Australian & New Zealand Films
Four Australian movies: Van Diemen’s Land, Beautiful Kate, Last Ride and Lucky Country
By George Morley, January 20, 2010
With Australian Film Institute (AFI) annual award winners announced late last year month, critics and others have been offering their opinions as to the merits of the country’s movies.
Baz Luhrmann’s Australia: a superficial jumble
By Richard Phillips, December 18, 2008
Luhrmann’s $A190 million movie—the most expensive in Australian film history—is a syrupy and patronising mish-mash.
Racism and small-town bigotry
Australian Rules, directed by Paul Goldman
By Richard Phillips, September 19, 2002
Australian Rules, directed by Paul Goldman and based on Phillip Gwynne’s semi-autobiographical novel Deadly, Unna? is a compassionate exposure of racism and small-town bigotry and its tragic consequences.
RadianceDirected by Rachel Perkins, screenplay by Louis Nowra
Unhelpful praise for an imperfect film
By Milan Zubic and Richard Phillips, August 11, 1998
Radiance, the first feature film by Aboriginal director Rachel Perkins is the story of three women who return home to a small town on the Queensland coast for their mother's funeral.
The Sound of One Hand Clappingwritten and directed by Richard FlanaganThe Boysdirected by Rowan Woods, screenplay by Stephen Sewell
Two Australian films
By Milan Zubic and Richard Phillips, June 6, 1998
Two recently released films, The Sound of One Hand Clapping and The Boys, are an important departure from the generally vacuous and tiresome movies produced in Australia over the last five years, such as Strictly Ballroom, Muriel's Wedding and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.
The 48th Berlin International Film Festival
A number of valuable new works
By Stefan Steinberg, March 3, 1998
At first glance the Berlin International Film Festival presented a bewildering array of films from dozens of countries. A perusal of the reviews and documentation was necessary to determine which films appeared to go beyond mere Hollywood-type entertainment and offer fresh and challenging material.
Jane Campion's The Piano: A sensitive touch to a fairly selfish theme
By David Walsh, January 17, 1994
In Jane Campion's film The Piano, mute Scottish widow Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) and her child take themselves off to New Zealand in 1852 to start a new life.
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