The Royal Hotel (2023)

Direction: Kitty Green
Country: Australia

Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick star in The Royal Hotel, an Australian psychological thriller co-written and directed by Kitty Green, a documentarian whose career reached a pinnacle four years ago with the unforgettable fictional drama The Assistant (2019). Not as strong, her new dramatic effort centers on two Canadian best friends - the disquieted Hanna (Garner) and the undisturbed Liv (Henwick) - who experience a toxic male environment while working in a remote pub in the Australian outback. The tension comes from intoxicated men, dubious in their intentions and desperately searching for attention. They repeatedly pose a threat to them.

Green proves she can build up an atmosphere, but this story needed twists to shake things off a bit. The Royal Hotel is ultimately more about mood than action, and it never really takes off, settling into a familiar routine despite the underlying tension. It’s exceptionally confident in the tone it wants to set, but not as much in the story it wants to develop. The pace is slow-burn, the mood positively throbs with anxiety, and the film sways drunkenly towards an abrupt conclusion. Too bad the provocative premise wasn’t more fully explored. 

The cinematography by Michael Latham has an exciting, alive quality despite the dusky tonality of the long nights captured in camera, but if you're seeking horror, thrills, or stimulation, this may not be the film for you.

Talk To Me (2023)

Direction: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Country: Australia

Talk To Me is a solid addition to the horror genre, placing teenagers at the heart of its chilling narrative. It marks the directorial debut of the Philippou Brothers, awarded YouTubers who worked on Jennifer Kent’s acclaimed The Babadook (2014). The directors squeeze out considerable crawling tension throughout an ambitious film that culminates with a sickening poignant ending.

The plot revolves around a group of teenagers seeking thrills by conjuring spirits using a mysterious embalmed hand. As they become ensnared in this perilous game, tragic events unfold, plunging them into a nightmarish ordeal filled with malevolent spirits and dripping with cold sweats.

Devilishly effective, this modest yet compelling Australian production delves deep into the psychological realm. It grapples with serious issues affecting today’s youth, including absence, grief, depression, and social media addiction.

While employing some familiar horror tropes and encountering minor stumbling blocks in the plot, the film masterfully maintains a grip on the audience, evoking a sense of unease throughout. Each scene is perfectly controlled, and the special effects - favoring more physical than digital techniques - contribute to an immersive visual experience. Hence, despite its flaws and the relatively simple concept, Talk To Me proves to be a successful spookster for the majority of its runtime.

Limbo (2023)

Direction: Ivan Sen
Country: Australia 

Limbo is a haunting neo-noir slow burner written, directed, edited, co-produced, photographed, and scored by the multifaceted Ivan Sen (Mystery Road, 2013; Goldstone, 2016). The film offers a captivating re-examination of an unsolved murder case that victimized a young Aboriginal woman two decades ago. Travis Hurley (Simon Baker), a benumbed cop with a violent past and a heavy drug addiction, arrives in a small, barren mining town in outback Australia to investigate deeper. He contacts the victim’s depressed family members - half-siblings Charlie Hayes (Rob Collins) and Emma (Natasha Wanganeen) - as well as Joseph (Nicholas Hope), the brother of the main suspect at the time. All of them seem to know more than what they say.

Building up slowly but with a hypnotic spell, the film looks like a canvas painted in monochrome style - the unique arid landscape and compelling black-and-white photography make a wonderful match. It exposes not only the current existential emptiness but also the lack of opportunities and injustices endured by the indigenous Australians. 

Carrying all the ingredients of a solid film noir, Limbo has a startlingly unusual climax, shrouded in thick mystery and a sulfurous tone that, at the end, suddenly veers to bittersweet. Despite the shattering suggestions, the film ends on an optimistic note that is both quite surprising and welcoming. With no sensational scenes or thrills, Limbo penetrates our minds with a piercing lethargy.

Of an Age (2023)

Direction: Goran Stolevski
Country: Australia

Directed by Goran Stolevski - who stunned us last year with You Won’t Be Alone - Of an Age tells the love story of two young men who meet up in uncommon circumstances. When Kol Denic (Elias Anton), a Serbian living in Australia, receives a call from his best friend and ballroom dance partner, Ebony (Hattie Hook), saying she woke up in a distant beach after a night party with no recollection of what happened, he resorts to her brother, Adam (Thom Green), to drive him there. On their way to the coastal side, the two share music, film, and book interests, but also a physical attraction that ends up in a 24-hour romance.

Of an Age is as elusive as the remarks about Borges and Kafka during the protagonists’ awkward conversation. It’s also visually bland to the point of making us wonder what happened to the director since the release of his abovementioned debut feature, whose images truly haunt. The eclectic soundtrack, in opposition, sounds great, including Cesária Évora, Cardigans, and French singer Barbara. 

After a lukewarm yet tolerable first part, the second - depicting the reunion of the two men a decade later - fails to succeed. It loses not only the subtle naivety but also soul, and never bothers to recover it. The predominant wistfulness in Stolevski’s film is curdled underneath, resulting in a stunted effort with plenty of lachrymose regrets and a few other problems. What started off promising ended melancholically pointless.

You Won't Be Alone (2022)

Direction: Goran Stolevski
Country: Australia / UK

Sharply crafted with a fabulous style and hair-rising tone, You Won’t Be Alone is the impressive feature debut from Australian-Macedonian writer-director Goran Stolevski, who shows high quality in the way he handles the story. And because of that, his future works will automatically be put on my watch list. More interested in deepening the ominous vibes of chilling folklore than startling us through wild scenes, Stolevski signs one of the most striking films about witchery of the last decade. 

The film thrives with impeccable acting, accuracy in the settings, intelligence in the script, and powerful social commentary. It comes with pleasures big and small. Set in a mountainous Macedonian village in the 19th century, the story starts with the kidnapping of a baby girl by an ancient spirit (Anamaria Marinca). Marked to be a witch, she grows up in the depths of the earth, fated to follow the evil being that took her away from her real mother. When the time comes, this now-adult woman learns about her bloody necessities, the art of shapeshifting, and how to dress in corpses. However, an exceptional curiosity about what it feels to be human makes her choose societal ‘prison’ instead of merely killing for blood. 

The production values are outstanding, starting with the first-class cinematography by Matthew Chuang (he gives us wonderful fields of depth and close ups) and ending with the outstanding score by Mark Bradshaw. The fascinating You Won’t Be Alone grabbed me and didn't let go until the very last minute. It’s absorbing, enigmatic and satisfying in ways that are out of the ordinary.

Nitram (2021)

Direction: Justin Kurzel
Country: Australia

Given a clinical treatment by the Australian director Justin Kurzel (The Snowtown Murders, 2011; Macbeth, 2015), Nitram is a slow, suffocating psychological drama based on the 1996 mass shooting that occurred in Port Arthur, Tasmania, where 35 people were shot by a mentally unstable young man. 

Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2017; Get Out, 2017) stars as the title character (the nickname Nitram is Martin spelled backwards), a troubled, formerly bullied boy who, even on medication, sometimes doesn’t know what to do with the loneliness and infinite sadness he experiences in a daily basis. All the same, there’s something inherently evil in him, and his parents know it. Whereas his patient father (Anthony LaPaglia) always tries to ease things up, the mother (Judy Davis) doesn’t seem to know how to react properly to his defiance, usually showing coldness and strictness or pushing him to the edge. We’re talking about a person with fixed ideas - fireworks, guns, surf - who’s not capable to measure the danger in particular situations. 

Unexpectedly, his pain is substantially eased and his mind pacified when he meets Helen (Essie Davis), a wealthy and much older woman who, like him, lives a solitary life. When everything seemed to go so well, an accident reverts every improvement he had made. 

You know what's going to happen at the end, but Kurzel, who worked from a screenplay by Shaun Grant, gives the audience precious details that help shaping the protagonist with faultless depressive realism. This unsettling account works like the implacable pull of a bad dream, and comes stripped of any possible sentimentality associated with the criminal act itself. 

It will likely lodge in your head for a while, thanks to the rigor with which it was mounted, and the top-notch performances from Landry Jones and Judy Davis.

The Dry (2021)

Direction: Robert Connolly
Country: Australia / USA

In The Dry, two murder cases are solved by a celebrated federal agent who returns to his arid hometown, Kiewarra, twenty years after he has left in an emotional turmoil. Eric Bana gives more body than soul to this groomed law enforcer who, helped by an insecure local sergeant (Keir O'Donnell), investigates the recent murder suicide that implicates a childhood friend. Concurrently, he tries to decipher in his head what could have happened to his girlfriend back then, who was found dead in a river that is now parched. The two cases might be connected.  

A desperate small farming community, a bunch of aggressive and surreptitious suspects, successive lies and shady moves are part of a screenplay co-written by director Robert Connolly (Balibo) and Harry Cripps (Penguin Bloom), who adapted Jane Harper’s novel of the same name.

It’s better the idea than the execution since the film plays as an over-plotted murder-mystery with an anticlimactic outcome. What went wrong with this adaptation? It simply collapses under the weight of its tonally one-note developments and clunky narrative.

Relic (2020)

Direction: Natalie Erika James
Country: Australia / USA

Relic, an adrenaline-charged horror film built on a proper crescendo, is the solid feature debut from Natalie Erika James, who sets up that sort of mood that, as a rule, keeps you on your toes. The story, written by the director and Christian White, centers in a mother and daughter who are deeply affected by a generational curse. 

Kay (Emily Mortimer) leaves Melbourne and heads to the remote area where her missing mother, Edna (Robyn Nevin), lives alone. Accompanied by her own daughter, Sam (Bella Heathcote), she finds an empty house when she arrives. But suddenly her mother, who has dementia, comes back from nowhere. She seems fine, except for an unexplainable black round bruise placed right in the middle of her chest. From then on, the supernatural activity in the house grows from mild to persistent. Edna behaves weirdly and talks about a strange presence in the house, the one she sometimes talks in a low voice. Is it just dementia? Kay and Sam will find out while crossing hidden rooms and labyrinthine corridors.

The film is a composite of classic startles and creepy scenes drawn from the horror mechanics compendium. Although ingeniously crafted, the somewhat tacky ending didn’t work for me. Having said that, Mrs. James is a gifted young filmmaker to keep an eye on in the future. 

The Nightingale (2019)

Direction: Jennifer Kent
Country: Australia / USA / Canada

The Nightingale is an intoxicating, brutally violent revenge tale written and directed by Jennifer Kent, a respected auteur whose knack for taut pieces is instantly confirmed. She first earned the world’s attention in 2014 with her first feature, The Babadook, embarking now on a feverish odyssey marked by rape, murder, racism, sexism, and human contempt.

The story is set in 1825 in Australia’s Van Diemen’s Land, a British penal colony, where Clare Carroll (Aisling Franciosi), a convicted Irish woman at the service of the British unit in charge, is sexually abused by the ravenous Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin), who repeats the action with further devastating consequences after being informed that his superior, finding moral indiscretions in his behavior, do not intend to recommend him for the rank of captain.

While Hawkins and the nasty Sargent Ruse (Damon Herriman) feast on their prey, Clare’s family is exterminated in front of her eyes. The images are harrowing and you'll likely feel absolutely deplorable with all the ruefulness and the ugliness of the acts.

Shaken by indignation and humiliation, Clare resolves to chase Hawkins, Ruse, and private Jago (Harry Greenwood) to the dangerous bush-ridden paths that take to Launceston. She wouldn’t have the chance to find them if not guided by Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), an expert Aboriginal tracker whose life is also marked by deprival and loss. The two forge a strong bond motivated by common misery and indignation, as well as an urgent sense of justice.

At some point along the route, Clare has a relapse and becomes fragile again, suddenly dominated by fear. This is utterly frustrating, especially when the two vile officers sexually assault a native mother that had crossed Ruse’s way. Billy, with a good help from the good spirits, is the only person she can trust to finish off the mission.

Already stamped as one of the toughest movies of the year to watch, The Nightingale is a dark thriller that, in addition to the valid script and qualified performances, relies on the naturalistic visuals to succeed.

Brothers' Nest (2019)

Direction: Clayton Jacobson
Country: Australia

Led by powerful complementary performances from Clayton and Shane Jacobson, Brothers’ Nest is a resourceful blend of family drama, dark comedy, and infamous crime. An inordinately entertaining low-budget thriller galvanized by a Coenesque style and shrouded in a doomed atmosphere. Clayton directed it from a story by Jaime Browne and Chris Pahlow.

Taking place at a secluded old house in Victoria, Australia, the tale follows two frustrated brothers, Jeff (Clayton) and Terry (Shane), who resolve to murder their stepfather, Rodger (Kim Gyngell). The reason is clear: their mother (Lynette Curran) is dying of cancer and her inheritance is about to be delivered to her longtime partner.

Besides utterly obsessed, scrupulous, and manipulative, Jeff is an annoying smart-ass. As the mastermind of the plan, he has answers for everything and constantly rebukes Terry, who exhibits a more passive temperament. As a matter of fact, the latter doesn’t seem to take the plan too seriously, showing more concern about his ex-wife taking his kids away from him.

As you’re probably guessing by now, the plan is altered last minute, becoming corrupted with both gut-wrenching anxiety and supplementary violence that ramps up for a tense and tragic finale with some good laughs in between.

Boasting a fantastic score by Richard Pleasance and his Pleasantville band, the film takes some time to build up, but the writing is effective, pointing out to a tough, unrelenting, and intense final part where the brothers’ loyalty is put to test.

Upgrade (2018)

Directed by Leigh Whannell
Country: Australia

The first interesting film by the Australian-born actor turned director Leigh Whannell is “Upgrade”, an effective dark blend of action, sci-fi, and horror that may be too moody for everyone’s taste.

The story revolves around Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), a chip-controlled mechanic that seeks revenge in the sequence of a mugging that left him quadriplegic and killed his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo). After an unsuccessful attempt of suicide, Trace accepts the help of an opaque tech expert named Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), who implants a highly-developed artificial intelligence chip in his spine. STEM, the chip, makes him physically active again but also controls his mind and talks to him (Simon Maiden’s voice) by sending sound waves directly to his eardrum. However, he needs the host’s permission to act as a brute force against those who destroyed his life.

Along the way, he gets rid of Detective Cortez (Betty Gabriel), a suspicious mind who doesn’t cease to stalk him; has Jamie (Kai Bradley), a savvy hacker, rebooting his dying system; and hunts down the evil upgrader Fisk (Benedict Hardie).

The well-told “Upgrade” maintains the dystopian vibrancy until the end, compensating the less vivid moments with a subtle dark humor that fits hand in glove.

With Marshall-Green in top form, expect violent scenes throughout and rip-roaring disclosures, strategically left for the final section.

Berlin Syndrome (2017)

Directed by Cate Shortland
Country: Australia

Australian Cate Shortland has earned her filmmaking reputation through sensitive stories centered on female characters. She had her debut in 2004 with the satisfying coming-of-age tale “Somersault”, which featured Abbie Cornish as the protagonist. However, it was with the memorable and critically acclaimed drama “Lore” that she got more visibility, benefiting from a terrific plot and a compelling performance by Saskia Rosendahl in her first screen appearance. Indeed, this was a very special film that raised the bar too high for her next move, which happened this year with “Berlin Syndrome”.

This time around, the central character belongs to Teresa Palmer, an understated actress and model who has here another wonderful opportunity to show her acting capabilities after "Warm Bodies" (2013) and "Lights Out" (2016).   
She plays Clare, an Australian photographer that arrives in Berlin to enjoy some leisure days while working for an architecture project she had in mind for some time. Feeling lonely in a strange city, Clare shows availability to meet new friends and perhaps embark on a casual romance. And that’s exactly what happens after she bump into a handsome schoolteacher, Andrei (Max Riemelt). Despite the unhidden, intense passion they share with each other, there are certain details in Andrei’s behavior that makes us question what goes in his mind. This relentless feeling that something is not right is reinforced by the uncanny musical score composed by Bryony Marks, which sort of works as an alert for the nightmare that follows. 

Little by little, the sweet cosmopolitan romance develops into a disturbing abduction thriller when Clare gets trapped in Andrei’s cloistered apartment after a one-night stand. At first, she believed it was a mistake, but soon comes to the conclusion that the man she slept with was an obsessive psycho whose past was already stained with blood. 

Without breaking new ground, Shortland, who directed from a script by Shaun Grant (“The Snowtown Murders”) based on the novel by Melanie Joosten, crafted the captivating first part with heart-pounding conjecture but ultimately allowed things to go astray in the final section, carefully fabricated to provide the ultimate excitement that a thriller requires.

If humiliation and frustration are commonly associated with the genre, compassion and desire are very unlikely to be felt in a harrowing situation like the one Clare was living. In the end, it’s inevitable to think that “Berlin Syndrome” could have been more thrilling and less manipulative than it was. Still, it’s a tolerable exercise that shows Shortland’s potentialities in a genre she’s probing for the very first time.

Hounds of Love (2016)

Directed by Ben Young
Country: Australia

“Hounds of Love” is a terrific crime thriller, period. It’s been a while since a story within this genre had caught my attention, but this one succeeded through a combination of factors that include a feverish direction from debutant filmmaker Ben Young, who also wrote the script with articulated cohesiveness. Moreover, the magnificence of the imagery punctuated with stunning slow-motion sequences, the soundtrack, which invites us to the psychological horror through Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” and releases the tension at the end with Joy Division’s “Atmosphere”, the accuracy of the performances, and the breathtaking plot itself, were also extremely influential in the outcome.

A quiet suburban neighborhood in the Australian city of Perth serves as the backdrop for a harrowing abduction, partly inspired by true events, perpetrated by a jobless, insane couple who embarks on a spiral of sexual abuse, torture, and ultimately killing of random teenage girls.

John and Evelyn, unblemishedly played by Stephen Curry and the former teen model Emma Booth, respectively, belong to those baffling creatures we observe with incredulous petrifaction in a vague attempt to understand the abominating cruelty that dwells in their souls.
John is a spiteful, manipulative monster who easily loses his temper and is clearly proud of himself, while the psychologically disoriented Evelyn lives in a constant state of distress and emotional turmoil. She’s the one who lures girls into their car, offering them a ride when they are alone.

When Vickie (Ashleigh Cummings) sneakily leaves her house without her mother(Susie Porter)'s consent and accepts the couple’s ride, she couldn’t imagine she was being taken to the putrid nest of the devil.
The capture of another victim turns the couple on, and their deranged reaction mirrors the complex, nauseous, and malevolent state of mind they live in.

While chained to a bed in the small torture room where she was thrown in, Vicky quickly realizes that her only chance to escape would be through Evelyn, who often oscillates in behavior and resolution. Deep down inside, the latter is aware of John’s immoral depravity, but cowardice always wins whenever she thinks of breaking the cycle. She is still apprehensive and sore about the lost of her own baby, which happened in mysterious circumstances, yet she's revealed to be as diabolical as her husband.

Curry and Booth carry the film on their shoulders while the sequences of frames are haunting and powerful, displacing the viewer into bizarre scenarios whose highly suggestive visual details stimulate the imagination rather than exposing us to graphic violence.
The chillingly infectious “Hounds of Love” exudes fetid vibes that will force you to ruminate on the darkest side of the human nature.

Partisan (2015)

Directed by: Ariel Kleiman
Country: Australia

Movie Review: Charismatic French actor, Vincent Cassel, who continues very active during this year in “Tale of Tales”, “Child 44”, “Mon Roi” and “One Wild Moment”, sturdily plays Gregori, a commune's polygamous leader whose occupation consists in training his children so they can become remorseless assassins. The Australian “Partisan”, despite vacillatingly opaque in its developments, was a good vehicle for Mr. Cassel reassure his performing capabilities, this time as a controlling, egocentric villain with low moral values and an evil scheme carried out with the children’s mothers’ consent. The 11-year-old Alex (newcomer Jeremy Chabriel) is his brightest son, being always the first in the general knowledge tests, very precise in the shooting sessions, and coldly efficacious in the exterminating missions. Gregori is so proud of him that he constantly forgives the minor disobediences Alex is up to – he collects stuff from the outside world, deliberately interacts with strangers, buys meat for his unstable mother (newcomer Florence Mezzara), besides all the mischief associated with the kids in his age. However, Alex always showed a great respect for his protective, and simultaneously abusive father. On the contrary, Leo (Alex Balaganskiy), another sensitive kid who keeps disarming Gregori with wise words and antagonistic behaviors, doesn’t share this respect. When he fiercely holds onto a chicken in order to protect it from death and avoid its extinction, Gregori manages to punish him in his own guileful way. This is the moment when Alex, who swears to protect his newborn baby brother, starts acting in accordance to his own thoughts and not driven by his untrustworthy father. First-time director and co-writer, Ariel Kleiman, was able to set an appropriate moody atmosphere and also drawing unadulterated cold looks from the father and son. Yet, and without prejudice of what he did well, some secondary scenes are not so natural (Alex’s mother crisis is a good example) while we’re left a bit empty in regard to the motives and beliefs of the intriguing Gregori. Moreover, The film’s disconsolate climax, despite clear and transparent, felt somewhat hasty, triggering those typical bothersome sensations that arise from an undercooked plot.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Directed by: George Miller
Country: Australia / USA

Movie Review: The enthusiastic moviegoers yearning for a rebirth of ‘Mad’ Max Rockatansky, immortalized by Mel Gibson in the early 80’s, can rest now. Director George Miller’s fourth post-apocalyptic road movie, “Mad Max: Fury Road”, is a meritorious follow up to the cult trilogy. The quiet loner Max, now played by Tom Hardy, continues his adventures in a dystopian Australia where the immense deserted landscapes sustain high-speed raging battles, most of them inventively crafted through futuristic vehicles, sufficiently freakish props, and gruesome faces. In the breathtaking opening scene, we observe Max being trapped and turned prisoner by the War Boys, the faithful army of the despot, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), the one who, from his Citadel, controls all the water supplies of the area. Max becomes the official blood donor of Nux (Nicholas Hoult), an ambitious sick War Boy who, later on, will join him in the fierce rebellion against Joe, led by the one-armed soldier, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Joe’s five beautiful wives, whose existence is resumed to giving birth, flee with Furiosa, who drives a heavily-armored War Rig toward East, looking for the ‘Green Place’, a vivid memory from her childhood. The tyrannical Joe reunites his army to chase the eight fugitives. I simply loved the guy hanging on the front of a car, insanely playing an electric guitar. Max, who keeps tormented by visions of his dead daughter and other ghosts, is the one to engender a risky and yet clever move: turn back to the Citadel. Mr. Miller takes a better advantage of the technology at his disposal, and yet the impetuously wild scenes never felt digitally manipulated. The elementary plot proves there’s no need for elaborate plots or subplots to set up a decent action-packed film. The power of cinema can marvel!

The Water Diviner (2014)

Directed by: Russell Crowe
Country: Australia / Turkey / USA

Movie Review: With a screenplay by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios, the shabby “The Water Diviner” is a product of Russell Crowe whose direction and performance didn’t shine. Inspired by true events, his fictional feature-length debut often struggles to find the path for the heart, in spite of the noble tolerance and perseverance evinced by its main character. Joshua Connor (Crowe) got so happy when he found water in his dried Australian land, that he runs home in an effusive state to tell his wife, Eliza. It was noticeable right away that something was wrong with them because, instead of sharing his happiness, she starts yelling at him. Soon we realize that, four years before, the couple had lost their three sons in the battle of Gallipoli, Turkey. In consequence of the pain, Eliza takes her own life and Joshua travels to Turkey in order to locate the bodies of their boys and take them home, next to their mother’s grave. In Istanbul, he is conducted to a cozy hotel by a smart little boy, but is seen with suspicion by the kid’s mother, Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko), who also had lost her husband in the mentioned battle. Joshua is taken to Gallipoli with expected difficulties, ironically conducted by Major Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan), an influential Turkish official who risks his own life to help. The possibility of one of his sons might still be alive was prognosticated early in the film, while flashbacks were recurrent to better clarify the past happenings, but not even the war was depicted in a convincing or exciting way to involve us. Playing with cultural differences and hazy romance, Crowe tries to push away any glimmer of sentimentality but ends up creating a soft exercise that becomes too dried on all fronts. It would be great if water could be found in this desert…

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014)

Directed by: Kiah Roache-Turner
Country: Australia

Movie Review: Wyrmwood’s opening scene gives us the right notion of what the film will be: rural Australian landscapes transformed in ferocious battlefields between zombies, seen as the invaders, and humans, mostly represented by military forces and survivor groups that armed to the teeth, do their best to remain bite-free. The story starts to be built in three fronts: Benny (Leon Burchill) is an aboriginal who didn’t have the guts to shoot his brother in the head when he became a zombie, letting him loose to infect other people; Barry (Jay Gallagher) is a common man who was forced to kill his wife and daughter and for a while tried to kill himself with no success; Brooke (Bianca Bradley) is Barry’s adroit sister, who was captured by two soldiers, falling afterwards in the hands of ‘the Doc’ (Berynn Schwerdt), a frantic researcher and disco music lover. After a freak first encounter, Barry and Benny end up teaming up and joining other anti-zombie fighters. Brooke, in turn, realizes she developed a strange telepathic power that allows her to control the zombies, without avoid gradually becoming one of them. Debutant writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner, who also produced and edited, was able to innovate a little by introducing a couple new elements to the washed-out genre; to give an example: here, the zombies’ blood and breath was proved to be inflammable, so useful in many situation throughout this gory adventure. At times, the energetically foolish “Wyrmwood” can be nauseating in its mayhem, however it’s also technically competent and confers sufficient action to minimally satisfy in this particular film category.

The Infinite Man (2014)

Directed by: Hugh Sullivan
Country: Australia

Movie Review: Australian writer/director, Hugh Sullivan, intelligently picks a washed out idea such as time-shifting, giving it a fresh shape in his debut feature. Sci-fi rom-com “The Infinite Man” doesn’t disappoint, especially due to a more funnier and engaging concept than those used in similar films, cases of “The One I Love” and “Coherence”. Josh McConville is great in the role of Dean, an obsessed man who does everything to provide perfection in the anniversary of his relationship with Lana (Hannah Marshall). He takes her to an abandoned hotel somewhere in Australia where the desert and the beach seems to merge. The obstinately romantic Dean was happy to be in control of the situation when Lana’s infamous former boyfriend, Terry (Alex Dinitriades), unexpectedly shows up to ruin his plans. Marked by frustration and jealousy that ends up in a hysterical threat of immolation, Dean decides to dump Lana, staying by himself at the hotel working on a tech device that makes possible to redo what went wrong: time travel. The unstable time loop created will duplicate situations (past and present) and also characters that fight and trick one another to conquer what they want. Not without some confusion, the indie “The Infinite Man” brings some originality to the subject in an absurdist way, putting side to side the sad original Dean and the happy Dean of the future, and taking on the perfectionism with inventiveness and neat humor. Considering the low budget (filmed in a single location with just three actors), Sullivan did a pretty well job, controlling this surrealistic adventure with steady hand. Let’s wait for his next time hop and see if the future will confirm the promising direction taken here.

These Final Hours (2014)

Directed by: Zak Hilditch
Country: Australia

Movie Review: “These final Hours” is a suggestive example of a dark thriller where the mood overrides the quality of the plot. Australian writer/director Zak Hilditch, brings us an apocalypse tale, set in Perth, that relies on the rescue of Rose (Angourie Rice), a young girl who dangerously fell in the hands of one of the many mad savages who wander throughout the city, after she got lost from her father. With the end of the world arriving in twelve hours, James (Nathan Philips), her savior, tries to find a viable solution for this situation, while simultaneously decides to change his personal life when he learns that his supportive lover, Zoe (Jessica De Gouw), is pregnant of his child. Unsuccessfully trying to reach his sister who would take care of the girl, he ends up in a chaotic private party given by his vicious girlfriend, Vicky (Kathryn Beck), and his maniac brother, where drugs, madness, aggressiveness and orgies are abundant. Even tempted, James opts to put an end to his doomed relationship with Vicky but recklessly leaves the girl behind at the mercy of a spaced-out woman who thinks she’s Rose’s mother. No panic was felt among these people waiting for the end, mostly unsteady characters evincing alienated behaviors. Although Hilditch showed some nerve, I cannot say I was totally engaged by this film, especially in its final moments, which seemed more like an advertisement video clip that ends with the lame words ‘It’s beautiful!’, coming out from Zoe’s mouth when the fatal explosion occurs. Only recommended for enthusiasts of these apocalyptic situations, “These Final Hours”, was presented in torrid yellowish tones that intensifies the heat but doesn’t persuade our hearts.

Son of a Gun (2014)

Directed by: Julius Avery
Country: Australia

Movie Review: Julius Avery’s Australian crime thriller, “Son of a Gun” lacks inspiration and freshness to get a prominent position within the genre. The story follows 19-year-old JR (Brenton Thwaites), locked up for minor criminal charges in a high-security prison where a lot of abuses are perpetrated among the inmates. In a smart way, JR gains the sympathy of Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor), the most notorious criminal of Australia, who gives him the protection he was looking for. However, this protection comes with a high price, and JR will have to follow Brendan’s ambitious plans to escape prison and then participate in a jeopardous gold heist. In addition to the highly clichéd action scenes, which look old most of the times with the use of staged shootings, a cheesy romance was also introduced when JR falls for a brave stripper. The film can be divided in three uneven parts: the ‘life in the hole’ was capable to draw some attention, the ‘outside robbery’ was both unoriginal and unexciting, and finally the ‘sharing of the gold’, which failed to create any impact or even surprise. “Son of a Gun” also showed to be unattractive in its visuals, while the score by Jed Kurzel (much better in “Snowtown” and “The Babadook”) wasn’t so effective this time. In comparison with “Starred Up”, last year’s most riveting prison crime drama, I can say that filmmaker David Mackenzie did much more with less than Julius Avery could achieve with a messy film whose good twists and thrills were missing all the time. Thwaites and McGregor didn’t convince either with their undistinguishable performances.