Ab Film Review & The Last New Wave

Debut Australian director Amy Wang’s twisted satire Slanted sees an aspiring prom queen undergo radical surgery to change her race. This is a film that's been called Mean Girls by way of The Substance. Nadine Whitney caught up with Amy Wang to talk about the process of getting her feature film debut off the ground, what it means to be an Australian filmmaker working right now, and the themes of the film, and more.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We’d also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva

Dreams, imagination and sobering realities meld in this absolutely magical debut, in which a young girl must decide whether to leave her volcanic island home.The island of Fogo, Cape Verde is singular in its beauty. Drylands give way to black-sand beaches, while villagers gather in intimately cluttered homes. Director Denise Fernandes’ attention to lyrical detail highlights the profound love that young Nana (Dailma Mendes as a child, Sanaya Andrade as a teen) has for her home. But for all its visual poetry, many residents seek to escape the island’s hard living. When her mother returns after decades away, Nana is faced with an impossible decision. Seamlessly moving between realism and the surreal – including a journey to a reality-warping volcano – Fernandes entwines myth and hard truths to tell a unique coming-of-age tale about what it means to belong to a place.Nadine Whitney interview director Denise Fernandes about her film Hanami. This interview was recorded ahead of the films screening at the Sydney Fil

Abebe Butterfly Song is a documentary that starts as a narrative exploration of Melbourne musician David Bridie, best known for his work in bands like Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake, but then folds in his life-changing experience of travelling to Papua New Guinea and meeting musician George Telek and the Moab Stringband.The film then takes audiences through a journey of discovering Papua New Guinea culture and how Australia's past is intertwined with Papua New Guinea's future. This includes explorations of the engagements during WW2, the devastating volcano eruption in 1994, and the music the emerges from these histories. Abebe Butterfly Song arrives as Papua New Guinea prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary of independence.Andrew interviewed director Rosie Jones about bringing this story to life. It screens at Perth's Revelation Film Festival on July 5 and 10. Visit RevelationFilmFestival.org for tickets.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We ar

Co-directors Richard Moore and John Doggett Williams invite audiences into the space of pain, discomfort, and body exploration with their searing, curiously tender, and wonderfully life-enriching documentary Stelarc Suspending Disbelief. This occasionally profound experience follows performance artist Stelarc, a Cyprus-born Australian artist who was raised in the suburbs of Melbourne and found a path towards exploring mortality, death, and what it means to be alive through artwork that many might consider extreme or provocative, but for this pain-experiencing audience member, I found his artwork all embracing in its presentation of discomfort and finding peace within that space.Those things, and many more, sit behind this conversation with Richard Moore, recorded ahead of the documentaries screenings at Perth's Revelation Film Festival on 9th and 11th of July, and the Castlemaine Documentary Festival on 4 July 2025. Links are in the show notes for both festivals.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and

On this episode of physical media reviews, Nadine Whitney & Andrew F Peirce delve into some of the major releases from Umbrella Entertainment. They kick off the discussion looking at Jamie Blanks Ozploitation throw back gorno flick Storm Warning, before taking a darker dive into the mammoth New Extremity Collection which features High Tension, Anatomy of Hell, Frontier(s), and Martyrs. Finally, they dive into one of the must have physical releases of the year, Tarsem's The Fall.Physical media copies were provided by Umbrella Entertainment for honest reviews.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We’d also love it if you could rate and review u

On this episode of the Curb review podcast, Nadine Whitney takes us deep into the realm of fighting flamethrowers with the oddly titled From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, before whisking us away into the land of dragon fantasy with the live-action spin on How to Train Your Dragon, before she takes Andrew to a remote shark expedition in Queensland with Dangerous Animals.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We’d also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daniel Bibby's short film Half Past Midnight follows two strangers - Harper (Miah Madden) and Marcus (Mitchell Bourke) - who meet in a cinema and decide to head out for drinks after the screening. In the bar, their relationship is revealed to be something more, something where romance once flourished, a romance that is now withering, yet for both Harper and Marcus, it feels as if it's still in reach.There's a tenderness to Half Past Midnight, one that underpins the films understanding of two adults growing to realise that the person they thought was 'the one' is not exactly that anymore. It's written by Daniel Bibby and Kelly Holden, and comes from Daniel's own experiences with a partner he had when he was living in the UK.This episode features two conversations; the first is an extensive dive into Daniel's work, his influences, what it was like working with producer Luisa Martiri, and how he navigated the deeply personal narrative and worked his way alongside Kelly to bring it to life on screen. The second c

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We’d also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Harley Hefford and Luke Thomas are two thirtysomething Naarm-Melbourne based creatives who have a background in events, festivals, and bars. Their latest endeavour is an art community spread over ten floors in a new creative space in Collingwood located in the iconic Easey's building, best known for the train carriages that sit on its rooftop. In the following chat, Harley and Luke talk about the foundation of Trainscendence, which kicks off with a two day grand opening experience on Friday 20 June and Saturday 21 June 2025, featuring a Monopoly style event full of live art, music, food, and drinks spread out the venue. If you're keen to find out more about Trainscendence or are an artist who is keen to book in, then visit Trainscendence.com.au for more info, or reach out to the crew via info@trainscendence.com.au Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just li

As I tell Gabrielle in the following interview, when a new Gabrielle Brady film emerges into the world, it is like the arrival of a gift, one that pulls us into a mindset of considering the lives of others, including those of the crabs of Christmas Island, or maybe the horses of the Gobi Desert. It's one that encourages us to see the world of truth differently. That notion of truth is something I've asked filmmakers a lot lately, and I'm conscious of its almost accusatory nature, as if documentary filmmaking must adhere to one True Reality. But it's impossible. The truth can never be captured on screen, and truth is in itself a falsity. After all, as soon as you put a camera on an event, or slice it with an editing suite, or apply a score to it, you are skewing reality away from the truth. Documentary storytelling is, by its own creation, not the truth. Yet, the emotions that we're left with and the memories that linger in our mind after the film has long played out, become a source of truth. Yet, as I slip i

Zoe Pepper mines the generational wealth divide for all its worth in the acidic WA-made comedy Birthright. Cory (a perfectly cast deadpan Travis Jeffery) and his very pregnant wife Jasmine (an equally deadpan and delightful Maria Angelico) are getting the shaft from their rental. Stuffed in more ways than one, they load up all they can into the boot of their car and trundle off to the sanctuary of mum and dad, Cory's baby-boomer parents, Richard and Lyn (pitch perfect casting of Michael Hurst and Linda Cropper).Cory's parents live in a swanky abode in a leafy green suburb somewhere in Perth. Their house has more rooms than they need, with costly, barely used furniture swaddled in sheets and blankets to protect them from dust. Their home feels, well, a little soulless, like the misused result of decades of wealth accumulation; by any other name they might be called 'hoarders'.I couldn't help but unleash my praise on Zoe in the following interview, one which explores the foundations of the film, its relevance t

Judith Hancock has always felt that was different from her siblings. Having spent her youth in boarding schools, Judith felt disconnected from her family in more ways than just distance. When she returned home from boarding school, she spent most of her time with children from an orphanage where her father worked.Judith felt other aspects of difference in her family that caused her to wonder whether she was adopted - her siblings were much older than she was, and her mother was not particularly caring or loving. This lingering lack of closure for Judith was amplified after her mother passed away with the question of Judith's parental connection never being truly resolved.Judith is now 87, and with the support of her grandson, Archie Hancock, and his creative filmmaking partner Jack Zimmerman, she is given the opportunity to have that discussion in the documentary short film The 'Conversation'. This dramatic short film plays out like a cinematic sibling to the work of Kitty Green, notably her impressive 2017 f

I remember sitting in the Mercury at the Adelaide Film Festival and watching Unspoken and getting to see a rare talent emerge on screen in the form of Kat Dominis. Her lead performance left me moved, shaken, and stunned by the depth of emotions she presented on screen. As the credits rolled, I saw she was the co-writer of this award-winning short film, a credit she shares with Mariana Rudan and director Damian Walshe-Howling. Unspoken is a story about family, it's a story about division, and it's a story built on intergenerational trauma.Kat plays Marina, a Croatian born young woman living with her family in 1979. She's in a secret relationship with a white Aussie man, with the two keeping the relationship hidden from her parents. Marina's brothers also live under the same house, with the two brothers falling into the political unrest that unfurls on the streets of Sydney in the form of protests and demonstrations. Acting as a thematic layer to Unspoken is the true story of the Croatian Six; six Croatian-Aust

Amalie Atkins loving documentary Agatha's Almanac follows Agatha Bock, Amalie's aunt, as she lives her life on a farm in southern Manitoba, tending to the vegetables, beans, and the soil. She preserves the heirloom seeds she has nurtured and maintained for decades, connecting her to her families past, and tenderly supporting herself using traditional methods. Agatha is also 90 years old, with her connection to the soil being a life-enriching experience.The charm of the film not only comes from Agatha's connection to her farming skills, but also from the various stories about her life that she tells. Whether it's the different suitors who have proposed to her over the years, or an accident that she had while tending to a window, or in one poignant moment, her memories of her siblings who have passed, Agatha's stories show a life fully lived with love, sadness, and joy.Agatha's Almanac is shot on 16-mm film, creating a warm, tangible feeling that lingers through every frame. The kiss of the sun on a cold day is

Queensland: Beautiful one day, deadly the next! For American drifter Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) the gorgeous Gold Coast supplies her with great surfing and anonymity where she can leave her dark past behind. For psychopathic fisherman Tucker (Jai Courtney) the ocean provides him with a living, but his real interest lie in dying: the death of those he reels on to his boat to feed the sharks.Sean Byrne’s Dangerous Animals harkens back to Ozsploiation in the best way. It’s brutal, quick paced, and one hell of a survival horror. Sharks plus serial killer – the perfect bait for Aussie entertainment.Nadine Whitney spoke with Jai Courtney, Sean Byrne, and Hassie Harrison about dipping their toes into shark infested waters.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially su

Director Justin Kurzel has crafted a filmography built on exploring the impact of trauma and violence on a nation. Whether it be his excoriating debut film Snowtown or the acts of cautionary storytelling with Nitram and The Order, Kurzel’s work questions how violence and trauma lingers in our bodies, our minds, and in our lands. That’s a notion that he explores with impressive strength with his first foray into documentary filmmaking, Ellis Park.There’s catharsis in Ellis Park, partially because of Warren Ellis and his healing violin, but – as the man says himself – his presence is minimal compared to the presence of Femke and the conservationists. Yet, when paired with Kurzel and editor Nick Fenton, they collectively bring light to a horrifying trade that scars the environment. I’m shaken by Ellis Park because of its presentation of trauma, but equally so for its depiction of empathy, consideration, and support.This is, oddly, my first time talking to Justin Kurzel. Having listened to and read countless inte

There's a delirious level of dark comedy that thrives in the new short film DIY from director Tony Gardiner and writer Lachlan Marks. A woman, played with a disarming ease by Claire Lovering, is mourning the passing of her dog. As she drills into the wall to hang up a picture of her pup, she is surprised to find blood coming out of the hole. Heading to the other side of the wall, she finds the dead body - the first of the dilemmas she encounters. The next is Damon Herriman's organised crime cleaner. From here, DIY unfurls in a delirious level of bleak comedy that splashes the audience with acidity as we're invited to laugh along with the depths that Tony and Lachlan's characters fall into.I caught up with Tony and Lachlan ahead of DIYs screenings at both the St Kilda Film Festival on 8 June and the Sydney Film Festival on 14 June, where the film is a finalist in the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films. In the following interview, Tony and Lachlan talk about their collaborative approach to horror-comedy fi

Chad Freidrichs is a documentarian who has crafted a filmography built with a series of fringe stories that unveil fascinating narratives that exist just outside the periphery of normalcy. His first feature doc, Jandek on Corwood, sees a reclusive folk and blues musician gain a following, all the while he never truly engages with his followers fascination with his work. In 2011, Chad crafted the ethnographic documentary The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, which looks at the urban racism that existed in social housing in St Louis. Then, in 2017, with The Experimental City, Chad explores the rise and fall of societal ideas as witnessed with The Minnesota Experimental City, a grand vision that was never truly realised.Each of these stories have paved the way for his latest film, The Cinema Within, an exploration into the way editing works. Chad explores the language of cinema with Walter Murch, whose book In the Blink of an Eye equally explores the role blinking plays in editing, and also scholar David Bordwell who explores t

Part of why Coming & Going feels like a quiet revolution of a film is the manner that Andy presents vulnerability, loneliness, and tenderness on screen. 'Baby, you are gonna miss that plane' is what Julie Delpy said to Ethan Hawke as she danced in the climax of Before Sunset, creating one of cinemas finest romantic moments. Andy pulls from the echo of that scene, creating the pivotal moment within Coming & Going with a scene that has Harry taking a guitar off the wall and playing a song for Julian, gifting his momentary boyfriend lyrics and a tune that will exist only in that moment and only for him. Moments. They're what memories are made out of. They're anchor points in time which we stare endlessly at as we walk backwards into the future, its impact having forever changed how we form new memories in our present.Part of why Coming & Going feels like a quiet revolution of a film is the manner that Andy presents vulnerability, loneliness, and tenderness on screen. 'Baby, you are gonna miss that pl

Matthew Rankin is a Canadian filmmaker who hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His work, which includes the acclaimed award-winning 2019 feature The Twentieth Century, has often been called 'experimental' or a slice of 'absurdist comedy'. That's partially true, but I'd go a step further and say that there's a touch of humanist storytelling to his work, one that's crafted from a globalist perspective. That mindset is accentuated with Rankin's latest film, the tender and superb Universal Language, a Canadian film where characters speak in Persian rather than English or French, where a guide shows a group of bored tourists the banal sites of Winnipeg, where turkey shop owners wear pink cowboy hats, and where two young kids, Negin (played by Rojinia Esmaeili) and Nazgol (played by Saba Vahedyousefi), find money frozen in ice and seek a way to retrieve it so they can buy their classmate a new pair of glasses.This is our world knocked off its axis ever so slightly. It's a place which is familiar, yet distinctly differen