Alfred Hitchcock Presents : Season 4
As one of the first auteurs to see the potential in the small screen format, Hitchcock’s trailblazing stamp of approval lent a respectability to... read more...
Machete
I’m a massive fan of following through on throwaway ideas, so I applaud Robert Rodriguez for turning his spoof trailer from Grindhouse: Planet Terror... read more...
Winter's Bone
Americans love to ponder that hillbillies live parallel to, yet oddly separate from, contemporary society. Bonded by family, tradition and their own moral... read more...
Gainsbourg
Joann Sfar’s biopic of French singer Serge Gainsbourg (Eric Elmosnino) draws its fairytale tone from its origins in Sfar’s graphic novel. It... read more...
Rare Exports
Based on two short films by Finnish brothers Juuso and Jalmari Helander, this creepy, refreshingly irreverent Yuletide fable both punctures and reaffirms... read more...
Jackass 3D
Roll up, Roll up! Jackass 3D is in town. Prepare to be amazed as Johnny Knoxville, Steve O and the gang hit each other in the balls one more time. If that... read more...
The Social Network
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin sees this as an epic tragedy. Sorkin’s not subtle about that. The Social Network transcends naturalism, and its real-life... read more...
Summer Coda
Heidi (Taylor) has lived in Nevada since her father walked out when she was seven. Now the surly violinist is returning to Mildura for his funeral and... read more...
Let Me In
Brief, inspired moments suggest how Matt Reeves could have added American resonances to John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Swedish coming-of-age horror novel.... read more...
Sagan
I was disappointed to learn this wasn’t a biopic of Carl Sagan, but rather of French author Françoise Sagan (Sylvie Testud, who looks quite... read more...
American: The Bill Hicks Story
First shown at SXSW Festival, American: The Bill Hicks Story documents Hicks’ life through the eyes of his family and friends. Though some of the... read more...
The Tree
So a rural Queensland dude (Aden Young) dies of a heart attack as his ute comes to rest against the fig tree next to his house. Naturally, his wife Dawn... read more...
The Girl Who Played With Fire
Feels like it was only back in March that Stieg Larsson’s blockbusting trilogy first burst into cinemas. Oh wait – it was. While Hollywood... read more...
Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps
Oliver Stone’s sequel to his zeitgeist-capturing 1987 corporate thriller isn’t so much a movie as a parade of macho aphorisms in designer suits.... read more...
I'm Still Here
I’m Still Here was at first thought (optimistically perhaps) a genuine document of a celebrity’s psychic implosion, with none of the prurient... read more...
Easy A
I was ready to adore this slut-shaming comedy in which Emma Stone fake-loses her virginity and gains a real-bad reputation stoked by fundamentalist Christian... read more...
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
The opening scenes of this microbudget UK thriller are a triumph. Two men – taciturn Vic (Eddie Marsan) and meek Danny (Martin Compston) –... read more...
Trash Humpers
Trash Humpers is about a group of trash humpers. Depending on your inclination, Harmony Korine’s new flick is either about much, much more –... read more...
Tomorrow When The War Began
A bunch of unfeasibly attractive teenagers go bush. Laughing, flirting, frolicking beside creeks and campfires… Something bad’s definitely... read more...
Boy
Beneath the ’80s nostalgia and New Zealand jokes, Taika Waititi’s Boy is a similar tale of father/son misunderstanding. read more...
Salt
Salt has been described as Angelina Jolie doing The Bourne Identity, but it’s more like Mission: Impossible meets The Manchurian Candidate, with... read more...
The Killer Inside Me
However, while terrible and prolonged, the violence is inextricably part of the disconcerting look and tone. Winterbottom eschews stylisation –... read more...
Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Film makers often struggle to incorporate the comic-book form into comic-book adaptations. Dick Tracy tried deep-focus lens tricks and limited colour scheme;... read more...
The Expendables
Perhaps it was a lingering boyhood fantasy burrowed deep within my subconscious that convinced my older, more cynical, self that The Expendables would... read more...