how that manifests, especially compared to Superman, is interesting to explore.

It's easy to knock this film. I did see one writer belittling a scene where Supergirl screams her pain into the soundless reaches of space, but I liked that scene. So maybe this isn't to all tastes, and maybe this is a genre in which I'm happy to accept more readily than others. But Supergirl is fun, with a weirdly dark undertone, and its lead character is interesting and complex and begs for more adventures. So that's a pretty strong pass in my book.