No. 021 - Sydney Underground Film Festival 2025

Watched by Matthew Donlan at Dendy Newtown:

Three quick reviews from the Sydney Underground Film Festival because this week has been BUSY!!

I Live Here Now (Julie Pacino, 2025)

In her feature directorial debut, Pacino crafts a Lynch-lite phantasmagorical horror with Rose (Lucy Fry) haunted by a childhood trauma, stalked by the domineering mother (Sheryl Lee) of her ex (Matt Rife) and trapped in an overwhelmingly rosy motel. While adept at crafting hallucinogenic visuals (some I wish it held on for longer) the story struggled to find its way as it went deeper into the labyrinth. The themes oscillated between on-the-nose and too subtle to add the depth needed to make an impactful experience.

Snatchers (Craig Alexander & Shelly Higgs, 2025)

Inspired (loosely) by the 1884 short story, 'The Body Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson, Snatchers follows two friends who see a way out of their debts by selling body parts of a recently deceased woman, only for her to come alive right before dissection. Billed as being set in an apocalyptic Canberra, Snatchers doesn't do much to place itself in that space, instead it's mostly contained to a garage unit and hospital halls. In these sets it creates a bottle-film brimming with tension and deception. It's a low-budget achievement with some funny moments.

Yellow House Afghanistan (George Gittoes, 2025)

In 1970 Albie Thoms, Martin Sharp, George Gittoes and several other artists established the Yellow House, an artist collective, in Sydney. Since then, Gittoes has continued the effort by spreading artistic creativity in war-torn regions and established a second Yellow House in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 2011. The difficulties in protecting the Yellow House after the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan are the focus of this documentary. It's fascinating subject matter but suffers from the constraints of a one-camera documentary. Moments feel staged and rehearsed, draining some of the authenticity of otherwise beautiful moments.

Fleapit Pick of the Week

Give yourself an Australian queer double feature with Went Up The Hill (Samuel Van Grinsven) and Lesbian Space Princess (Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese) both in cinemas this week. Critics are calling it 'Lesbian Up The Hill'!

Just Dropped

The full cinema line-up for SXSW Sydney (13-19 October) has been released with a stacked program. Headliner films include Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos) and Die, My Love (Lynne Ramsay), or check out the range of Aussie films including Pure Scum (Gideon Aroni) and Spreadsheet Champions (Kristina Kraskov). The full program is here.

Screenings: Thursday 18 September - Wednesday 24 September

Italian Film Festival | 18 September - 15 October
Somebody To Love (Paolo Genovese, 2025)
Opening Night
Thursday

Signorinella: Little Miss (Pricolo, McFadyen & Swan, 2025)
Director Q&A
Friday

La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino, 2025)
Centrepiece Premiere
Sunday

State Library NSW
Richard Leplastrier: Framing the View (Anna Cater, 2025)
Friday

Hayden Orpheum | selected highlights
Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)
Thursday

The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985)
Friday

But Also John Clarke (Lorin Clarke, 2025)
Saturday - Tuesday

The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965)
6oth Anniversary - 4K Restoration
Saturday, Sunday & Tuesday

The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978)
Sunday

Golden Age Cinema | selected highlights
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Coppola, Bahr & Hickenlooper, 1991)
Friday & Sunday

Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957)
Saturday

Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978)
Sunday

Lesbian Space Princess (Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese, 2025)
Tuesday

Ritz Cinemas, Randwick | selected highlights

Paul Thomas Anderson: One Banger After Another (link)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Thursday

There Will Be Blood (2007)
Friday

The Master (2012)
Saturday

Inherent Vice (2014)
Sunday

Phantom Thread (2017)
Monday

Licorice Pizza (2021)
Tuesday

One Battle After Another (2025)
Wednesday

Cult Classics (link)
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
Saturday & Monday

Celluloid Film (link)
Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
Friday

Classic Matinees (link)
King Kong (Merian C. Cooper, 1933)
Saturday & Monday

Make It Musical (link)
The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965)
Sunday & Wednesday

Meet Cute (link)
10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999)
Tuesday

Dendy Newtown | selected highlights
Went Up The Hill (Samuel Van Grinsven, 2025)
Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Tuesday

Lesbian Space Princess (Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese, 2025)
Daily

Kangaroo (Kate Woods, 2025)
Daily

Cells Out (link)
The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960)
Thursday

Cineversaries (link)
Braveheart (Mel Gibson, 1995)
Thursday & Saturday

Night Shift (link)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1985)
Daily

Palace Cinemas | selected highlights
But Also John Clarke (Lorin Clarke, 2025)
Daily

Kangaroo (Kate Woods, 2025)
Daily

Cult Vault (link)
Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
Monday

Matinee Memories (link)
Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)
Saturday

Art Gallery of NSW
Focus on queer 中文 cinema
East Palace, West Palace (Zhang Yuan, 1996)
Saturday

Brazil! Brazil! A century of cinema
Let me play the buffoon (Roberto Farias, 1957)
Sunday

The Guns (Ruy Guerra, 1964)
Wednesday