Landing somewhere between Fame, Black Swan and Full Metal Jacket, Whiplash is a gut-wrenching music drama, which, while flawed, is still one of the year’s most riveting films. In its best moments this is a searing examination of bullying, the forces that compel people toward objectionable even maniacal behaviour, the obsessive pursuit of success and the limits of emotional endurance.
Read moreForce Majeure is a refreshingly unusual Swedish film that dissects the institution of marriage to examine issues of guilt, blame, masculine identity and parental responsibility. Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke) and Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) are an attractive 30-something Swedish couple with two young children. They appear to be the perfect family; they even clean their teeth together in front of the
Read moreJohn Doe: Vigilante is bound to divide audiences and evoke volatile reactions for both its subject matter and its film-making style. Taking perhaps too many thematic and plot cues from 90’s serial killer films such as Natural Born Killers and Seven, the film follows an Aussie vigilante killer calling himself John Doe who murders assorted criminals who he thinks have
Read moreFor No Good Reason documents the life and work of iconic British artist and cartoonist Ralph Steadman. Even if his name is not familiar, his confronting artwork which is full of wonderfully grotesque, cadaverous, deformed figures and distinctive ink and paint splatters will be. His art has graced posters for movies such as Withnail and I and for years his
Read morePsychological thriller Before I Go to Sleep will inevitably draw comparisons with Chris Nolan’s Memento. Like Memento this film features a character with anterograde amnesia whose lost memories hides a disturbing past. Unfortunately, this film is not the wonderfully clever and fascinating puzzle that Memento proved to be. Nicole Kidman plays Christine Lucas a woman who wakes each morning to
Read moreThe documentary The Case Against 8 takes us into the heated and complex battle to legalise same-sex marriage in the US. In 2004 the California Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage but in 2008 a state constitutional amendment known as Proposition 8 invalidated same sex marriages that had taken place in the previous four years and prevented other same sex couples
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