Image via http://www.if.com.au
I like Warwick Thornton’s vision. It is an uncomfortable one for a non-Indigenous person like myself but his film should be obligatory viewing for all of us. Continue reading
Sweet Country (2017)
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Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)
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Image via cinemasiren.com
I’ll go out on a limb and say the best way to make a film about women is to have one direct it. The fact that the title and trailer of this film focused on William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman and co-inventor of the lie detector, led me to suspect that this might be another hagiography of a bloke who supported women’s rights. Happily it is definitely not. It is a sexy tale that places the women firmly in the centre and has given me a new appreciation of Wonder Woman. Continue reading
Hotel Coolgardie (2016)
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Image via http://www.nordicfilmfest.org
A fitting film to review during White Ribbon Week, Hotel Coolgardie is a low budget but beautifully realised documentary about the brutal and misogynistic culture that proudly exists in outback Australian mining towns. Continue reading
Ingrid Goes West (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
There’s something lovely about this dark comedy, although it’s almost unbearable sometimes to watch the sad and dangerous trajectory of hapless Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza). Continue reading
Good Time (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
This tense and dirty crime drama by the Safdie brothers hooked me in with its relentless pace, fluoro grubbiness and the first frame of an unrecognisable and mesmerising Robert Pattinson. Continue reading
Negar (2017)
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Image via filcin.com
Introduced by the director of the Iranian Film Festival Australia (IFFA) as a rare example of an Iranian action film, I expected a touch of Hollywood and a breakneck pace but Negar was much more. Better described as a subdued psychological thriller, Negar weaves a fragmented but compelling story as the eponymous heroine struggles to understand her father’s apparent suicide. Continue reading
Mother! (2017)
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Image via http://www.slashfilm.com
Like a Lanthimos film in a fever dream, Mother! is Darren Aronofsky at his most grandiose. Receiving both boos and standing ovations at festivals, this is a film you will either love or loathe. Obtuse, metaphorical and surreal, its central female character and dark vision held my attention throughout, only faltering as the worthy but somewhat prosaic meaning became clear. Continue reading
Ali’s Wedding (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
If you’re only going to see one romcom this year, make it this one. Set within a Melbourne Muslim community, it tells the story of Ali (Osamah Sami) who is in love with the ‘wrong’ girl. Continue reading
Sami Blood (2016)
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Image via miff.com.au
The Sámi, or Lapp, people of northern Scandinavia have long been subjected to discrimination in Sweden, Norway and Finland. In Sami Blood we see the story of one 14 year old girl, Elle-Marya (Lene Cecilia Sparrok), whose South Sámi family herd reindeer in rural Sweden. Continue reading
Loveless (Nelyubov) (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
This slow and bleakly beautiful meditation on the decay and desolation of modern day Russia is framed around the story of one broken family. Continue reading
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