FilmFest Australia · 2010
17 films · 10 reviews
What emotional life there is in this set up - and with so much is going on, there isn't much - is crushed by dreadful narration.
(Country: Australia, UK; Year: 2009; Director: Andrew Lancaster; Writer: Brian Carbee, based on his own book; Stars: Geena Davis, Joel Tobeck, Erik Thomson, Sebastian Gregory, Morgan Griffin, Rebecca Massey, Harry Cook, Harrison Gilbertson, Katrina Retallick, Viva Bianca) , Official site
Despite its structural instability, Connolly still manages to find plenty of poignancy and to gather an emotional head of steam.
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Robert Connolly; Writer: Robert Connolly, David Williamson; Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Oscar Isaac, Nathan Phillips, Gyton Grantley, Damon Gameau, Tom Wright, Paul Sonkkila, Mark Leonard Winter, Mark Winter) , Official site
A slow-burning, emotionally haunting film that thrusts the bond between mother and child under a microscope.
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Ana Kokkinos; Writer: Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas; Stars: Frances O'Connor, Miranda Otto, Deborra-Lee Furness, Sophie Lowe, Tasma Walton, Costas Kilias, Harrison Gilbertson, Eva Lazzaro, Dennis Kreusler, Victoria Haralabidou, Samuel Ross Forbes Wright, Monica Maughan, Eamon Farren, Anastasia Babbousouris, Wayne Blair)
Beautiful Kate challenges familiar narratives of incest and abuse, presenting a far more subtle portrait of the disintegration of a group of people in a quietly desperate situation.
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Rachel Ward; Writer: Rachel Ward, Newton Thornburg; Stars: Rachel Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Sophie Lowe, Maeve Dermody, Ben Mendelsohn, Scott O'Donnell, Josh McFarlane, Robbie Clissold)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Alkinos Tsilimidos; Stars: Gloria Ajenstat, Nick Barkla, Colin Friels, Sarah Hallam, Samuel Johnson, Frank Magree, Luke Mulquiney, Paige Rattray)
An affecting blend of warm comedy and high pathos, The Boys Are Back brings an unusual all-male perspective to its otherwise familiar themes of domesticity, death and dysfunction.
(Country: Australia, UK; Year: 2009; Director: Scott Hicks; Writer: Allan Cubitt, from a memoir by Simon Carr; Stars: Clive Owen, Emma Booth, Laura Fraser, George MacKay, Nicholas McAnulty, Julia Blake, Chris Haywood, Erik Thomson, Natasha Little, Lewis Fitz-Gerald) , Official site , Trailer
The scale is smaller and more personal, which adds to it credibility.
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Serhat Caradee; Writer: Serhat Caradee; Stars: Les Chantery, Yasser Assadi, Waddah Sari, Rachael Taylor, Bren Foster, Daniel Amalm, Martin Henderson)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: David Field; Writer: George Basha; Stars: George Basha, Firass Dirani, Doris Younane, Rahel Abdulrahman, Clare Bowen, John Brumpton, Rashad Dehan, Michael Denkha, Adam Grossetti, Ali Haider, Johnny Lahoud, Guang Li, Tyrone Lindqvist, Drew Pearson, Vano Rafik)
Dogs in Space is less of a film and more of an experience, a poem rather than a conventional story.
(Country: Australia; Year: 1987; Director: Richard Lowenstein; Writer: Richard Lowenstein; Stars: Michael Hutchence, Saskia Post, Nique Needles, Deanna Bond, Tony Helou, Chris Haywood)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Glendyn Ivin; Writer: Mac Gudgeon; Stars: John Brumpton, Mick Coulthard, Rachel Francis, Anita Hegh, Adam Morgan, Levine Ngatokorua, Chrissie Page, Kelton Pell, Tom Russell, Sonya Suares, Hugo Weaving, Chris Weir)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Kriv Stenders; Writer: Andy Cox; Stars: Aden Young, Toby Wallace, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, Pip Miller, Neil Pigot, Eamon Farren, Robert Menzies, Helmut Bakaitis, Tammy McCarthy)
Testing a family for breaking points within a comic framework is not exactly new territory, but Watt's scripting is sharp and she plays fast and loose with audience expectation in the cliche department.
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Sarah Watt; Writer: Sarah Watt; Stars: Sacha Horler, Matt Day, Jonathan Segat, Portia Bradley, Roy Davies, Catherine Hill, Sonya Suares, Petru Gheorghiu, Eddie Baroo, Travis Cotton, Fred Whitlock, Sean Rees-Wemyss, Lauren Mikkor, Chloe Guymer, Katie Wall)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: David Caesar; Writer: David Caesar; Stars: Michael Dorman, Emily Barclay, Ben Mendelsohn, Gyton Grantley, William McInnes, Anthony Hayes, Andrew S. Gilbert, Lynette Curran, Jeanette Cronin, Anni Finsterer, Scott McLean)
Pure, stripped-down bleakness, both in the desaturated drabness of its appearance and in the last-days essentialism of its themes.
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: John Hillcoat; Writer: Joe Penhall, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy; Stars: Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen, Garret Dillahunt, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Molly Parker, Michael K. Williams, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Brenna Roth, Bob Jennings, Jeremy Ambler, David August Lindauer, Jack Erdie, Nick Pasqual, Jared Pfennigwerth) , Official site , Trailer
The movie works by getting under your skin in ways that you only realise when the situation turns sour.
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Warwick Thornton; Writer: Warwick Thornton; Stars: Rowan McNamara, Marissa Gibson, Scott Thornton) , Official site
(Country: Australia; Year: 2008; Director: Shawn Seet; Writer: Rai Fazio; Stars: Daniel Amalm, Ennio Fantastichini, Jessica Marais, Rai Fazio, Costas Kilias, Paul Pantano, Tim Minchin, Rosemary Lenzo, Louisa Mignone, Paul Berenger, Brett Bonetti, Chris De Souza, Matt Hardie, Greg Higgs, Sam Illingworth)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Claire McCarthy; Writer: Claire McCarthy; Stars: Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton, Samrat Chakrabarti, Isabel Lucas, Barun Chanda, Tanushree Shankar, Tillotama Shome)
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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