We Were Here
David Weissman’s documentary We Were Here chronicles the dramatic effect AIDS had on ’60s and ’70s San Francisco, transforming it from... read more...
Buck
Rather than ‘breaking’ horses, Buck ‘starts’ them, using empathy and kind authority to inspire a seemingly uncanny transformation. Meehl shows... read more...
Mardis Gras Film Festival 2012
Dirty Girl and Au Pair Kansas (featuring former porn star Traci Lords) look like promising indie comedies. A few incredible underground features are screening... read more...
'Buck' Interview
Directed by Cindy Meehl, Buck reflects on real-life cowboy Buck Brannaman’s transformation from an abused, affection-starved child to a generous, game-changing... read more...
One In A Million 2012
Reality program One In A Million is the most accurate portrayal I’ve seen of how skaters actually are; how they look, talk, socialise, and skate.... read more...
Shame
Steve McQueen’s beautifully crafted drama recalls Drive, and not just for transforming Manhattan into the same gritty, jaded demimonde as Refn’s Los... read more...
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Writer-director Sean Durkin’s debut feature is subtly, almost perfectly calibrated between idyllic and terrifying, all the way to its chillingly ambiguous... read more...
Weekend
Though it’s a small film, Weekend grabs at a lot of big ideas that will needle you long after it ends. Writer/director Andrew Haigh crafts characters... read more...
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Where Ian Fleming’s espionage is flip and glamorous, John Le Carré’s is dreary and cynical; George Smiley is the anti-James Bond. Still, director... read more...
Young Adult
Some films really get you in the guts, and for me Young Adult was one. At times bitingly funny and achingly sad, Jason Reitman’s dramedy recalls Bad... read more...
The Curse of Grong Grong
The Curse of Grong Grong is a documentary by Rob Wright, who makes a pretty damn fascinating film in the space of ten short minutes. It grabs the smallest... read more...
The Iron Lady
What better traditional holiday entertainment than a rollicking English pantomime? This political fairytale is seasonably hilarious, and ultra-conservative... read more...
The Skin I Live In
Both preposterously serious and blackly playful, Pedro Almodóvar’s melodrama explores how trauma and perversion are literally inscribed on the body.... read more...
Don't Need You - The Herstory Of Riot Grrrl
To understand why Riot Grrrl mattered, you need to know that ’80s punk and hardcore shows were a major sausage fest. Mostly male bands played to... read more...
Attack The Block
English writer-director Joe Cornish (of cult comedy duo Adam and Joe) splashes with a feature film debut that’s just plain fun. It’s the anti-Harry... read more...
Restless
There’s much to hate about Gus Van Sant’s cancer weepie for the Frankie set, but I’ve only got 200 words here. Better spend them unpicking why,... read more...
Melancholia
I feel strongly that Lars von Trier is fucked in the head and that we should condemn his films’ glorying in women’s psychological (and sometimes physical)... read more...
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Okay, here’s what Eva and Franklin (Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly) need to talk about – how they ended up with a Eurasian kid (Ezra Miller; as a... read more...
The Tall Man
It is amusing that, among the many awards and accolades, the book of The Tall Man did not escape winning the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award.... read more...
The Debt
John Madden’s Nazi-hunting spy thriller recalls the aphorism, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” The Debt intertwines... read more...
Wholphin No.14 screening, presented by Speakeasy Cinema
Isn’t film best enjoyed with others? Preferably with people just as good-looking and intelligent as yourself and the ready availability of beer,... read more...
Moneyball
Moneyball has all the sports-movie ingredients: an underdog team; a manager haunted by past failures; talented but overlooked players; an amazing true-story... read more...
Drive
Don’t expect a thrill-packed action flick; despite its tautly stylish opening sequence, Drive has a pageant’s processional rhythm. Gosling inhabits... read more...
Autoluminescent: Rowland S Howard
Autoluminescent is a film about Rowland S Howard – guitarist, songwriter, artist and an instrumental figure in the Australian rock scene most notably... read more...