Van Diemen's Land- It's Always The Quiet Ones

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From the very first moment that Van Diemen’s Land starts you know that you are in for a disturbing ride. Underlying the lamenting score is an unpleasant piercing sound; this film is an assault on the senses. You hear the wind brushing through the trees, the rushing water, every twig snap and every bone crunch - the effect is unnerving. There have been stories buzzing around the Internet about audience members vomiting or fainting whilst watching this film, for once this doesn’t sound like it is just publicity hype. There is definitely something physically unsettling about the film - not simply the storyline, but the whole approach taken to tell the story.

Click here to read my full review at Onya

How Australia Betrayed, then 'Saved' East Timor

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We are all too familiar with ‘issue’ films that follow a white, western protagonist into a troubled developing country (El Salvador, The Constant Gardener, Blood Diamond, The Last King of Scotland). We associate with the moral outrage of the bystander, raging against the apathy of the rest of the world, who ignore the harsh and chaotic brutality. Australian film, Balibo, has received a lot of press, bringing attention to the killing of five journalists in 1975 and the cover-up that followed. The film is political, its purpose to inform and rally. Unapologetically Australian focused, Balibo is concerned with a very small period of time, in what was a long struggle to independence for East Timor. After watching Balibo you should be furious that the truth has been unacknowledged for so long. Balibo should be just the start though, because if we are exploring Australia and East Timor’s relationship, then there is so much more to be angry about.

Click here to read my full article at Onya

Julie&Julia: It's a turkey!

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When a film is split into two narratives, inevitably there has to be a winner and a loser in the story stakes. If the film is good, the gap between the superior section and the other story is almost unperceivable. Julie & Julia is not one of the good films. It is a run-of-the-mill chick-flick, which is mildly amusing in places. The film’s obvious failing is the canyon-sized gapping hole between the narratives, making the film rather off kilter, with Julia Child’s story being far more engaging than Julie Powell’s.

Click here to read my full review at Trespass

The Basterds Are Inglouriously Back

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Quentin Tarantino is back and he is taking on the Nazis. With his unique vision he has reinvented 1978 warsploitation film, Inglorious Bastards (the original is spelt correctly - Tarantino’s takes certain liberties with the English language). Tarantino is known for finding inspiration in 70s genre movies; a massive film buff he is constantly bringing lost work back into the public conscious (the original Inglorious Bastards has just been released on Blu Ray). Anyone who has seen the documentary, Not Quite Hollywood will be familiar with the joy Tarantino has for this era of filmmaking, and the excitement he finds in violence-packed -ploitation films of all descriptions.

Click here to read my full review at Trespass

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Coraline

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Coraline is a fairytale with a modern twist. Utilising a well-known plot of neglectful parents, inquisitive girl and magical world, Coraline follows in the mode of stories like Alice in Wonderland and Pan’s Labyrinth. Based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaimen, Coraline has been interpreted for film by Henry Selick. His animated style, as seen in The Nightmare before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach, gives Coraline a distinctive and strong aesthetic. Engaging the younger audience with an interesting story that is both creepy and exciting, shows that the author and director are both focused on good storytelling, not merchandising opportunities.

Click here to read my full review at Trespass

The Cove

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The opening of the film is more like a modern spy thriller than the animal planet type documentaries we are used to seeing. Filming with a heat-seeking, military-issued camera, the opening sequence establishes a sinister tone that permeates the whole documentary. This isn’t going to be a ‘look at the dolphins aren’t they pretty, aren’t they clever’ sort of film - be prepared for something completely different.

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The Cove is a superb documentary, deserving of its festival accolades. It is inspiring to see what people can do if they are really passionate about a cause. The documentary follows, perhaps the most committed of them all, dolphin activist, Richard O’Barry. O’Barry was the dolphin trainer on the TV series, Flipper and feels a heavy responsibility for the commercialisation of the mammal-‘10 years building the industry up, 35 years trying to tear it down’. This is a man whose personal guilt oozes off the screen. Now a well-known and seemingly much despised protector of the cetacean species, he travels the globe answering the call of dolphins in peril.
Click here to read my full article at Trespass

My Sister's Keeper-The Tearfest

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The plot for My Sister’s Keeper is very promising. Anna (Abigail Breslin) was born, with scientific help, to be a genetic match for her severely ill sister. Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who has been battling leukaemia since she was a toddler, has survived due the blood and bone marrow she has received from Anna. Now fifteen, Kate is slowly dying from renal failure. Expected to donate her kidney, eleven year old Anna, decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation.

Author of the highly successful novel, Jodi Picoult, has picked up on a very real concern people have over body ownership. It is a hot topic, which people are both terrified of and fascinated by. The problem is - this is not a film about child rights or medical ownership, it is a family drama, not so much concerned with the big issues as hitting the emotional buttons. click here to read my full review at Trespass.

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I like to think that Alec Baldwin's pained expression in this photo is down to the guilt-trip that Abigail Breslin is giving him over convincing her to sign up to the film.