Black Cab: 明 (Akira) (2017)

For their fifth studio album, Melbourne-based electronica band Black Cab pay direct tribute to Katsuhiro Otomo's legendary 1988 anime feature Akira. In a project that commenced as a live in-cinema performance, they now distil the melodies and rhythms developed there into a full-length album. You won't be able to whack it into a CD player and play it in sync with the actual movie, but you can slip on a pair of headphones and imagine a 45-minute long cyberpunk film of your very own.

The immediate surprise is how much the album sounds like Blade Runner, rather than Akira. Its extended use of drawn-out synthesiser notes immediately remind you of Vangelis rather than Akira composer Geinoh Yamashirogumi. Even at the base melody level there is a sense that the band is often only one misplaced note away from a Blade Runner cover version. That is not necessarily a bad thing - Blade Runner boasts one of the best movie scores of all time - but it's a surprise when one expects to hear an aural tribute to another 1980s cyberpunk film.

Gods of Egypt (2016)

Set (Gerard Butler), the god of the desert, betrays his own family at the coronation of his brother Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). He kills his own parents, blinds Horus, and assumes control over all of Egypt. A year later, a thief named Bek (Brenton Thwaites) sets out on a quest to save Horus and save all of Egypt from Set's rule.

Gods of Egypt was released about a year ago to some mild controversy over casting Caucasian actors as Egyptian gods and people, and to a wave of fiercely negative reviews by critics around the world. The film's director, Alex Proyas, took a great amount of offence at the critical response, calling the entire profession a pack of 'diseased vultures' and generally carrying on in a deeply embarrassing manner. His primary accusation was that most critics published negative reviews because most critics wanted to ensure they sided with the popular consensus: that critics basically all tow the same party line instead of judging individual films on their merits.

Whether that's true or not (spoiler: it isn't) I can at least attest to being a regular holder of minority opinions. When other critics thought John Carter was a terrible film, I said - and continue to maintain - it was great. When most critics hailed La La Land as one of 2016's best films, I found it rather mediocre. Alien 3 remains my favourite Alien film. So with my fiercely independent hat on, with a love for ambition in big-budget effects pictures over how much they actually succeed, I can say this: Gods of Egypt is a terrible film.

We Lost the Sea: Departure Songs (2015)

We Lost the Sea are an instrumental prog-rock band based in Sydney. Departure Songs is their most recent album, released in 2015, and I have to say from the outset that this is the single-best album I have heard for the first time this year. I purchased the CD at a concert when they were supported Finnish metal band Apocalyptica, and I've had the disc on pretty constant rotation ever since. This is an epic recording, dealing with grand themes in a huge, near-overwhelming fashion.

Upon first inspection it seems like Departure Songs is more of an EP than a full album, since it only lists five tracks. What the sleeve doesn't tell you is just how long these tracks are. The album as a whole is more than an hour long. The central track, "Challenger - Flight", is 23 minutes or more on its own. That might sound pretentious, but the truth is every track on this album earns its length. There's a level of intensity and emotion that you can only reach with a slow, measured build and a grand, extended climax.

Top Knot Detective (2016)

Remember Ronin Suirui Tantei? It was known as Top Knot Detective here in Australia, when it had a brief TV run in the early 1990s. Today it's one of those weird cult phenomenons: unknown by the majority, but loved perhaps a little too much by a small but ridiculously dedicated audience. The series kicked off as a samurai drama - known in Japan as a 'jidai-geki' - before expanding into one of the weirdest science fiction shows every made.

Still not ringing a bell? That's probably because Top Knot Detective isn't real. That hasn't stopped it from being the subject of a feature-length documentary of the same name by Western Australian filmmakers Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce. For Australian audiences it airs on SBS2 tonight. For international readers, I can only implore you to check out this outstanding comedy as soon as you are legally able. This is a stunning - not to mention stunningly original - piece of Australian filmmaking.

The Bombay Royale: You Me Bullets Love (2012)

The Bombay Royale is an 11-piece independent pop group based in Melbourne, Australia. The group was formed in 2010 by musician Andy Williamson, and it was initially devoted to performing covers of songs from 1960s and 1970s Bollywood movies. They rapidly segued into writing and performing original songs, albeit ones overwhelmingly inspired by the kind of popular Indian music they were covering.

They really are a band you need to see live, given they not only sing songs but enthusiastically perform them. Lead singers Parvyn Kaur Singh and Shourov Bhattacharya front the Bombay Royale with a surfeit of energy and personality. The nine musicians are each clothed in a different weird fancy dress - one a ship captain, one a masked bandit, and so on. They blend Indian popular music with funk, surf rock and even elements of disco. In short they are a near-perfect multicultural party band, well-suited to be lined up at the next festive gathering before jumping to the dance floor.

Frog Dreaming (1985)

Cody (Henry Thomas) is an orphaned American teenager living with his guardian in country Australia. When he stumbles upon Donkegin Pond in the middle of the bush, and learns about its purported monstrous inhabitant, he cannot help from investigating - even if it means getting himself and his friends into trouble, or even risking his life.

Frog Dreaming is an Australian children's film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, who took over the production mid-shoot when its investors demanding the firing of original director Russell Hagg. It featured young American actor Henry Thomas, best known for his lead performance in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, in an attempt to gain some international sales. While it did achieve those sales it received something of a haphazard international release, retitled The Quest in the USA and The Go-Kids in the United Kingdom. More recently it has become something of a half-forgotten nostalgia piece for Australian thirty-somethings, and thanks to a DVD release from Umbrella Entertainment its fans finally have a chance to see it again.

Gallipoli (1981)

Peter Weir's 1981 war drama Gallipoli is a stunning film, widely acclaimed and rightfully considered today to be one of Australia's all-time best. It is many things at once: a historical account of a military campaign, a personal drama about two young men's friendship, and a powerful comment on the futility of war. It is one of those rare films that I think everybody should aim to see at least once. If you are like most viewers, that one viewing will not be forgotten in a hurry.

The films opens in 1915. Mark Lee plays Archie Hamilton, an eighteen year-old sprinter dazzled by the propaganda that is pulling young men across Western Australia into fighting in the Great War. At a racing event he meets Frank Dunne (Mel Gibson), a hard-up former railway worker. Together they make the journey from the country into Perth, where Archie persuades Frank to join him in enlisting for the war. After training in Egypt, they are then dispatched to the Turkish coast for an advance against the enemy at Anzac Cove.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

I have never been a particularly keen fan of the Mad Max films. It's not that I don't appreciate their quality - it's eminently possible to appreciate the quality of art without actually enjoying it. For whatever reason, and despite being a fan of both action and science fiction, I have never emotionally responded to explosive car chases through deserts with angry men wearing funny leather costumes. Call it a blind spot if you like, or a personal failing. Mad Max has simply never been my cup of tea.

It was quite a surprise to see director/producer George Miller's interminably delayed fourth film Mad Max: Fury Road actually get filmed and make it to cinemas. He had been developing it for so long that it was originally going to star original Max actor Mel Gibson. What was even more surprising was how well received this fourth film was. It was a reasonable commercial hit, but critics went crazy for it. The National Board of Review even named it the best film of 2015. Reliable friends were telling me it was an amazing film, and a cinematic master work. Despite not really caring about the franchise in the slightest, the sheer weight of acclaim made me feel obliged to give it a shot.

Wyrmwood (2015)

Barry (Jay Gallagher) is an auto mechanic living in rural Australia with his wife and daughter. Barry's sister Brooke (Bianca Bradley) is a photographer in Bulla Bulla. When a strange meteor shower falls over the country, and the population are mostly transformed into zombies, Barry goes on a mission to get to Bulla Bulla and rescue his sister before she is killed.

Wyrmwood is an Australian zombie movie written by Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner and directed by Kiah. It's an absolute riot: cheaply produced, paced like a runaway freight train and packed with extreme violence, gore, horror and humour. It is the latest film in a long, rich tradition of such films, made in Australia on shoestring budgets and generally referred to as "Ozploitation".

The film actually has its work cut out for it: it's a zombie movie, and that's a genre of horror film that doesn't lack for product. It's almost the default genre for a low-budget filmmaker, and as a result it has become harder and harder for prospective writers and directors to pinpoint a fresh angle on the material. It's actually really easy to make a zombie movie, but it's genuinely hard to make one that people will actually notice.

The Babadook (2014)

Amelia (Essie Davis), a widowed nurse working in an old people's home, lives alone with her troubled son Samuel. He believes that monsters are under his bed, but unlike most children he's taken his fear one step further: constructing genuinely dangerous traps and weapons with which to fight his imaginary predators. One night Samuel finds a mysterious hand-made pop-up book on his shelf titled Mr Babadook. The problems with monsters in the night only get worse from there.

The Babadook is a South Australian horror film written and director by Jennifer Kent. It was a small cult success in Australia, but subsequently gained enormous critical acclaim as it toured film festivals around the world. It recently was co-winner of this year's AACTA Award for Best Picture, and also won Jennifer Kent Best Director and Best Screenplay. If you like to keep up with the world's most acclaimed horror films - and I certainly do - then The Babadook is the clear must-see movie from 2014.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Cannon Films were a mainstay of Hollywood in the 1980s, producing a seemingly endless string of low-grade, comparatively shoddy sequels and D-movies. The story of the company, its films and the two producers - Menaheim Golan and Yoram Globus - at its core now form the basis of a new Australian documentary, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films. Its director Mark Hartley has already established a strong reputation for filmmaking documentaries, including Not Quite Hollywood (about Australian exploitation cinema) and Machete Maidens Unleashed (about Filipino exploitation cinema).

I had always intended on checking Hartley's documentaries out, so when MIFF announced the world premiere of Electric Boogaloo I jumped at the chance to do so. It certainly doesn't lack for interview subjects, with Hartley and his crew speaking to a wide range of actors, writers and directors including Boaz Davidson, Alex Winter, Richard Chamberlain, Tobe Hooper, Sybil Danning and many, many others.

Dead Europe (2012)

Dead Europe is an Australian drama by way of "Orpheus in the Underworld": a dark, oppressive, ruthlessly unpleasant odyssey for an Australian photographer travelling to Athens to scatter his father's ashes. It is a relentlessly grim and cruel vision of back streets and run-down apartment blocks, where criminals lurk around every corner and the entire continent seemed positively dripping with superstition and anti-Semitism.

The film is directed by Tony Krawitz, whose 2005 short feature Jewboy was pretty much that year's best Australian movie. It is adapted from the novel by Cristos Tsiolkas, whose works have already been adapted for the screen several times - most recently in the acclaimed TV drama The Slap. The film reunites Krawitz with his Jewboy star Ewen Leslie, an exceptional actor who really deserves to be a lot better known than he is. I adored Leslie's performance in Jewboy, and he was one of the few highlights of the Sydney Theatre Company's interminable The War of the Roses a few years back. Here he plays Isaac, a gay Greek-Australian photographer whose attempt to put his father to rest opens up some gaping wounds in his family history. Terrible things happen, and to an extent they only happen because Isaac keeps asking the questions no one wants him to ask.

Daily Links: 14 May 2014

I read a lot of geek-related news on the Internet each day, and so I figured it was probably about time to start throwing together links to the most interesting things I see each day. I used to do this occasionally as "Odds'n'Sods", but just flat-out calling it "Daily Links" makes it a lot clearer what these posts will be about.

• Snyder debuts new Batman. Director Zack Snyder has posted the first official photograph of Ben Affleck as Batman, along with his Batmobile, from the forthcoming Batman vs Superman movie. The cowl is visibly inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which matches the older, more grizzled Batman that Snyder has been hinting at for some time. (link)

Five Questions for Lee Battersby

I first encountered Lee Battersby by reading one of short stories. I then met him a few weeks later at a science fiction convention, and I'm very pleased to be able to call him my friend. I'm also in the weird position where I have been his friend for almost exactly as long as I have been a fan of his writing. I've read his short fiction, including his excellent solo collection Through Soft Air, and now I'm immensely happy to be able to read his debut novel, The Corpse-Rat King (available now from Angry Robot).

I'm halfway through the book at the moment, and enjoying it immensely. Lee is exceptionally good at juggling humour and horror - not the "ooh, ahh, vampires and werewolves" kind of horror, the "ah! ah! fetch me the mind soap!" kind - and that talent is boldly on display here. A sequel novel is due early next year, I can't imagine how Lee won't have a long, lucrative career ahead of him. If the nicest thing for a writer is to succeed, the second nicest thing is to see a deserving friend succeed - and succeeding he certainly is. This past weekend I asked Lee five questions.

Your debut novel The Corpse-Rat King has recently been published by Angry Robot Books. I'm struck by its grit: for me fantasy is often a genre of beautiful mountain vistas, rival aristocratic houses and enormous wars. Your book seems to be the opposite of that: the battle seems to be over at the start of the book, half the aristocrats are dead, and the story itself seems caked in mud and shit from the first page. Was this a deliberate attempt to find a different approach to the genre, or were there other inspirations?

"I guess you could say my inspirations are the opposite of what you read in the book - the novel was written in frustration at all those soft-focus phat phantasies that seem to say "Weren't medieval times just so grand and flowery and wasn't it great when we had Kings and nobles to do all our thinking for us so we could get on with the task of being jolly yeomen?". I wanted to write something foul and smelly and with dirt jammed so far under its fingernails that they split. And then my absurdist self snuck into the process while I wasn't looking and kind of subverted that aim too, so I ended up with something partway between all of it."

Three links.

• Award-winning horror author and podcaster Kirstyn McDermott writes a lengthy but exceptional review of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods. This is the sort of blog post Australian SF fans should remember come Ditmar time next year. (Note: it completely spoils the movie.)
• Similarly award-winning author and podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts is writing about her favourite female superheroes. Black Canary and Rogue are already up, with (I presume) many more to come.

Songstress Sian Brown goes to Europe

A very talented friend from my undergraduate days is raising money for her European tour. I've just pledged $15 in her direction, which scores me a copy of her upcoming EP. If you're in a mood to support the arts, quality independent music and cool Western Australians, check out her Pozible page and consider pledging yourself.