Tag: Australia

The Road to Patagonia

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 23 June 2025
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Directed by Matty Hannon
Certificate 15
90 minutes
Released 27 June

In his mid-20s, former ecology student and keen surfer Matty Hannon returns to Melbourne, Australia. For five years, from age 21 to 26, he has lived alongside one of Indonesia’s Sumatran Island tribes, a utopia where people live in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. And then there are the waves.

Melbourne hits him with culture shock; a culture that refers to its people as consumers, where national success is measured in terms of how much they buy. Depression is common. Hannon records his response in this documentary as he gets out, takes a tent to Alaska, then… on his motorbike… travels down the West Coast of the Americas to Patagonia… [read the rest in the Issue 4 – 2025 edition of Reform]

[Read my longer review for this site here.]

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Trailer:

Tags 14 months, abattoir, age 21-26, Alaska, alternative lifestyle, Amazon rainforest, animism, Australia, Baja California, Baja Peninsula, balance, bike, bike theft, biker, breathtaking vistas, butcher, California, Canada, ceremony, Chile, civilisation collapse, clearing the jungle, commodification, commodified, community, computer, consumer culture, consumers, culture shock, depression, desert, destroying the ecosystem, Developed World, ecology, environmental impact, farming, fertilise the land, fuel, harmony with nature, Heather Hillier, home-built rig, horses as fellow spirits, Inca pyramids, inspiring, interconnectedness of living things, journey, landscape, letter-writing, lifestyle, living in the wild, local customers, Matty Hannon, Melbourne, Mexico, missing something, motorbike, Patagonia, plant medicines, population density, possessions, pre-packaged jobs, raise a family, reliance on motor fuel, respect, ride the waves, robbed, simple lifestyle, small farm, Southbound, spirit gods, spirits in balance, sprits, student, success measurement, surfboard, surfer, sustainable farm, sustainable future, tent, The Road to Patagonia, trade bikes for horses, travel, unspoiled beaches, US, utopia, Vancouver, voice-over, West coast of the Americas, work, work on computer

Features Live Action Movies

Dangerous Animals

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 June 2025
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Director – Sean Byrne – 2025 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 98m

*****

A free-spirited girl surfer must outwit the shark tour operator who has kidnapped her and whose idea of looking after customers is feeding them to the sharks – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 6th

Greg (Liam Greinke) invites Brit backpacker Heather (Ella Newton) to join him on a shark swim. So, off they go to Tucker (Jai Courtney), who runs shark-seeing tours using his boat. As in Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975), you go in the cage, the cage goes in the water, the sharks are outside the cage. Heather has second thoughts, but the couple go for it, which turns out to be an amazing experience. You won’t believe what happens next. Greg certainly doesn’t. (Be advised: some online trailers give the game away. Thankfully, Vertigo’s teaser trailer, below, doesn’t.)

Free-spirited surfer Zephyr (Hessie Harrison) lives out of her van and one night indulges in passion there with yuppie Moses (Josh Heuston) parked outside his house, swiftly driving off afterwards before he has had a chance to take their relationship further, which is a pity from his point of view since he feels some sort of deeper connection.… Read the rest

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Road to Patagonia

Director – Matty Hannon – 2022 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 90m

****

A keen surfer and former ecology student from Australia sets out on a motorbike journey from Alaska down the West coast of the Americas to Patagonia – screening exclusively on the Icon Channel from Friday, May 30th and in UK cinemas on Friday, June 27th

The family of Australian moving picture diarist Matty Hannon moved around a lot during his childhood. He left home as soon as he could, and studied ecology at university, where he became fascinated by the book Shamans of Mentawai about tribes living in Indonesia’s Sumatran Islands. A keen surfer, he went out to one of the islands, rode the incredible waves, embraced a simple lifestyle and felt he’d arrived in a utopia where people lived in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. He began to wonder if by concentrating on data in his studies, he’d been missing something. He stayed five years, from age 21-26.

On his return to Melbourne, he was hit by culture shock. Everything was commodified. He sat at a computer for work. He was now in a culture that referred to its people as consumers, where national success was measured in terms of how much they bought.… Read the rest

Tags 14 months, abattoir, age 21-26, Alaska, alternative lifestyle, Amazon rainforest, animism, Australia, Baja California, Baja Peninsula, bike, bike theft, biker, book, breathtaking vistas, butcher, California, Canada, ceremony, Chile, civilisation collapse, clearing the jungle, commodification, commodified, community, computer, consumer culture, consumers, corporations, culture shock, data, depression, desert, destroying the ecosystem, Developed World, ecology, environmental impact, farming, fertilise the land, First Nation Peoples, fuel, harmony with nature, Heather Hillier, home-built rig, horses as fellow spirits, Inca pyramids, Indonesia, inspiring, interconnectedness of living things, journey, landscape, leave home, letter-writing, lifestyle, living in the wild, local customers, local resistance, malaise, Matty Hannon, Melbourne, Mexico, missing something, motorbike, mountain god, mountains, Patagonia, plant medicines, population density, possessions, pre-packaged jobs, profit before environment, pulp mill, raise a family, reliance on motor fuel, respect, ride the waves, river god, rivers, robbed by cops, Shamans of Mentawai, simple lifestyle, small farm, Southbound, spirit gods, spirits in balance, student, studies, success measurement, Sumatran Islands, Suna Beach, surfboard, surfer, sustainable farm, sustainable future, symptomatic, tent, The Road to Patagonia, toxic pollution, trade bikes for horses, travel, tribe, university, unspoiled beaches, US, utopia, Vancouver, voice-over, waves, well-being, West coast of the Americas, work, work on computer

Features Live Action Movies

Babe

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 11 April 2025
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Director – Chris Noonan – 1995 – Australia – Cert. PG (2025), U (1995) – 92m

The story of a sheep that thinks it’s a dog – back in cinemas 30 years later on Friday, April 11th 2025, with a higher BBFC classification rating. The below is my review from What’s On in London in 1995, where I badgered my editor to make it the Film of the Week.

The very different worlds of Gloucestershire-born children’s author Dick King-Smith and Australian production company Kennedy Miller (Mad Max, George Miller, 1979; The Year My Voice Broke, John Duigan, 1987; Dead Calm, Phillip Noyce, 1989) might appear to have little in common. Then along comes Babe, a Kennedy-Miller adaptation of King-Smith’s hilarious fable The Sheep-Pig in which Farmer Hogget’s sole piglet Babe decides to become a sheepdog. Although the book is a very fine (and highly recommended) example of the children’s book, it’s hardly groundbreaking – we’ve read tales about talking animals before. For that matter, too, we’ve seen films with talking animals before – many of the better ones made by Disney.

What we haven’t seen before is this conceit pulled off flawlessly in live action.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Picnic at Hanging Rock
(Director’s Cut,
4K Restoration)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 14 February 2025
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(Director’s Cut,
4K Restoration)
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Director – Peter Weir – 1975 – Australia – Cert. 12a – 107m

*****

A group of teenage schoolgirls supervised by two teachers go on a picnic beside an isolated volcanic outcrop: three of them never return – Valentine’s Day previews on Friday & Saturday, February 14th & 15th, then is out in UK cinemas from Friday, February 21st

Two locations sear themselves into your brain when watching Picnic at Hanging Rock, whether for the first time or the umpteenth. One is the obvious one – the eponymous, towering rock formation in Victoria, Australia, at once an inescapable presence in a landscape and an invitation to come into its labyrinth and explore. The other is Appleyard College, a turn of the (nineteenth into twentieth) century boarding school for young ladies, shot in the real life 1870s-built, Georgian mansion Martindale Hall. They are two very different worlds, one natural, wild, and inexplicable, the other buttoned down and socially stratified.

The picnic, which takes place on St. Valentine’s Day, 1900, only seems to take the first third of the film’s running length. Two teachers, Miss Greta McCraw (Vivean Gray from The Last Wave, Peter Weir, 1977) and the French mistress Mlle de Poitiers (Helen Morse) are in charge of around a dozen teenage girls, all dressed very prim and properly.… Read the rest

Tags 1900, Anne Lambert, Australia, boarding school, brook, buttoned down, Christine Schuler, disappear, Dominic Guard, down to earth, doze, enigma, fee-paying school, fellow students, finance, foul play, gardener, Gheorghe Zamfir, go exploring, Helen Morse, hot weather, inexplicable, isolation, Jane Vallis, John Jarrett, Karen Robson, labyrinth, location, maid Jacki Weaver, mansion, Margaret Nelson, Martindale Hall, missing, mystery, natural, orphan, out in the heat, outcrop: Valentine’s Day, panpipe, perfect day, permission, Peter Weir, picnic, Picnic at Hanging Rock, police, prim and proper, primal, principal, Rachel Roberts, remove shoes and stockings, rock formation, Russel Boyd, school authorities, schoolgirls, search, secrets, sex, socially stratified, St. Valentine’s Day 1900, student attendance, supervision, teachers, teenage, Tony Llewellyn-Jones, trees, turn of the century, unpaid fees, vanish, Victoria, Vivean Gray, volcanic, well-off, wild, working class, young ladies

Animation Features Movies

Memoir of a Snail

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 13 February 2025
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Director – Adam Elliot – 2024 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 94m

*****

A young woman recounts her life story to her newly freed pet snail after her best friend dies – stop-frame animation marvel is out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 14th

Following a bravura title sequence which consists of a camera moving around (a scale model set of) detritus from a life, everything from soap on a rope to snail poison, with various objects bearing upon themselves various credits for the film, a young woman has tears in her eyes as her bedridden friend Pinky (voice: Jacki Weaver from Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell, 2012; Animal Kingdom, David Michod, 2010; Picnic at Hanging Rock, Peter Weir, 1975) breathes her last, briefly coming back to life to utter the legend, “potatoes”. But what can this word mean?

Taking her pet snail Sylvia (the name is painted on the back of the creature’s shell) out of a glass jar and setting her free to cross Pinky’s garden in the course of her subsequent narrative, the woman remembers her childhood down to the smallest detail, and starts to recount it to the liberated gastropod. She was born prematurely as Grace Prudence Pudel (voice: Sarah Snook from Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle, 2015; Predestination, The Spierig Brothers, 2014), shortly followed by her twin brother Gilbert (voice: Kodi Smit-McPhee from Maria, Pablo Larraín, 2024; The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion, 2021; The Congress, Ari Folman, 2013; ParaNorman, Chris Butler, Sam Fell, 2012).… Read the rest

Tags 3D animation, accountant, Adam Elliot, alcoholic, Alexander Esenarro Santafe, animation, apple farm, Australia, bedridden, Bernie Clifford, Big Dipper, birthing, blood transfusion, book deposit, Canberra, cheap labour, child abuse, Child Services, childhood, Christian, church collection, cleft palette, cleft upper lip, correspondence, creating her story as a vehicle for his stop-frame puppetry, Dominique Pinon, drunk driver, eccentric, Eric Bana, exploitation, fairground, farmers, fathers and children, foster homes, foster parents, freedom, friend, fundamentalist, Garden Of Eden, gibberish, head sculptor, heroism, hoarding, hospital, Jacki Weaver, key parties, Kodi Smit-Mcphee, letters, library, love of fire, Magda Szubanski, marriage, Memoir of a Snail, memorabilia, molluscologist, music box, netball, Nick Cave, nutcase, orchard, ornament, orphan, orphanage, paraplegic, Paris, Paul Capsis, pet snail, potatoes, pray, premature birth, production line, religious, Sarah Snook, school bully, self-help books, separated, shoplifting, snail, snail poison, soap on a rope, stop-frame, stop-frame puppet, street artist, swingers, Tony Armstrong, toxic relationship, twins, volunteering, woodshed

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Top Ten

Top Ten Movies
(and more),
excluding re-releases)
2023

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 January 2024
No Comments on Top Ten Movies
(and more),
excluding re-releases)
2023

All films received either a theatrical or an online release in the UK between 01/01/23 and 31/12/23.

List with re-releases and festival films added in is here.

*****

1. Full Time (France, 2021)

2. Girl (UK, 2023)

3. The First Slam Dunk (Japan, 2022)

4. Junk Head (Japan, 2023)

5=. 20 Days In Mariupol (Ukraine, 2023)

5=. Beyond Utopia (US, 2023)

5=. The Blue Caftan (Morocco, 2022)

5=. Infinity Pool (Canada, Hungary, France, 2023)

9=. Past Lives (US, South Korea, 2022)

9=. Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (China, 2023)

9=. Reality (US, 2023)

12=. Godzilla Minus One (Japan, 2023)

12=. Bobi Wine: The People’s President (UK, 2022)

12=. Smoking Causes Coughing (France, 2022)

12=. Enys Men (UK, 2022)

12=. Holy Spider (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, 2022)

12=. Blue Jean (UK, 2022)

12=. Fashion Reimagined (UK, 2022)

12=. Name Me Lawand (UK, 2022)

12=. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (US, 2023)

Tokyo Story (Japan, 1953)

12=. Ferrari (US, 2023)

—

22=. The Boy And The Heron (Japan, 2023)

22=. Killers of the Flower Moon (US, 2023)

24. How To Blow Up A Pipeline (US, 2023)

25. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part One (US, 2022)

26. Klokkenluider (UK, 2022)

27.… Read the rest

Tags 2023, Albania, Annecy, Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Focus, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, JPF Touring Programme, Kazakhstan, LEAFF, LFF, Lithuania, LKFF, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Philippines, PÖFF, Poland, premiere, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tibet, Top Ten Movies, UK, Ukraine, US, world premiere

Features Live Action Movies

Point Break
(1991)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 November 2024
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(1991)
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Director – Kathryn Bigelow – 1991 – US – Cert. 15 – 122m

*****

A rookie FBI man goes undercover with a group of surfers, believing them to be a gang of bank robbers who disguise themselves as former US Presidents – milestone action movie is out in a 4K Restoration in UK cinemas on Friday, November 8th as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

At a cursory glance, there’s nothing particularly remarkable about Point Break, a crime movie about bank robbers, surfers and undercover cops, except perhaps the juxtaposition of surfers on the one hand with cops and robbers on the other except as a route into making a film about cops undercover. Certainly, that juxtaposition pervades the film, with fresh out of training school, undercover FBI man Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) coming up against accomplished surfer Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) and his new age-y philosophy of life, which is all about living in the moment and experiencing the biggest rush. Those two concepts happen to embody elements that could potentially make a great action film. Point Break does exactly that. Even though it’s a 35-year-old film, it feels as fresh today as it did on initial release.… Read the rest

Tags action, action hero, adrenaline rush. Physical, agent, Art of Action, Australia, backs, bank robber, beach, briefing, bromance, car, car chase, cars, chase, circle in the air, computer, confrontation, cop, cops and robbers, crash through glass, crime, death of parents, entering people’s houses, Ex-Presidents, FBI, fight, fights, freak weather, game of Chicken, gardens, Gary Busey, glass door, hand ball games, holding hands, impotence, John McGinley, jump from a plane, Kathryn Bigelow, Keanu Reeves, keep going, living in the moment, loose cannon, Lori Petty, male, male bonding, mayhem, new age, night and day, office, on foot, parachute, party, Patrick Swayze, philosophy, physicality, President masks, pursuer and pursued, pursuit, raid, ripcord, run-in, running, rush, sea, sedentary, separate existences, shoulders, sitting, skydiving, stakeout, storm, stunts, surfer, surfing, surfing season, takeaways, testosterone, throw a dog, training school, undercover, US, wave, withering put-downs, without a parachute

Features Live Action Movies

Shayda

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 July 2024
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Director – Noora Niasari – 2023 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 117m

*****

An Iranian mother and her young daughter, holed up in a women’s refuge in Australia, live in fear of the girl’s estranged father who wants to take them both back to Iran – out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 2nd

A woman is with a mum and her little girl in a shopping mall. The woman tells the little girl to remember the counters, because if daddy brings her here, she must find them and tell the security man nearby who she is. The girl’s mother reminds her that daddy said he’d take her on a plane. The woman tells the mother, she’s done the right thing.

Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi from Holy Spider, Ali Abassi, 2022) and her young daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia) are separated from Shayda’s husband. The other woman is Joyce (Leah Purcell), who runs a woman’s refuge house catering for residents from a variety of ethnic groups. Shayda and Mona, for example, are Iranian. Shayda’s photo album tells the story of her life. In the mid-1980s, she graduated and got married in Iran; in the early 1990s, the couple moved to Brisbane, Australia.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Shayda

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 16 July 2024
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Muslim limbo

Shayda
Directed by Noora Niasari
Certificate 15, 117 minutes
Released 19 July

An Iranian woman, Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi from Holy Spider, Ali Abassi, 2022), is staying with her young daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia) in a woman’s refuge house in Brisbane run by Joyce (Leah Purcell). Shayda’s husband Hossain (Osamah Sami) came to Australia with her before they separated and has been granted visiting rights for Mona. Even though Hossain talks of taking Mona on a plane back to Iran, if Shayda wants full custody, Joyce recommends she allows Hossain the allotted time alone with his daughter in the local shopping mall.

Outside of these handovers, Shayda rarely leaves the women’s refuge… [Read the full review at Reform]

Read my longer review for this site – coming soon.

Trailer: