All articles by Frank Hatherley – Page 5
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Reviews
Australia
Dir: Baz Luhrmann. Aus/US. 2008. 165 mins With Australia, Baz Luhrmann has fearlessly gone for the biggest, lushest goal he could imagine - a romantic, old-fashioned epic to stand beside Gone With The Wind. Though it fails to reach such Hollywood heyday heights, Australia's combination of high adventure, awesome landscapes ...
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Reviews
Ten Empty
Dir: Anthony Hayes. Aust. 2007. 95 minsThis is the first feature from Aussie production company Roguestar and the company's principals Anthony Hayes and Brendan Cowell are to the fore here - Hayes directing with Cowell taking a small but showy acting credit and both writing. This family reunion saga struggles ...
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Reviews
The Black Balloon (2007)
Dir: Elissa Down Aust. 2007, 97 minsThe Black Balloon is notable for its graphic, not-for-the-squeamish depiction of adult autism. But, more importantly for its box office potential, the youth-oriented movie introduces a glowing young Australian actress with true star potential - the international model Gemma Ward. Plus there's a showy ...
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Reviews
Romulus, My Father
Dir: Richard Roxburgh. 104mins. Aus. 2007.The directorial debut from Australian actor Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge, Van Helsing), Romulus, My Father boasts strong performances, elegant camerawork and striking early 1960s production design. But it's a tough working-class tale that grows ever more harrowing as it intensifies and, despite the formidable presence ...
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Reviews
Dr Plonk
Dir/scr: Rolf De Heer. Aust. 2007. 84mins Rolf De Heer, perhaps relaxing from the extreme directorial hardships of last year's Ten Canoes and the grim themes of The Tracker (2002) and Alexandra's Project (2003), has with Dr Plonk produced a featherweight comic curiosity. The result is a silent, monochromatic, fixed-camera ...
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Reviews
Lucky Miles
Dir: Michael James Rowland. Aus. 2007. 105mins. The debut feature from Michael James Rowland, Lucky Miles follows a boatload of asylum seekers cynically dumped on the vast, barely inhabited West Australian coast. Scenically, it's terrific, with gorgeous sunsets and a rich gallery of inhospitable terrains; dramatically, it's less satisfying, for ...
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Reviews
Macbeth
Dir: Geoffrey Wright. Aust. 2006.109mins.Shakespeare's bloodthirsty Scottish warlords are transportedto contemporary Melbourne, recent home to Mafia-style vendettas, tit-for-tat slayingsand alleged police corruption, for Geoffrey Wright's Macbeth. The result makes for a good genre fit, casting the centuries old plot in a new light with suavely dressed killers,beautiful women and a ...
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Reviews
2:37
Dir/scr: Murali K Thalluri. Aust. 2006.94minsAn impressive debut feature from a 20-year-old withno previous film training nor experience, 2:37proves is a gripping teen suicide drama that forces audiences to confront thechallenges of growing up in wrenching style.Aside from showcasing the compellingdirection of director Murali K Thalluri,it also demonstrates the tenacity ...
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Reviews
Ten Canoes
Dir: Rolf de Heer. Aus.2006. 91mins.The Adelaide Film Festival has aninvestment fund which, with its first feature flutter last year, shrewdlybacked the critically acclaimed Look BothWays. Sarah Watt's drama about fractured lives in a big city suburb went onto play well at international festivals - it won Toronto's Discovery award ...
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Reviews
Unfolding Florence
Dir: Gillian Armstrong. 82mins.Aus. 2006.Feature director Gillian Armstrong (Charlotte Grey, Oscar And Lucinda) makes a successfulswitch to factual film-making with Unfolding Florence, her packed and perceptivedocumentary about the "many lives" of feisty high society proto-feminist,opportunist and self-reinventor Florence Broadhust.The project - originallyplanned as a one-hour TV documentary until Armstrong signed ...
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Reviews
Little Fish
Dir: Rowan Woods. Aus.2005. 114mins.Cate Blanchett laststarred in an Australian film with Gillian Armstrong's Oscar And Lucinda(1997), in which her 19th-century heiress harboured dreams of building a glasschurch in the Outback.She returns to Australianfilm-making eight years later - and with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar - toplay another dreamer in ...
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Reviews
The Magician
Dir/scr: Scott Ryan. Aust.2005. 88minsThis year's Sydney Film Festival was noticeably shorton new Australian movies. The UK feature My Summer Of Love played theopening night, usually reserved for a local premiere, and three Aussiemicro-budget independents seemed tucked away at the smallest festival venue.Surprisingly, The Magician, a gangster mockumentary chilling andhilarious ...
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Reviews
The Magician
Dir/scr: Scott Ryan. Aust.2005. 88minsThis year's Sydney Film Festival was noticeably shorton new Australian movies. The UK feature My Summer Of Love played theopening night, usually reserved for a local premiere, and three Aussiemicro-budget independents seemed tucked away at the smallest festival venue.Surprisingly, The Magician, a gangster mockumentary chilling andhilarious ...
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Reviews
Three Dollars
Dir: Robert Connolly.Aus. 2005. 119mins.Based on an award-winning 1998 Australian novel, ThreeDollars is about a good, honest man utterly unable to compromise hisintegrity. David Wenham is sensitively intelligent in a role that requires himto bravely suffer a variety of modern economic tortures, from sacking andbetrayal to bankruptcy and destitution.Made with ...
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Reviews
The Extra
Dir:Kevin Carlin. Aust. 2004. 90minsIrish stand-up comedian Jimeoin made waves in his adoptedAustralia during the 1990s, writing and starring in his own self-titledtelevision series. Sweet-natured, with a thick Irish accent and a nice line inbemused wonderment at modern life, his decade was crowned when his small-budgetdebut feature The Craic, though ...
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Reviews
Look Both Ways
Dir/scr: Sarah Watt.Aust. 2004. 100minsShrewdly commissioned bythe Adelaide Film Festival's own Investment Fund, writer-director Sarah Watt'sthoughtful and sobering debut made a big impression at the 2005 festival'sopening night, as might be expected.But this strong hometownreception should not detract from Look Both Ways many qualities. Whilearthouse prospects at home are excellent ...
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Reviews
Deck Dogz
Dir/scr: Steve Pasvolsky.Aust. 2004. 88minsOscar-nominatedlive-action short director Steve Pasvolsky graduates to full-length featureswith Deck Dogz, a small-scale teen action drama that confidentlytranscends its narrow focus of three Australian adolescents on a skateboardingodyssey.Opening wide (150 screens)at home on Jan 6 during school holidays, it's unusual for an Australian movieto so aggressively ...
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Reviews
Tom White
Dir: Alkinos Tsilimidos.Aust. 2004. 106minsWith a standout,hardly-off-the-screen central performance from Colin Friels, Tom Whitecharts the swift descent of its eponymous character from middle-class securityto a desperate life on the streets, utterly broke and hopeless. For his secondfeature, director Alkinos Tsilimidos keeps sentimentality at bay while crediblycharting his protagonist's identity crisis, ...