Tag: Australian film
Birdeater & MaXXXine
Friday, July 26th, 2024 Film Reviews,There seem to be only two certainties about contemporary, non-Indigenous Australian films: they will be dark and unpleasant, and greeted with exaggerated enthusiasm that quickly subsides into silence. The latest movie to test this thesis is Birdeater, written and directed by Jack Clark and Jim Weir, which won the audience award at last year’s Sydney […]
Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line
Tuesday, June 18th, 2024 Chinese Art, Film Reviews,When a rock band enjoys a career of 45 years and sells more than 20 million albums, they probably qualify as legends. They may also be overdue for a documentary, an omission that has now been supplied by director, Paul Clarke, who has spent the past seven years making Midnight Oil: the Hardest Line, which […]
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Saturday, May 25th, 2024 Film Reviews,All great film series have their highs and lows. A masterpiece is followed by a dud, a long sequence of flops suddenly comes up trumps. One can never be confident that a great film will be followed by an equally compelling sequel, or that a franchise that resembles a dead horse might not spring to […]
Late Night with the Devil
Friday, April 19th, 2024 Film Reviews,“Ladies and gentlemen please stay tuned for a live television first, as we attempt to commune with the Devil… But not before a word from our sponsors.” With these words I knew I’d discovered one of the rarer marsupials: a new Australian film with a sense of humour. It may be considered ironic that we’re […]
Force of Nature: The Dry 2
Friday, February 9th, 2024 Film Reviews,“Rarely, rarely comest thou, Spirit of Delight!” wrote Shelley, in a remarkable premonition of the Australian film industry. “Wherefore hast thou left me now, Many a day and night?” Australian cinema has reached such an impasse that I go along to each new feature hoping for something worthy and tradesmanlike. Occasionally there appears a film […]
Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story
Sunday, September 3rd, 2023 Film Reviews,Michael Gudinski was a serious burner of candles at both ends. In describing the flamboyant record executive and concert promoter, most of his friends talk about his “energy” and “passion”. Director, Paul Goldman, who admits to a spiky relationship with his subject, says he set out to avoid making a hagiography. Nevertheless, this is what […]
The New Boy
Friday, June 16th, 2023 Film Reviews,Last week, at a screening of Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, Nashen Moodley, the director of the Sydney Film Festival, recalled how “exhilarated” he was by Thornton’s debut feature, Samson & Delilah (2009). That film was widely praised, frequently spoken of as a landmark in local cinema, but it’s hard to believe it would leave […]
Limbo
Friday, May 26th, 2023 Film Reviews,For the Catholic Church, Limbo was literally the outskirts of Hell, inhabited by those good people who died before Christ was born, and by infants without experience of baptism or sin. In common parlance, the word has come to mean a state of indecision, of forced inaction with no clear path in sight. For filmmaker […]
The Survival of Kindness
Thursday, May 4th, 2023 Film Reviews,Plenty of people will tell you that Rolf de Heer’s The Survival of Kindness is a “weird” film. That’s probably an understatement considering that all the dialogue is muttered in an incomprehensible language – or set of languages, and that most of the characters walk around wearing large, clunky gasmasks. Nobody has a name, and […]
Of an Age
Friday, March 31st, 2023 Film Reviews,Goran Stolevski announced his arrival as a force in Australian cinema with his debut feature of last year, You Won’t be Alone – a gender bending horror movie set in 19th century Macedonia. Those who responded enthusiastically to that weird, very original production, may find themselves less enamoured of his follow-up, Of an Age. You […]