The Drama

Official Australian release date: 2/4/26. Viewed: 19/4/26.
Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Actors: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie
Genre: Drama / Romance
Rating: MA

‘The Drama’ certainly has plenty of it’s namesake, but starts as a standard rom-com, when Charlie (Pattinson) meets Emma (Zendaya) and we get a montage to catch-up to their wedding week. Then, at the pre-wedding dinner selection with the best man and maid of honour, Mike (Athie) & Rachel (Haim), they play a game of “what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” Up until this point, it’s pretty formulaic, then everything is turned on it’s head when Emma’s too truthful in her answer.

The moral dilemma that confronts Charlie has a pretty obvious answer – no spoilers what Emma’s secret is – and he spirals as he tries to grasp how to deal with it. The tension is high as they proceed with their wedding-week obligations. It’s not excoriating, but is difficult to watch in parts – credit to Zendaya & Pattinson, who are both solid.

The soundtrack is good, but the score is a bit annoying. It’s not too long at 1 hour 45min, but the final act drama at the wedding, where a few things happen, was a bit too contrived and not as shocking or over-the-top as I thought it could’ve gone. There’s some humour, but not really many laughs.

Overall: Unfortunately didn’t land for me

Gav’s Rating: 2.5 stars

Hoppers

Official Australian release date: 26/3/26. Viewed: 6/4/26.
Director: Daniel Chong
Actors: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Dave Franco
Genre: Comedy / Sci-Fi
Rating: PG

‘Hoppers’ is a classic body-swap comedy, that just happens to be a Pixar animated animals-talking film too. We learn early on that Mabel (Curda) is an animal activist and connects with nature via a glade out the back of her Grandma’s house. When she’s at university, she finds Dr Sam (Najimy) experimenting with transferring human consciousness into robotic animals – they make sure to give ‘Avatar’ a shout out!

From there, Mabel in the form of a beaver enlists the other animals to help fight Mayor Jerry (Hamm) and his plan to bulldoze the glade for a highway. How Mabel’s introduced to beaver, King of the Mammal, George (Moynihan) is pretty good and almost a little dark for a kids film! But it’s then topped by what Mabel does with the Insect Queen (Streep), which was hilarious. Once the animal kingdom council figure out they need to stop Jerry, led by the Insect King (Franco, full maniacal) we get some true high-stakes and high-stakes final act.

Mabel is infectious and great to have her in beaver-form for most of the film, and the support-cast animals, especially the bear and lizard, are great. But it’s King George and his message of coexistence and hope that cuts through. Very nice ending, but plenty of laughs throughout for kids and adults. Even if they somehow got a flying shark in there!

Overall: Strong Pixar comedy with message

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Project Hail Mary

Official Australian release date: 19/3/26. Viewed: 21/3/26.
Directors: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Actors: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: M

‘Project Hail Mary’ is a hopeful and semi-believable sci-fi film, based on Any Weir’s excellent novel. It takes the problem-solving of ‘The Martian’ to another level, this time with Ryland Grace (Gosling) waking up in deep space and then having to overcome his temporary amnesia to figure out how to save the sun from the “astrophage” disease. The flashbacks fill-in the gaps as things progress, and we learn how a school teacher ends up working with Stratt (Huller) & Carl (Boyce) as part of the global taskforce trying to figure out how the astrophage works and save the sun/Earth/solar system.

Therefore, most of the film takes space onboard the Hail Mary spaceship, with Grace talking to cameras that are recording him, until an alien spaceship finds him – very impressive CGI and design on that ship. How Grace meets Rocky, the alien who looks like a spider-made-from-rocks, and learns to communicate with him and then code a translator (Rocky’s voiced by Ortiz) is handled well and is both fun and unique. The friendly alien concept isn’t often explored in non-kid films, so it’s good to see. The CGI is very impressive, and not overwhelming, but the scene at the mostly-green planet is amazing.

The score is strong, and due to Rocky and Grace being able to talk to each other, there’s plenty of jokes and funny moments, with a fun buddy-film element. There’s obviously some drama and life-or-death moments that bring gravitas to things. Some of the ‘how’ is skipped over compared to the novel, but it’s mostly faithful, and does well to cram so much into the 2.5 hours, whilst never feeling boring. Excellent ending, and wouldn’t be surprised if Gosling gets an Oscar nomination.

Overall: Brilliantly executed sci-fi journey

Gav’s Rating: 4.5 stars

Cold Storage

Official Australian release date: 12/3/26. Viewed: 15/3/26.
Director: Jonny Campbell
Actors: Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Liam Neeson, Lesley Manville
Genre: Comedy/Horror
Rating: MA

‘Cold Storage’ is a quick and fun zombie-comedy, but more from the prevention/start angle, rather than the ‘Zombieland’ overrun angle. We start in Western Australia, where a bit of space debris has a mutating fungus, and Robert (Neeson) & Trini (Manville) are called in to deal with it. Stuff happens, and it’s then put in literal cold storage in Colorado. 20 years later, and Teacake/Travis (Keery) and Naomi (Campbell) are working at the no-longer-military-facility that’s just storage lockers. What could go wrong?

While nothing particularly new happens, the CGI is solid and the infected animals/people quite grotesque. It effectively plays as a funnier episode of ‘The Last of Us’, with the infected not really being “zombies”, but rather short-term carriers. Keery is good and will be interesting if he can jump from ‘Stranger Things’ into more films. He brings a lot of the humour and energy, and has good chemistry with Campbell. Neeson is mostly a bit-player, but good to see him not doing ALL the stunts/saving-the-day!

Solid score and soundtrack, a few little jump scares, but definitely more comedy-horror than horror. Decent body count and all wrapped-up in under 100min. Pacing is mostly good and final third is action-packed.

Overall: Solid comedy/horror fun

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars

Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie

Official Australian release date: 20/2/26. Viewed: 1/3/26.
Director: Matt Johnson
Actors: Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol, Jared Raab, Ben Petrie
Genre: Comedy
Rating: M

‘Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie’ is a mockumentary comedy that is a continuation of a web/TV series that I’ve never seen, but that didn’t hinder it being very funny. A simple story of 2 friends, Matt (Johnson) & Jay (McCarrol) trying to find ways to get their band booked at a local venue (the Rivoli) in Toronto. A hilarious stunt involving the CN Tower kicks things off and they don’t really deescalate too much from there!

There’s some fourth-wall breaking, which works well with the documentary-style, as well as acknowledging the cameramen. Also some great use of CGI that you can’t really tell, especially from the top of the tower and when they interact with their 2008 selves. Oh yeah – that’s the main gist of this, it’s basically a ‘Back to the Future’ tribute, going as far as turning an RV into the Delorean and giving us the 2^nd and 3^rd acts.

The score and soundtrack are good, and it’s less 100min long, so pretty quick. For all the silly moments, it’s grounded in an authentic friendship that shines through. While the whole premise is absurd, it’s does well to feel almost-real. Plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, many from the flashbacks, and some good callbacks. All comes together in a very smart and satisfying conclusion.

Overall: Really fun time travel absurdity

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars

 

Send Help

Official Australian release date: 29/1/26. Viewed: 15/2/26.
Director: Sam Raimi
Actors: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel
Genre: Thriller / Comedy
Rating: MA

‘Send Help’ is a modern ‘Cast Away’, but with a bit more action and comedy. We meet Linda Liddle (McAdams) at a consulting job, working for Bradley Pearson (O’Brien), a typical Wall Street douche-bro, who promotes fellow douche Donovan (Samuel) over Linda. The film does well to make McAdams believably frumpish, and her colleagues distasteful, so when the plane crashes, you’re not too upset with the outcome! Her ‘Survivor’ applicant backstory obviously comes in handy, as her and Bradley try to survive on a remote island somewhere near Thailand.

There’s plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, as Raimi leans into the unhinged-ness and power-imbalance, where we’re never quite sure which way things are going to go between Linda & Bradley. The CGI boar was particularly fun, as was the over-the-top amounts of vomit. There’s some slow moments in the middle, but it keeps moving to an unpredictable ending. The only other actor with any real screentime is Bradley’s fiancée, Zuri (Ismail).

The Elfman score is great, and nice to see some Aussie beaches filling in for Thailand (and some road filling in for the USA). It’s not overly long at ~1 hour 45min. McAdams is great, and does well to evolve, rather than fully-transform, into the heroine, and O’Brien is good as well. Probably not as good as ‘Drag Me To Hell’ for mine, but treads the line of thriller & comedy well.

Overall: Another fun Raimi “who’ll survive”?

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars

We Bury The Dead

Official Australian release date: 5/2/26. Viewed: 8/2/26.
Director: Zak Hilditch
Actors: Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, Matt Whelan
Genre: Drama / Horror
Rating: MA

‘We Bury The Dead’ is an Australian zombie film, that doesn’t really focus on the zombie aspect and spends more time dealing with grief, sorrow and the relationship between Ava (Ridley) and Mitch (Whelan). The premise sounds great and a bit different = America accidentally lets off an experimental bomb near Tasmania, which kills every living animal, including humans, on the island. Then, some of those dead are reanimating, so the army sends down volunteers to literally clear and bury the dead.

Ava is paired with Clay (Thwaites), who makes sure to swear enough that we know he’s Australian, and they go about the grisly job of clearing house is Tassie’s north. The film does well to set-up the scenario and mood. When Ava and Clay head towards Hobart, we run into Riley (Coles Smith), who plays a very different character to Jay Swan. There’s lots of quiet & eerie moments, and a few gross ones, but nothing too violent/scary. We get a few more zombies in the last 30min or so, but not necessarily what you’re expecting.

There’s some good Aussie songs throughout, and it’s part road-trip film. But probably more focus on Ava & Mitch’s relationship via flashbacks than was needed. It’s certainly no ‘28 Years Later’, but doesn’t try to be. Reminiscent of Hilditch’s ‘These Final Hours’ – both try hard, but are a little slow. Nice to see Australian scenery and actors, but not sure why it was mostly filmed in WA if set in Tas? Odd ending, but in-line with the more melancholic vibe.

Overall: Different, more dramatic/less horrific, zombie film

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars