|
4.5/5
|
98%
|
This Is Not a Film (2012) |
"
It's hard to think of a more powerfully uplifting and resonant finale in a film released this year. The title's black satire becomes superfluous, with This is Not a Film revealed as the most heartfelt act of defiance."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Nov 10, 2011
|
|
4.5/5
|
97%
|
Animal Kingdom (2010) |
"
What ultimately assures Animal Kingdom of not merely greatness, but candidacy to classic status, is that it never loses its focus or relents."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Jun 3, 2010
|
|
4.5/5
|
90%
|
Hunger (2009) |
"
It is as unyielding as the men it documents...but refuses to force a judgement or demand sympathy."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Nov 14, 2008
|
|
8/10
|
75%
|
Killing Them Softly (2012) |
"
Dominik's film is bleak but nonetheless perceptive and arresting. Crime still pays, just not like it used to. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
93%
|
Lore (2013) |
"
It may have taken eight years, but Cate Shortland has tied the most personal of themes to a historic perspective and each manages to deepen and inform the other. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Sep 20, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
86%
|
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) |
"
Beasts of the Southern Wild is raucous and deliberately affecting - the talent lies in making that transformation appear offhand and improvised, as if it's unfolding on the spot. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Sep 13, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
79%
|
The Deep Blue Sea (2012) |
"
The plot is formulaic; the power lies elsewhere. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 11, 2012
|
|
4/5
|
93%
|
The Kids Are All Right (2010) |
"
The Kids Are All Right gets at basic, underlying truths, and opens them up with both sly humour and brittle neediness. Lisa Cholodenko has found her home."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Sep 2, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
81%
|
Four Lions (2010) |
"
A bitter, brilliant take on a world that is both ludicrous and nightmarish. "
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Aug 19, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
98%
|
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) |
"
The music, heard in economical proportions, is secondary to the unexpectedly deep bond between its creators. Their story is an underdog's triumph that's difficult to deny."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Sep 11, 2009
|
|
7/10
|
85%
|
The Master (2012) |
"
It drags a touch in the middle, and the final scene as epilogue - a Paul Thomas Anderson staple - is unduly perplexing, but the movie exerts an undeniable hold. It's difficult not to believe. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Nov 8, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
80%
|
Goodbye First Love (2012) |
"
The film is quiet and accumulative, staying with its subject through emotional outpourings and everyday transactions; the audience is embedded. "
—
Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Apr 4, 2012
|
|
3.5/5
|
100%
|
Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard () |
"
Autoluminescent has an unspoken sense that he was an uncertain proposition for those close to him. Whether that is compelling or cautionary may depend on if you're one of the true believers."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Oct 27, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
85%
|
Contagion (2011) |
"
The film wraps up tightly and somewhat too quickly, but it's a delight to experience Soderbergh at the top of his game. "
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Oct 20, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
87%
|
Submarine (2011) |
"
An idiosyncratic tone, one that is both funny and affecting, is far easier to sparingly strike than it is too maintain for the length of a feature. To his not inconsiderable credit, Richard Ayoade keeps a steady, if stylised, hand all the way through."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Sep 8, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
95%
|
Pina (2011) |
"
3D feels suddenly human after you use it to watch Pina."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Aug 19, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
89%
|
The Trip (2011) |
"
If the narrative is just a touch out of puff by the end, it's worth it for such subtly hilarious scenes along the way. With The Trip it really is the journey that matters, not the destination."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Jun 30, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
77%
|
The Last Circus (2011) |
"
The director mixes and matches with mordant wit."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Jun 23, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
96%
|
True Grit (2010) |
"
True Grit is as good as one of their minor works gets."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Jan 27, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
90%
|
The Messenger (2009) |
"
The two leads give nuanced, lived in performances that unfold slowly but with certain determination."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Nov 10, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
91%
|
The Father of My Children (Le pere de mes enfants) (2010) |
"
Inception celebrates the manufactured reality, Father of My Children the true one."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Aug 26, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
85%
|
Me and Orson Welles (2009) |
"
It's not as far from the small town '70s Texas of Dazed and Confused to backstage at the Mercury Theatre on opening night in 1937 as you might think."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Jul 29, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
98%
|
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) |
"
It's a brisk, amusing piece that doesn't have the weary sarcasm that besets a Shark Tale or Kung Fu Panda. Who needs a plastic toy and plastic meal when you have a genuinely good movie?"
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Mar 25, 2010
|
|
6/10
|
74%
|
Rise of the Guardians (2012) |
"
Rise of the Guardians is both reasonably quirky and mildly serious. It wants children to believe there's more to animation than fast food tie-ins. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Dec 12, 2012
|
|
6/10
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012) |
"
Seen against the ineffectual backdrop of 2008's Quantum of Solace, this is a return to form but it doesn't exceed Craig's impressive debut as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Nov 22, 2012
|
|
6/10
|
43%
|
Two Little Boys () |
"
With a backdrop of natural wonders and a suitably ironic deployment of familiar Kiwi pop hits, Two Little Boys strikes a fair balance between the outlandish and the recognisable. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Nov 14, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
82%
|
Shadow Dancer (2013) |
"
Marsh improves the movie from the page to the screen. What's shown is often more striking than what's said, but in the perpetual subterfuge of Shadow Dancer that can't fully distinguish a familiar plot from its numerous predecessors."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
40%
|
Mental (2013) |
"
Mental's flaws are never fatal, and its commitment to an unhinged, sometimes episodic, contrast between the crass and the poignant is a welcome comeback from a filmmaker whose Hollywood sojourn became increasingly straitjacketed. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Oct 2, 2012
|
|
6/10
|
45%
|
On the Road (2012) |
"
While the film is lacking in connective tissue, Stewart and Hedlund go a long way to transcending the flaws. When they dance at one point, dusted with sweat and pleasure, On the Road truly moves. They're completely on the Beat."
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Sep 27, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
71%
|
Wish You Were Here (2013) |
"
The underdone ending is what prevents a good film being a great one. "
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Apr 26, 2012
|
|
3/5
|
73%
|
The Whistleblower (2011) |
"
[Weisz's] restraint offers a cold, evaluative gaze that makes what transpires all the more telling, and in the absence of direction that can make something more out of these elements than just condemnation, that becomes a strength."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Sep 29, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
81%
|
Red Dog (2012) |
"
This is the most widely appealing Australian film since Bran Nue Dae, complete with a lovely Bill Hunter cameo, and hopefully Koko gets a chance to work here again before he's whisked off the luxury kennels of Hollywood."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Aug 4, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
62%
|
Griff the Invisible (2011) |
"
It doesn't make a lot of progress - to the point where you actually want more from the movie - but there's enough here to suggest that Ford has a promising future, while his leading man, expatriate cable star Ryan Kwanten, has genuine versatility."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Mar 23, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
69%
|
Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur) (2010) |
"
In being farcical instead of cute, Heartbreaker reveals itself as a welcome treat. It leaves you knowingly happy."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Dec 23, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
97%
|
GasLand (2010) |
"
GasLand works by effectively reminding you of that in slightly different ways again and again. It's not subtle, but it's effective."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Nov 18, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
——
|
Ladies & Gentlemen The Rolling Stones Flashback To 1972 (2010) |
"
Fans of the band, and the musical era, will enjoy it."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Oct 29, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
65%
|
The Infidel (2010) |
"
This pleasing comedy more than makes do with the idea of conciliation -- it really, really just wants us to get along."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Sep 16, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
87%
|
Please Give (2010) |
"
The film is more emotionally incisive than it initially appears to be, but equally it ties together a little too neatly when it already has such a concise running time."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Sep 9, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
63%
|
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) |
"
An amusing comedy that actually exceeds the genre's low expectations."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Apr 22, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
86%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) |
"
This is a capable, engaging thriller, which ties up one mystery even as it asks another about the past of Lisbeth Salander. The screen has a new avenging angel."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Mar 25, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
57%
|
Bran Nue Dae (2010) |
"
Like another Australian musical by a then young director, Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck from 1982, Bran Nue Dae carries the day with energy and self-belief."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Jan 14, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
83%
|
Avatar (2009) |
"
Cameron plainly has higher priorities than detailed characterisations. Avatar is his take on the future of cinema, a breakthrough film in terms of combining motion capture technology, digital effects and live action."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Dec 15, 2009
|
|
3/5
|
——
|
The Strength of Water (2009) |
"
Ballantyne is more interested in examining the Maori community's everyday lives, and how they sit in relation to their traditions, than in making political observations. The key notes here are universal, most notably the half-life of grief."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Dec 2, 2009
|
|
5/10
|
52%
|
This is 40 (2012) |
"
In trying to please everyone he satisfies no one and, far from being brave, the fleeting concerns of This Is 40 are closer to cowardly. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Jan 16, 2013
|
|
5/10
|
69%
|
Liberal Arts (2012) |
"
Radnor's problem stems from his casting prowess: Jenkins, Janney and Olsen are all so pleasurably adept in their parts that the film's star suffers by comparison. Jesse needs more than Josh Radnor's glibness. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Dec 12, 2012
|
|
5/10
|
52%
|
Trouble with the Curve (2012) |
"
Hopefully, this decent but uncomplicated movie isn't a final acting hurrah for Clint Eastwood. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
43%
|
The Wedding Party () |
"
The Wedding Party may well have been a better film if the underdone premise of the fake wedding had been done away with altogether, because the movie is more interesting when it picks at the foibles and fears that gather around these couples."
—
sbs.com.au
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
5/10
|
21%
|
Taken 2 (2012) |
"
Unfortunately, most of the action is overzealously edited, to the point of incomprehensibility, but Neeson's purposefulness and menacing voice provide the framework for a performance. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Oct 4, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
48%
|
Hit & Run (2012) |
"
In Hit & Run the talk is better than the torque. "
—
The Sunday Age
Posted Sep 6, 2012
|
|
2.5/5
|
71%
|
Footloose (2011) |
"
Wormald and Hough don't look or dance like adolescents letting off steam; their professionalism overwhelms what should be a simple pleasure. The film sometimes has the same problem."
—
The Age (Australia)
Posted Oct 12, 2011
|
72%
77%
61%
52%
26%
4%
