Reviewed by Michael Dalton

The ABCs Of Death is a gift from hell for horror film lovers. It’s not perfect, a few segments have no rhyme or reason, but when it hits the mark it makes for a superb entertainment. From all corners of the world, producers Ant Timpson and Tim League rounded up 28 directors, allowed each of them a sum of $5,000, and awarded them a letter of the alphabet as the directive for a brief horror vignette. At 124 minutes, there’s plenty here to see and revel in and even when it wavers too self-consciously, part of the fun is guessing what each director has named his morbid tale; each story ends with the assigned letter, the film’s title, and the director. The more obscure they are as in the case of the letter M, the more surprising it gets. It’s an interesting idea and one that grows more fascinating as it rolls along.

Reviewed by Peter Gray

In my review for The Hangover Part II from 2011, I closed by stating that a second sequel seemed unlikely as it appeared the series had exhausted its potential.  Whilst I am clearly no expert on what constitutes a franchise these days, The Hangover Part III doesn’t exactly do a whole lot to convince me that a third outing is necessary, something writer/director Todd Phillips seemed intent on proving after admitting he dropped the ball with his lazy sequel.  Though these films have always been far removed from reality, the original at least had a premise that was somewhat relatable: A group of friends set for a weekend of disruption and depravity in a city where excess is the norm.  The sequel hoped for bigger and better things but ended up cheap and tired in its sluggish emulation.  For the third there’s no hangover to actually speak of as Phillips has tried to (gasp!) create a storyline and in doing so has only sadly highlighted his inept ability to produce anything novel.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

If you’re a lover of fine cinema and, more importantly, dulled by the unoriginal and uninspired excuses that have been swamping cinemas these many months, Miguel Gomes’s Tabu is a film to put at the head of your list. Films as beautifully and thoughtfully put together as this are so rare. Initially it looks like it may be a self-conscious odyssey into little other than human interaction but slowly Gomes sets us up for the main event, a passionate love story set in the wilds of colonial Africa at the base of Mount Tabu.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

The poster for Dwayne Johnson’s new movie Snitch is phony. There stands Johnson looking muscular and ready to kick his enemies into the next century while in the background we see a truck ramming into another. With the exception of tepid flicks such as The Tooth Fairy and Be Cool (Johnson was the Only reason to see it), he’s been flexing his enormous frame and levelling his piercing gaze at his enemies for years. Here though in Snitch, an adventure based on actual events, he’s taken on the underdog role and he plays it convincingly.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

There is no doubt theatre director Rufus Norris has taken a few cues from Robert Mulligan’s To Kill A Mockingbird with his dark, disturbing debut, Broken. This is a beautiful if occasionally unfocused film about growing up too fast in frightening surroundings, here a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of North London. Bullying, assault, cruel little girls, a violent father, and a shut-in form the rough edged foundations and through the eyes of a heroine called Skunk, played superbly by newcomer Eloise Lawrence and just as much of a comfort as Mary Badham was in Mulligan's classic, we witness the lessons and if it sprawls too much, perhaps it’s because the memories of our respective childhoods do.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

Is it because Halle Berry has somehow become the queen of b-grade cinema that critics were so ready to carve up her latest thriller The Call? Probably. You have to get past her hair (always an interesting discussion point in her film appearances) and here it looks like Mickey Mouse’s ears after you’ve taken an  egg beater to them, the strange way she has of relaying information to her co-stars (here she seems to be waiting for the cinematographer to give her the nod), and of course the increasingly odd choices she makes. Here in her latest thriller made up of gears and sprockets, you have to get past that old leap of faith where a crucial realisation is made by the heroine as she twigs to something that trained officials completely missed.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

To review Harmony Korine’s movie Spring Breakers, all I’d really have to do is provide a picture of a bikini-clad set of breasts (preferably rubbing against another set), 100 bags of cocaine, as many joints and even more guns, and the word Innocence with a jagged line drawn through it. Perhaps I should. When I checked Rotten Tomatoes I thought I must have been seeing double (a natural side effect from suffering through a film that is obsessed with butt cheeks and said breasts) when it said 66%. Obscene, drug-crazed, alcohol-splattered, smoky from the endless puffing joints, joyfully sexist, and underneath it all, a sloppily delivered message about growing up and learning priorities, is the squiggly narrative line of Spring Breakers. 

Reviewed by Lachlan Williams

Meet Gerry and his daughter Sally. Gerry's got problems – drink, inner (and outer) violence, and some awful churning turmoil beneath it all that he keeps in check with an exterior of aggressive, all-knowing cynicism lubricated by cheap wine. Sally's sick of his shit, and wants him to get the help he needs, because she's done with taking care of him, family or not. Gerry and Sally live on a living-room sized raised wooden platform in the middle of a theatre that spins when they need to be somewhere else, which is a very impressive and expensive way of doing scene changes. It also must have taken some getting used on the part of the seasick cast.

Reviewed by Hazel Menehira

This superbly presented hardback fits the bill and ticks all the boxes as a classic piece of Australian junior fiction. The storyline by Michelle Gillespie is based on an historical shipwreck tragedy of 1876 and it is set securely in powerful illustrations by Sonia Martinez to highlight the dramatic narrative. As a child Gillespie, who was born in Perth, spent childhood holidays exploring the Margaret River region whilst the illustrator Martinez, who lives in Fremantle, was a prolific drawer of horses in her pre-teen years. This team effort has paid off for them both and it is pleasing that the Department of Culture and the Arts recognised this with sponsorship. Teaching notes can be obtained for this book from the publishers. 

Reviewed by Michael Dalton 

In 2010, director Derek Cianfrance delivered a searing examination of the end of a marriage with Blue Valentine. Starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, it utilised the fractured narrative approach and cut between the happier days and the emotionally fraught ones and it felt so authentic (Gosling and Williams workshopped their roles intensely in preparation), it was more like a documentary. Cianfrance has now returned with The Place Beyond The Pines, a far grander melodrama with a powerhouse cast, more scope and colour, and far less impact.