|
4/4
|
100%
|
Man on Wire (2008) |
"
It's a hell of a story, and Petit is a mesmerising storyteller, with an extravagantly poetic turn of phrase and the glittering eye of the Ancient Mariner."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 17, 2008
|
|
4.5/5
|
100%
|
This Is Not a Film (2012) |
"
Far less transparent than it first appears, This Is Not a Film is a prime example of what Panahi's mentor, Abbas Kiarostami, has termed the ''half-finished'' film, for which part of the meaning must be supplied by the viewer. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 10, 2011
|
|
4.5/5
|
85%
|
The Tree of Life (2011) |
"
An extraordinary vision of first contact, not between two cultures but between a soul and the universe. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jul 7, 2011
|
|
4.5/5
|
71%
|
Somewhere (2010) |
"
It's undeniable that Coppola is better at mood than she is at drama. Still, there's a sense of foreboding hovering over the film, an expectation that sooner or later the dream will come to an end."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Dec 22, 2010
|
|
4.5/5
|
68%
|
Public Enemies (2009) |
"
A triumph of pure cinema, Public Enemies is one of the most visually experimental films of Mann's career."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jul 31, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
86%
|
Careless Love () |
"
Realism is not a primary concern: an element of unlikely melodrama is planted early on but not detonated until the final minute, boldly allowing the narrative to jump to a different track."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted May 18, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
96%
|
The Social Network (2010) |
"
Like Zuckerberg, Fincher excels at data management, delivering vast amounts of information with the utmost clarity and speed. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 27, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
81%
|
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) |
"
The calculation could be off-putting if the film wasn't executed with such panache. Wright cuts the narrative to the bone, establishing a fast-slow rhythm that kills every time."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Aug 11, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
90%
|
Fish Tank (2010) |
"
One of the best British films of recent years, Fish Tank marks a leap forward from Arnold's first feature, the contrived Red Road."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted May 28, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
95%
|
Mother (Madeo) (2010) |
"
Bong retains a tenderness for his creations that belies his pessimistic view of human nature."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 8, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
94%
|
In the Loop (2009) |
"
Shot in fly-on-the-wall style, In The Loop is as expertly and continuously funny as any comedy in years."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jan 21, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
78%
|
The Informant! (2009) |
"
You never know where you stand with Steven Soderbergh, but you cannot accuse him of resting on his laurels -- or making the same film twice."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Dec 2, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
89%
|
A Serious Man (2009) |
"
On some level, the Coens' flippancy is self-protective. But there's fascination and pleasure in their trick of constructing a film like a theorem where nothing adds up."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 19, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
53%
|
Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) |
"
Even as [Zemeckis] uses the 3D process to turn A Christmas Carol into a rollercoaster ride through a solidly built fantasy world, he never forgets that at bottom the tale is an awful warning about how egoism and greed can destroy your humanity."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 4, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
80%
|
Louise-Michel (2008) |
"
As stylists, Kervern and Delepine specialise in turning industrial landscapes into cartoon playgrounds, through sight gags that rely on offscreen space -- leaving crucial events to the imagination."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 8, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
64%
|
The Girlfriend Experience (2009) |
"
The low-budget digital drama The Girlfriend Experience is one of [Soderbergh's] most successful experiments"
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 3, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
64%
|
Duplicity (2009) |
"
On the simplest level, Duplicity is a tribute to the power of performance."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Mar 20, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
94%
|
Milk (2008) |
"
The film itself can be taken as an act of testimony, mingling archival footage with re-enactments and immediacy with nostalgia."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 5, 2009
|
|
4/5
|
80%
|
Gran Torino (2009) |
"
Interpreted by another director, Nick Schenk's script might have been merely a sentimental fable of a grinch redeemed."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jan 22, 2009
|
|
|
92%
|
My Year Without Sex (2009) |
"
Watt strives to cram a great deal into a small space, but her special triumph is that the strain never shows. My Year Without Sex stands as the most accomplished Australian film so far this year."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted May 29, 2009
|
|
|
72%
|
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) |
"
Since this is a film for children, we know with virtual certainty that nobody we care about will come to harm. But there's no reason this deft fantasy shouldn't appeal to adults as well."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 3, 2009
|
|
|
56%
|
My Bloody Valentine 3-D (2009) |
"
Blending ample serves of gore and nudity with a dash of self-awareness, Lussier skilfully uses the 3D format to simulate the perspectives of both predator and victim..."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 13, 2009
|
|
3/4
|
55%
|
Step Brothers (2008) |
"
One thing spoils the mood: for all the joy that Ferrell and Reilly take in brawling or whimpering like two-year-olds, immaturity is still seen as something to be overcome."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 19, 2008
|
|
|
44%
|
She's the Man (2006) |
"
A minor but decent-spirited entertainment, enlivened by a couple of the adult supporting players."
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 7, 2006
|
|
3.5/5
|
93%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012) |
"
Whedon can deconstruct the myth of heroism in his sleep, and probably does, but on this occasion he's here to redeem the cliches, not to bury them. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 26, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
100%
|
Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard () |
"
At best Autoluminescent is that rare thing, a tribute to an artist that comes close to being a work of art in its own right."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
89%
|
George Harrison: Living In The Material World () |
"
The film fits easily into Scorsese's body of work, as a study of a complex, sometimes angry figure struggling with his contradictions. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
84%
|
Contagion (2011) |
"
The film addresses its grim subject in a cool, matter-of-fact way. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
98%
|
Project Nim (2011) |
"
The film teases us with a paradox: arguably Nim's keepers were wrong to try to endow their protege with human attributes, but can we empathise with his suffering without making the same mistake?"
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 30, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
74%
|
Fright Night (2011) |
"
Fright Night 3D qualifies as a successful entry in a tricky genre - blending flip humour and emotional intensity in a way that feels true after its fashion to the facts of teenage life."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 16, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
68%
|
The Eye of the Storm (2012) |
"
It's fascinating to see Schepisi, who made his name with period pieces, return to the 1970s as an era that deserves examination in its own right."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 9, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
79%
|
How I Ended This Summer (2010) |
"
Though billed as a psychological thriller, How I Ended This Summer is basically a solemn art movie, leaving ample room for interpretation."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 8, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
42%
|
Faster (2010) |
"
Faster slides between tones like a blues guitarist between frets -- mingling Biblical allegory with blatant parody, yet never letting one cancel the other out."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 2, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
14%
|
Yogi Bear (2010) |
"
Slapstick comedies are rare nowadays, especially ones that viewers of all ages can enjoy. So three cheers for this part-animated redo of the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jan 13, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
63%
|
Jackass 3-D (2010) |
"
It's a healthy form of sadomasochism, built on a simple, homespun philosophy: suffering is part of life, so you might as well enjoy it."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 4, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
45%
|
Second Hand Wedding (2008) |
"
Directed by Paul Murphy from a script by Nick Ward and Linda Niccol, this is possibly the daggiest film of the year."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jul 28, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
86%
|
Inception (2010) |
"
Nolan is having the time of his life in his own personal playground and, for all its heavy technical and narrative machinery, Inception remains one of his lightest films."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jul 21, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
61%
|
Bunny and the Bull (2011) |
"
As in Gondry's best work, the strength is in the sadness."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 22, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
57%
|
Defiance (2009) |
"
Zwick's limitations as an action director seem linked to a troubled conscience: he seems conscious of a need to entertain, but worried that his audience will take too much pleasure in the spectacle of vengeance."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted May 1, 2009
|
|
3.5/5
|
25%
|
Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) |
"
The film serves as a defense of beauty in the face of moralism, a theme that can never go stale."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Mar 13, 2009
|
|
3.5/5
|
65%
|
Watchmen (2009) |
"
[Snyder] seems only half aware that every adaptation must be some kind of betrayal - or remain a shadow of its source, like a pattern sketched in the dust of a dead planet."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Mar 6, 2009
|
|
3.5/5
|
51%
|
Funny Games (2008) |
"
Registers more strongly than the original as a film about privileged white people..."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 12, 2008
|
|
3.5/5
|
83%
|
Tropic Thunder (2008) |
"
Stiller never stops bombarding the audience with outrageous ideas, like a monkey throwing dung at a wall."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Aug 29, 2008
|
|
3.5/5
|
94%
|
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008) |
"
Not Quite Hollywood contains as many crazy characters and improbable events as its recent fictional counterparts, except that the people are real and the stories all true."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Aug 28, 2008
|
|
3.5/5
|
38%
|
Speed Racer (2008) |
"
Given that Speed Racer itself is basically an elaborate commercial, the anti-corporate message inevitably rings hollow."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jun 12, 2008
|
|
2.5/4
|
35%
|
Space Chimps (2008) |
"
A movie called Space Chimps ought to be cheap, crude and silly, and this computer-animated lark delivers on all fronts."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 19, 2008
|
|
3/5
|
75%
|
Stake Land (2011) |
"
Like Romero, Mickle has a pragmatic attitude to genre convention: even the corniest stereotypes can be turned to new purposes. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Jun 22, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
49%
|
No Strings Attached (2011) |
"
In the end, of course, love conquers all -- but to view this as a conservative moral would be to give a fun, busy comedy entirely too much weight."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Feb 9, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
80%
|
Made in Dagenham (2010) |
"
Best of all is Sally Hawkins in the star part of Rita O'Grady, a battling mother of two who reluctantly becomes the leader of the strike."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 28, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
59%
|
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) |
"
Ultimately, the film has little to offer apart from a few physical shocks involving household objects behaving oddly, a novelty that soon wears off."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 28, 2010
|
63%
——
96%
