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Mel Campbell

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Mel Campbell is a freelance cultural critic, author and commentator from Melbourne, Australia. Mel co-hosted The Rereaders podcast (2016-18), was a Melbourne International Film Festival preview panellist (2012-14), was national film editor at The Thousands (2008-13), and co-founded pop-culture website The Enthusiast (2008-14). Mel's writing on film, television, fashion, literature and media has appeared at Screenhub, Junkee, The Guardian, Metro, The Age, The Big Issue, Crikey, i-D and many more. She is currently a columnist at Overland literary journal and teaches in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. She has co-written two romantic comedy novels with fellow film critic Anthony Morris: Nailed It! (2019) and The Hot Guy (2017); her first book was the nonfiction investigation Out of Shape: Debunking Myths about Fashion and Fit (2013). She tweets at @incrediblemelk and her personal website is The Look: reviews and essays about film, TV, clothes and history.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
No Other Choice (2025) 97% EDIT “Paper-making acts as a lovely metaphor for people who are out of step with society’s cruelty: paper is disposable, and so too are these men … Beautiful shots almost feel like collages – [evoking] paper using all the other elements that cinema can marshal.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Jan 27, 2026 Full Review Hamnet (2025) 86% EDIT “Had so many things I love in a film, and Zhao’s direction is also beautiful: it’s so fresh and atmospheric and impressionistic. I just wish I liked it more. … [Buckley] goes off-chops in the final sequence. It’s kind of silly … but I didn’t want to laugh…” – ABC Radio (Australia) Jan 27, 2026 Full Review 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) 93% EDIT “I enjoyed that we spend so much time with Dr Ian Kelson (Fiennes). He's very erudite and humane, which makes for an interesting contrast to the savagery we see elsewhere … There are some magical moments in it as well; it’s not all horror.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Jan 27, 2026 Full Review Sinners (2025) 97% EDIT “Rollickingly original … Contain[s] such intricate commentaries on cultural power regimes that I could write [a] whole book about them – yet in moments of pure performance they resonate intuitively.” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025) 92% EDIT “Bronstein’s fever dream of maternal burnout takes us inside Linda’s (Rose Byrne) tortured psyche, tearing sound and visuals apart like a birth injury – but in an intensely multisensory way that keeps us wondering if ‘this is really happening’.” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Bird (2024) 86% EDIT “I’m still exhilarated by how deftly Arnold infuses her trademark social realism with ancient, wild magic. … It’s atavistically satisfying: the wondrous opposite of folk horror.” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Carol (2015) 94% EDIT “Haynes’s swooningly meticulous 1950s period detail [is] an ideological frame these two women gaze past and through, like Therese through her camera’s viewfinder, so they can access the romantic intimacy of being in love at Christmas as their true selves.” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Krampus (2015) 67% EDIT “It’s wild that this frankly unsettling folkloric figure has been relatively unexplored in horror movies. Hardcore slasher fans might find Krampus too family-friendly – all tinkle and no bell. But [it] indulges our inarticulate craving for pagan justice…” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Love the Coopers (2015) 19% EDIT “Critics in 2015 hated this aggressively schmaltzy ensemble family dramedy. I, however, warmly recommend this star-studded feast of emotional manipulation … Be ready for an absurd late twist revealing the identity of the wistful narrator (Steve Martin).” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review The Night Before (2015) 69% EDIT “Rather sweetly, it turns familiar, raucous bro-antics into a pageant about accepting the party’s over. … Bearish and exuberant, Seth Rogen’s Isaac gets absolutely off his holiday-sweatered tits [while] US comedy faces show up like sixpences in a pudding.” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Joy (2015) 61% EDIT “What makes ‘Joy’ peak Christmas viewing is that its plucky, practical heroine succeeds while carrying her bumbling family … Joy’s best revenge is to blanket them in a snowfall of generosity they know they don’t deserve.” – ScreenHub Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Eternity (2025) 77% EDIT “What kind of eternity would limit you in such a banal way? I really could not get past the cruelty of the premise. I found it so, so bleak, and the way they resolved it was unsatisfyingly conservative. The problems of this film were all in the script.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Dead of Winter (2025) 75% EDIT “I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. The story’s a bit inessential and generic but Thompson elevates it [with] an alert, bruised vulnerability … The terminally under-used Judy Greer is tremendous in this. It’s just a real acting showcase.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Dec 29, 2025 Full Review The History of Sound (2025) 70% EDIT “One of my favourite films of 2025 … a really tender film [about] pure performance as a way to express really complex ideas and emotions … It takes away your sense of irony and you respond to it in a pure way, which I loved.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Dec 29, 2025 Full Review Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 66% EDIT “Cameron manages to critique [violence] in a really heartening way to repudiate the idea of seeking revenge for your grief in further cycles of violence. … we’re seeing a more complicated picture of how different people respond to colonisation and tragedy.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Dec 29, 2025 Full Review The Running Man (2025) 62% EDIT “Having read the dark, bleak novel, I’m amazed by how faithful The Running Man is … Feels futuristic but still has that retro ’70s, ’80s vibe. … One of [Edgar Wright's] best films in years: Wright's eye for detail and visual irony is really on show here.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Nov 24, 2025 Full Review Wicked: For Good (2025) 66% EDIT “Not as lighthearted [as ‘Wicked’], not as fun. … I wasn’t sure how much time has passed … That said, the production and costume design are phenomenal; I want to single out Glinda's song that works with mirrors in a bubble-like set. Such a clever sequence.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Nov 24, 2025 Full Review Bugonia (2025) 88% EDIT “Aidan Delbis is brilliant as the conscience of the film … It’s so clever how it keeps us guessing: Lanthimos keeps that doubt in our minds of whose world we’re in. It’s beautifully framed, beautifully paced. But I found [its ending] challengingly bleak.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Nov 7, 2025 Full Review One More Shot (2025) 67% EDIT “Yearning is played for comedy by a small but dedicated cast led by Emily Browning, who’s terrific – sardonic and sassy. This is a very actorly film, and the cast makes it satisfying to watch. I walked out of the cinema pondering my own romantic choices.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Nov 7, 2025 Full Review Roofman (2025) 87% EDIT “Not so much of a comedy as the marketing would make you think. It's actually kind of heartbreaking, really, because it’s about a guy who wants to be part of a community, but he just can’t. … Channing Tatum gets the sadness of this character.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Nov 7, 2025 Full Review Frankenstein (2025) 85% EDIT “The physical towering of Elordi over Oscar Isaac – not a tall man! – is really interesting … And Elordi took me by surprise; I was not expecting this kind of empathetic performance from him, and it’s also a very physical performance. I loved it.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Nov 7, 2025 Full Review TRON: Ares (2025) 53% EDIT “Brilliant to watch, but on every other level it falls apart into cascading squares. … Like all franchised entertainment it’s always looking back over its shoulder rather than forward into the future, which is ironic for these kinds of themes. ” – ABC Radio (Australia) Oct 15, 2025 Full Review The Thursday Murder Club (2025) 77% EDIT “It was crap! … I love an anti-developer narrative, but it was so insubstantial. … I felt embarrassed for these actors, the way they were capering. There are so many good examples of this kind of thing done so much better; just watch one of them instead.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Oct 15, 2025 Full Review A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) 36% EDIT “Has the vibe of an undergraduate student play … Nothing in this felt original. Even the title annoyed me; it just reminded me of other films with long titles which handle the fantasy material with much more authority and sophistication.” – ABC Radio (Australia) Sep 25, 2025 Full Review The Bad Guys 2 (2025) 87% EDIT “Uses the animation in a heightened, expressive, silly way, but the stunts are all framed and shot like live action. There's a lot for adults to enjoy, but kids will still like the usual pratfalls and sight gags. … Eight thumbs up, if I were a tarantula. ” – ABC Radio (Australia) Sep 25, 2025 Full Review
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