Liam Maguren

Auckland

Content Manager and Writer at Flicks

Writer for Flicks (NZ/AU/UK). Māori (Ngā Rauru) Pākeha (Irish) animation filmmaker for himself. I'm on Threads as @liammaguren.

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Articles

Review: Valkyrie

6 days ago | flicks.com.au | Amelia Berry |Rory Doherty |Dominic Corry |Liam Maguren

The good news first: this is as classy looking a suspense thriller as you’d expect from the maker of The Usual Suspects. I found little to gripe about in terms of its pacing, imagery (lots of Nazi black, white and red, naturally) or indeed its performances. But there are a couple of key factors which stopped me loving Valkyrie.
New releases, discoveries and rewatches: the best stuff we saw on Prime Video in May

1 week ago | flicks.com.au | Liam Maguren |Katie Parker |Travis Johnson |Stephen Russell

This piece is supported byEnjoy exclusive Amazon Originals + popular movies and TV shows. Start your 7-day free trial* today!OvercompensatingWatch on Prime VideoBeyond study, my university life was non-existent. I made no friends on campus, had zero-night stands, and my only attempt at joining a club was one painful night on a debate team. Colour everyone shocked, then, that I’d latch onto this myth-debunking college comedy from Benito Skinner like a leech on a boil.
Meeting The Phoenician Scheme cast in Cannes feels like we’re in a Wes Anderson movie

1 week ago | flicks.co.uk | Rory Doherty |Luke Buckmaster |Clarisse Loughrey |Liam Maguren

Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme has just celebrated its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival. While at the fest, Rory Doherty sat down to chat with seven of its cast – Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, and Jeffrey Wright.
A spoiler-heavy unpacking of The Rehearsal’s season 2 finale

1 week ago | flicks.com.au | Travis Johnson |Liam Maguren |Eliza Janssen |Dominic Corry

Clarisse Loughrey’s Show of the Week column spotlights a new show to watch or skip. This week: The season two finale of The Rehearsal takes an elaborate trip to a very specific destination. WARNING: Contains major spoilers for season two – including the final episode. There’s an intense and specific mania that Nathan Fielder’s work tends to provoke in people. Everyone’s aware that in Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, Fielder is playing the character of “Nathan Fielder”.
Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau returns to Cannes with blunt, uncompromising Alpha

1 week ago | flicks.com.au | Rory Doherty |Travis Johnson |Clarisse Loughrey |Liam Maguren

A teen comes home with a recklessly-applied tattoo during an era of a lethal blood-borne disease in Julia Ducournau’s Alpha. Reporting from Cannes, Rory Doherty considers how this new film, with less of an emphasis on body horror, sits among the Palme d’Or winner’s work. Julia Ducournau has followed up winning the Palme d’Or with a film that sees sickness and memory as hungry urges equally capable of driving us off the edge.
Q is for Queen of the Damned: vampires sure do like them some nu metal

1 week ago | flicks.com.au | Travis Johnson |Clarisse Loughrey |Liam Maguren |Eliza Janssen

In monthly column The A-to-Z of Trash, bad movie lover Eliza Janssen takes us on an alphabetically-ordered trip through the best bits of the worst films ever. This month, Anne Rice didn’t like Queen of the Damned and most Interview with the Vampire fans won’t either — unless they were big Korn fans in the early 2000s.
I cannot stop thinking about The Weeknd’s mega-flop Hurry Up Tomorrow

1 week ago | flicks.com.au | Liam Maguren |Travis Johnson |Eliza Janssen |Luke Buckmaster

The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow has been dubbed one of the worst cinema release of 2025 so far. Liam Maguren, who saw it opening day, thinks it’s a lot stranger than that. I’ve had a great run at the cinema these past couple of weeks. Final Destination: Bloodlines was a bloody fun time, Small Things Like These delivered affecting inner turmoil, The Salt Path peppered my heart, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning gifted some of the best action scenes I’m likely to see this year.
I cannot stop thinking about The Weeknd’s mega-flop Hurry Up Tomorrow

1 week ago | flicks.co.nz | Liam Maguren

The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow has been dubbed one of the worst cinema release of 2025 so far. Liam Maguren, who saw it opening day, thinks it’s a lot stranger than that. I’ve had a great run at the cinema these past couple of weeks. Final Destination: Bloodlines was a bloody fun time, Small Things Like These delivered affecting inner turmoil, The Salt Path peppered my heart, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning gifted some of the best action scenes I’m likely to see this year.
The biggest movies coming in 2025

2 weeks ago | flicks.com.au | Eliza Janssen |Luke Buckmaster |Steve Newall |Liam Maguren

Dragons, superheros, showgirls, karate kids, lanky blue aliens and killer robots—2025 has it all! It’s shaping up to be a big year for movies, as this epic guide from Eliza Janssen proves. Return to this list—which includes both cinema and streaming titles—for updated release date info on the year’s most exciting movies. Or add some titles to your watchlist, and we’ll ping you when they’re out.
10 shows arriving in March that we’re excited about

2 weeks ago | flicks.com.au | Eliza Janssen |Luke Buckmaster |Steve Newall |Liam Maguren

As we March into another month of searching for the perfect thing to watch, a whole new autumn harvest of shows lands on our screens. There’s a distinct flavour of sarcasm and satire spreading across the month, from take-downs of Hollywood execs and corrupt televangelists to murder mysteries with a somewhat camp sensibility.