Writing on film & televsion

Why 1973 was the year Sidney Lumet took on police corruption, CrimeReads, March 23, 2023

Is Altman’s The Long Goodbye the Most overrated crime film of 1973? CrimeReads, March 23, 2023

Lost and Found: Top of the Heap, Sight and Sound, April 2023

Mr Inbetween: It’s time to appreciate the genius of this very Australian noir, CrimeReads, January 4, 2023

10 Underappreciated American neo-noirs of the early 1970s, CrimeReads, July 26, 2022

The Story of Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, and quite possibly the strangest American crime film of the 1970s, CrimeReads, June 16, 2022

50 years of Milano Calibre 9 and Italian cinema’s ultra noir poliziotteschi, CrimeReads, May 6, 2022

Ten underappreciated American noirs of the late 1950s and 1960s, CrimeReads, November 23, 2021

Fifty years later, looking back at the real-life crime network that inspired  The French Connection, CrimeReads, October 8, 2021

Fifty years later, Get Carter is still the iconic British gangster film, CrimeReads, March 18, 2021

Ghostly Messages: Australia’s Lost Horror Anthology, The Evil Touch, We Are the Mutants February 18, 2021

10 great Australian New Wave films, British Film Institute, April 16, 2020

MacKenna’s Gold (1969): gold, ghosts and frontier justice, Diabolique Magazine, April 4, 2020

The 10 best Australian Westerns, British Film Institute, February 28, 2020

The Lighthouse, Australian Book Review Arts Update, February 6, 2020

“The horror never leaves my mind.” Ian Sharp’s Who Dares Wins, We Are the Mutants, August 27, 2019

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, Australian Book Review Arts Update, August 2, 2019

Writers in Film, Writers Victoria, July 16, 2019

Suspiria, Australian Book Review, Arts Update, November 5, 2018

Wonderland, Australian Book Review, Arts Update, May 7, 2018

Ten great Australian crime films, British Film Institute, April 13, 2018

Surviving the Yuletide Season: Alcohol, Physical Affliction and Murder Down Under in The Evil Touch, Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film & Television, Spectacular Optical Publications, January 2018

50 years of POINT BLANK: five later thrillers that bend and fragment time, British Film Institute, August 30, 2017

Lost and Found: Uptight, Sight and Sound, March 2017

Lee Marvin: 10 essential films, British Film Institute, February 19, 2017

Jasper Jones, Australian Book Review Arts Update, February 10, 2017

Plastic surgery noir, Do Some Damage, December 13, 2016

Michael Powell in Australia: how the Peeping Tom director made waves down under, British Film Institute, October 12, 2016

The best war film ever made: the 50th anniversary of Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, Overland blog, September 8, 2016

10 great biker films, British Film Institute, September 2, 2016

Goldstone, Australian Book Review Arts Update, July 4, 2016

The Omen at 40 and the bloodline of occult cinema, British Film Institute, June 6, 2016

Review of ‘Scorsese’ at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Australian Book Review Arts Update, May 27, 2016

Thirst, 4:3 Film, April 11, 2016

Police Fictions (with Dean Brandum), Overland Magazine, Issue 222, Autumn, 2016

Better Undead, The Big Issue, March 29 – April 7, 2016

Stanley Baker: 10 essential films, British Film Institute, 26 February, 2016

The Spies Next Door, Overland blog, February 5, 2016

The Big Nowhere #5: Shield For Murder, 4:3 Film, December 9, 2015

A long time ago… On TV, The Big Issue, November 27 – December 10, 2015

The Big Nowhere #4: Naked Alibi, 4:3 Film, November 25, 2015

The Big Nowhere #3: Plunder Road, 4:3 Film, November 12, 2015

Spectre, Australian Review of Books Arts Update, November 7, 2015

The Big Nowhere #2: Crashout, 4:3 Film, October 28, 2015

Crime pays: UnderbellyHomicide and Blue Murder Metro Magazine, No. 183, 2015: 50-55

Bowie’s influence on Australian music, Australian Centre For the Moving Image, October 19, 2015

world apart: The outlaw Michael Howe, Metro Magazine, No. 181, 2014: 42-45

Empty Beaches: In Search of Australia’s Fictional Private Eyes, Los Angeles Review of Books, October 16, 2014

The Big Nowhere #1: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, 4:3 Film, October 14, 215

Return to The Last Wave, Overland blog, October 6, 2015

Macbeth, Australian Review of Books Arts Update, October 1, 2015

True Grip: why Westerns have a hold on us, The Big Issue, September 25 – October 8, 2015

Doctor who? Peter Cushing’s Dr Who and the Daleks turns 50, British Film Institute, August 23, 2015

The Hunger, Time Out Melbourne, August 22, 2015

Transmission: Legacies of the Television Age, Australian Review of Books, issue no 373, August 2015

Decoding dystopia, Overland blog, July 7, 2015

Transmission: Legacies of the Television Age, Australian Book Review Arts Update, June 15, 2015

Stayin’ alive: how repertory cinema lives on, Spook Magazine, June 7, 2015

Ten great dystopian Australian road films, British Film Institute, May 14, 2015

Leather & Chains: Mad Max’s Lasting Legacy, Spook Magazine, May 14, 2015

The weird & wonderful hidden history of the Logies, Spook Magazine, April 29, 2015

Flickering screens, Overland blog, April 27, 2015

The Ipcress File: The downbeat, alternative & gourmet 007 turns 50, Daily Review, March 20, 2015

Killing in the name of, Overland blog, February 9, 2015

Criss Cross: Hollywood remakes itself again, Daily Review, February 2, 2014

Television’s Homicide still casts its gritty shadow at 50, Daily Review, October 23, 2014

Jodorowsky’s Dune: A great film that was never made, Overland blog, September 1, 2014

Melbourne’s Micro Movie Scene, Time Out Melbourne, August 26, 2014

Backroads Noir in the Australian Outback: David Michôd’s The Rover, Los Angeles Review of Books, July 18, 2014

The business of nostalgia, Overland blog, May 22, 2014

The Cinema of Dystopia: “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)”, Shoot Farken, April 22, 2014

Grizzled detectives and women’s bodies, Overland blog, April 3, 2014

Wake In Fright: Dusty and Thirsty In the Outback, Criminal Element, March 9, 2014

The Beat(en) Generation: What Inside Llewyn Davis says about how we live now, Overland blog, February 12, 2014

Unearthing Two Rare Australian Noir Films, Contrappasso, November 2013

We need gangsters to get things done‘, Overland blog, August 8, 2013

One mistake is all it takes: the two versions of The Killers, Noir City, September, 2012

A new look at a modern classic: the ultimate revenge in OldBoy, 3rd Korean Film Festival in Australia blog, August 9, 2012

Asia Hand, Crime Factory, December 2011

Cop, Back Alley Noir, March 15, 2011

Heatwave, Back Alley Noir, February 22, 2010

House of Bamboo, back Alley Noir, November 1, 2010

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Back Alley Noir, September 27 2010

The Square, Back Alley Noir, July 26, 2011

Cutter’s Way, Back Alley Noir, March 15, 2011

Money Movers, a classic noir from Down Under, Back Alley Noir, June 7, 2010

Young and dangerous: two Thai crime films, Crime Factory, issue 4, July 2010