Acquaintances Ray (Fergus Wilson) and Alice (Emma Diaz) bump into each other in Brisbane, discover they’re both about to drive back to Sydney and decide to stop along the way for a night of camping—one of the first of many unexpected detours in Friends and Strangers, a fresh, funny and unorthodox rarity of an arthouse comedy. The title of this 2021 Rotterdam premiere gives some indication of how writer-director-editor James Vaughan’s feature debut unfolds: it takes some time to discern that Ray is the film’s main subject, as he keeps encountering new people and the film seems like it could go […]
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/25/2022
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Acquaintances Ray (Fergus Wilson) and Alice (Emma Diaz) bump into each other in Brisbane, discover they’re both about to drive back to Sydney and decide to stop along the way for a night of camping—one of the first of many unexpected detours in Friends and Strangers, a fresh, funny and unorthodox rarity of an arthouse comedy. The title of this 2021 Rotterdam premiere gives some indication of how writer-director-editor James Vaughan’s feature debut unfolds: it takes some time to discern that Ray is the film’s main subject, as he keeps encountering new people and the film seems like it could go […]
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post 39 Shooting Days and One Year of Editing: James Vaughan on Friends and Strangers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/25/2022
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Production has begun in Sydney on the television drama “After the Verdict,” with Michelle Lim Davidson and Tess Haubrich joining the cast.
The six-part series follows four people who have just finished jury duty on a high-profile murder trial. As they return to normal life, they begin to question their verdict and take matters into their own hands, investigating the murder themselves.
The show was created, written and executive produced by Subtext Pictures’ Ellie Beaumont and Drew Proffitt. The completed series will premiere on the 9Network in Australia with Entertainment One (eOne) handling international sales. The production also received major investment from federal body Screen Australia in association with region screen agency Screen Nsw.
Lim Davidson (“The Newsreader”) and Haubrich (“Wolf Creek”) join the previously announced Sullivan Stapleton, Magda Szubanski and Lincoln Younes in the show’s main cast. Other roles go to Virginia Gay (“Judy and Punch”), Emma Diaz...
The six-part series follows four people who have just finished jury duty on a high-profile murder trial. As they return to normal life, they begin to question their verdict and take matters into their own hands, investigating the murder themselves.
The show was created, written and executive produced by Subtext Pictures’ Ellie Beaumont and Drew Proffitt. The completed series will premiere on the 9Network in Australia with Entertainment One (eOne) handling international sales. The production also received major investment from federal body Screen Australia in association with region screen agency Screen Nsw.
Lim Davidson (“The Newsreader”) and Haubrich (“Wolf Creek”) join the previously announced Sullivan Stapleton, Magda Szubanski and Lincoln Younes in the show’s main cast. Other roles go to Virginia Gay (“Judy and Punch”), Emma Diaz...
- 1/18/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
James Vaughan’s feature debut touches on Australian history and colonialism in an admirable cinematic experiment
Australian writer-director James Vaughan’s debut feature is a strange exercise in tone and atmosphere. For sure, there are characters who wander around and do stuff – but almost nothing of consequence happens. This film is almost aggressively deadpan and oblique, to a degree that’s almost admirable so long as you feel it’s worth spending 82 minutes of your time watching a cinematic experiment. As one of the characters, a videographer in his 20s named Ray (Fergus Wilson), says about his work: “It’s all real, unless none of it is. It’s all smoke and mirrors.” Indeed, Smoke and Mirrors would be just as good a title, and about as randomly appropriate as the generic title it has already.
In the early section, Ray wanders around Sydney with a young woman named Alice...
Australian writer-director James Vaughan’s debut feature is a strange exercise in tone and atmosphere. For sure, there are characters who wander around and do stuff – but almost nothing of consequence happens. This film is almost aggressively deadpan and oblique, to a degree that’s almost admirable so long as you feel it’s worth spending 82 minutes of your time watching a cinematic experiment. As one of the characters, a videographer in his 20s named Ray (Fergus Wilson), says about his work: “It’s all real, unless none of it is. It’s all smoke and mirrors.” Indeed, Smoke and Mirrors would be just as good a title, and about as randomly appropriate as the generic title it has already.
In the early section, Ray wanders around Sydney with a young woman named Alice...
- 11/8/2021
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Nothing happens in James Vaughn’s Friends and Strangers in the same way that nothing happens in the films of Hong Sangsoo. The people navigating this entrancing debut feature (a lively pantheon of Australian twenty-somethings plus the occasional grownup proper) meet and talk; couples come together and drift apart; plans are shared and swiftly abandoned. But even a non-event can have its own sense of happening, and even a maze of chance encounters can reveal its own intelligent design. Populated by young adults fumbling after a coherent identity, Friends and Strangers behaves like them. It is a film of detours, digressions, and everyday surrealism––one that draws its unsettling allure from the angst that comes when you realize the path you’ve walked along isn’t paved anymore, and the future you’re venturing into will be entirely your own making.
At the center of it is Ray (Fergus Wilson). A videographer in his twenties,...
At the center of it is Ray (Fergus Wilson). A videographer in his twenties,...
- 2/15/2021
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.