Reviewer: Maria Komodore
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Starstruck was renowned Australian director Gillian Armstrong's second feature. After making a name for herself with My Brilliant Career (1979), a romantic period drama which garnered a number of awards and critical acclaim, Armstrong apparently wanted to get involved in a completely different project to prove herself to be a versatile filmmaker. And that she did.

Made in 1982 in Sydney, Australia, Starstruck is a campy and energetic teen musical that delightfully captures a time when that country's new wave music scene was erupting. Featuring a wonderfully silly soundtrack with rock and punkish inclinations by pop band The Swingers (supposedly they were selected over INXS and Men at Work who were also interested in writing music for the film), the movie follows Jackie (Jo Kennedy) and her cousin Angus (Ross O'Donovan) as they try to sing and dance their way out of their seemingly mundane lives into a successful music career. Due to certain plots twists, which feel more as extra excuses to break out into frantic dancing than points advancing the story, things don't go exactly as planned for the two cousins, but fear not; in the end valuable lessons are learned and everybody is happy.

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Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

Australian filmmaker Sarah Watt has heretofore made only short films, most of these animated. To call her full-length, live-action debut Look Both Ways auspicious is an understatement. This ensemble "dramedy" about how we come to terms with death is ever so light on its feet: witty, elliptical and full of odd charms. Especially odd and charming are its fast and funny animated moments, often given to ruminations about one's own death as a kind of awful -- though humorous -- fantasy of ghastly things that could happen but won't because we've first imagined them and thus staved off their arrival. Watt's heroine Meryl (winningly played by Justine Clarke) is a talented artist, and her hero is a photographer (brought to fine life by William McInnes) who also does thoughtful, professional work. Both brush up against the Grim Reaper, as do their friends, co-workers and family, and we viewers follow gladly along.

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Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): ****

If Peter Weir (of the early variety) had channeled Sam Peckinpah he might have conspired to
produce something like The Proposition, John Hillcoat's Aussie meta-Western, a bleak and violent parable as mesmerizing as it is disturbing. In short, don't miss it. It's also exactly the kind of film you'd expect to have been written by musician Nick Cave - poetic, gloomy, gritty and as often brilliant as pretentious. Set in the harsh realm of the Australian outback of the late 19th century, an even more inhospitable land than the American west's desert terrain, where the parched land and cruel sun do damage to men's psyches.

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Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****

In Somersault, first-time director Cate Shortland carves out a quietly insightful film about the messiness of adolescent sexuality, growing up poor and generational warfare with a sparing touch that keeps characters from suffocating under the weight of some of the more melodramatic moments. The performance of twenty-four year old Abbie Cornish cannot go without mention. In Heidi she embodies the guile and wonder of youth without veering into narcissistic petulism as wayward teenagers tend to be presented. Already this year Cornish has films coming out with Russell Crowe, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett and Kimberly Peirce (writer/director of Boys Don't Cry).

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Reviewer: James Van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***½

It often seems as if Australian filmmakers do something pretty odd for our digitalized, high-concept times: They put people first. The best Aussie writers and directors stock their films with characters who are rich and complex, funny and moving, and above all, real. Recent examples have included Two Hands, Little Fish, Peaches and Somersault. Now arrives Oyster Farmer as another--maybe the best--case in point. This first full-length movie from writer/director Anna Reeves is chock-a-block with wonderful characters (lusty and unembarrassed, among other traits), an exotic locale (the Hawkesbury River, outside of Sydney, where the locals farm oysters) and a surprisingly good story that combines a bit of crime and adventure with coming of age and romance. You may guess where things are going but the lovely time you have getting there more than makes up for a whiff of déjà vu.

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Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): ***

Robert Connolly's The Bank is a well-made, tense little thriller from Down Under which manages to make the world of finance and math interesting, even to those of us who don't religiously follow NASDAQ. The opening credits, reminiscent of Vertigo, pull you in, the Philip Glass-like music hypnotizes you, the Wall Street-like morality debate will fascinate. While some of its elements don't feel all that fresh (and listening to the director's fairly pretentious audio commentary won't change your mind), The Bank is presented in a fresh way, the acting is quite good, and the ethical dilemmas debated (huge corporate banks that care not one iota about the common man) are extremely timely. It's a bit funny to see Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia, more often seen these days on American TV shows and American movies, being in a film from his home country and yet playing an American - but he does so quite well. The characters aren't as deep as you might hope for, but deep enough as thrillers go, and the farm family in particular is poignantly captured. There are some genuinely surprising (if occasionally farfetched) little twists as the plot unfolds, and the moody and tense atmosphere of this cool, unfeeling world is heightened by Tristan Milani's cinematography. All in all, well worth a rental for anyone looking for a thriller that doesn't pander to the audience. -- Craig Phillips

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