Your guide to new films in cinemas across Australia this week, 17 to 23 June 2024.
For the monthly guide to new film releases, head here.
New films in Australian cinemas this week, 17 to 23 June
20 June
Despicable Me 4
Gru welcomes a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who’s intent on tormenting his dad. However, their peaceful existence soon comes crashing down when criminal mastermind Maxime Le Mal escapes from prison and vows revenge against Gru.
Director: Chris Renaud
Country: USA
Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig
Classification: PG
Runtime: 95m
Divertimento
Zahia Ziouani, 17, dreams of becoming a conductor, while her twin sister Fettouma hopes to be a professional cellist. They want to make classical music accessible to everyone and create their own orchestra.
Director: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar
Country: France
Cast: Oulaya Amamra, Lina El Arabi
Classification: PG
Runtime: 114m
Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now
Shot over the course of Ghost’s two sold-out shows at Los Angeles’ hallowed Kia Forum, Rite Here Rite Now is a concert movie – and much, much more. Swedish rock band Ghost performs hit songs in concert with a narrative story that picks up plot threads from their long-running ‘Chapters’ series.
Director: Alex Ross, Tobias Forge
Country: Sweden
Cast: GHOST
Classification: M
Runtime: 145m
The Convert
A lay preacher’s violent past is drawn into question and his faith tested as he becomes caught up in a bloody war between Maori tribes after arriving at a British settlement in the 1830s.
Director: Lee Tamahori
Country: New Zealand/Australia/UK
Cast: Guy Pearce
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 119m
The Promised Land
In 18th-century Denmark, impoverished war hero Capt. Ludvig Kahlen sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. This beautiful but forbidding area is under the rule of Frederik De Schinkel, a merciless nobleman who realises the threat Kahlen represents to his power. As a new community starts to settle in, De Schinkel swears vengeance, leading to a violent and intense confrontation between the two men.
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Country: Denmark
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen
Classification: MA
Runtime: 127m
21 June
The Emu War (Australia)
Based on the infamous Great Emu War of 1932, a rag-tag platoon of soldiers are driven into a brutal and bloody battle against Australia’s deadliest flightless beasts. Haunted by the kidnapping of his son at the hands of the Emus, Major Meredith leads the platoon behind enemy lines in order to kill the emu’s leader, The Queen Emu.
Director: Jay Morrissey, Lisa Fineberg
Country: Australia
Cast: Damian Callinan, Dane Simpson, Aaron Gocs
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 75m
Read: The Emu War: Aaron Gocs says ‘I did my own stunts’
22 June
Paris Opera Ballet: La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin’s 1765 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère. The ballet was originally choreographed by the Ballet Master Jean Dauberval to a pastiche of music based on fifty-five popular French airs. Inspired by a love for the Suffolk countryside, the ballet is set on a farm and tells a story of love between Lise, the daughter of Widow Simone, and Colas, a young farmer.
Director: Frederick Ashton
Country: France
Cast: N/A
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 125m
Picasso: A Rebel in Paris
Documentary. The story of a life and a museum, Picasso: A Rebel in Paris creates and develops an original portrait of the artist, outlining the contradictory nature of his character – at the same time generous and despotic, made of sunshine and shadow, often hidden behind a mask – and the duplicity of his behaviour, even with the many women in his life.
Director: Simona Risi
Country: Italy
Cast: Mina Kavani
Classification: E
Runtime: 92m
