New Zealand | 2009 | Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Logline: An extraterrestrial race marooned on Earth and forced to live in slum-like conditions suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent after he is infected by their advanced biotechnology.

Taking inspiration from the segregation of Alien Nation, elements of transmogrification from David Cronenberg’s The Fly, and the combat futurism of Aliens and RoboCop, brilliant new director Neill Blonkamp has fashioned a sensational science fiction action flick that boldly doesn’t flinch from showing the confrontation inherent in the story.

District (more. . .)

USA | 2006/2008 | Directed by Bill Corben

Loglines: The true story of the smugglers and law enforcement in Miami, Florida, which became the cocaine capital of the world during the 70s and 80s/The true story of a Californian street kid who, during the 90s, became the right hand man to the cocaine queen who had masterminded the Miami coke trade of the previous decades.

Two fast-paced, magazine-style documentaries that provide fascinating insight into how cocaine overwhelmed America, set chiefly in the cities of Miami and Oakland, (more. . .)

Soviet Union | 1972 | Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Logline: A psychologist is sent to a space station operating above the sentient oceanic planet Solaris to investigate the strange behaviour of its remaining two scientists, and is bewildered when he is visited by his wife, who committed suicide years earlier.

One of the most philosophical, perplexing and haunting science fictions ever made, often compared to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but more in tone and feeling with Chris Marker’s extraordinary muse on memory, guilt and desire, La Jetée, (more. . .)

USA | 1983 | Directed by Brian DePalma

Logline: The rise of Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who becomes an immensely wealthy, powerful and ruthless drug lord in Miami, Florida during the early 1980s, but falls prey to greed, paranoia and betrayal.

Along with Coppola’s The Godfather (parts one & two) and Scorsese’s Goodfellas, this is the finest cinematic portrayal of American gangsters hands down; they form the movies’ holy trinity of organised crime. I’ve watched Scarface many times, and it always delivers, always packs a punch, so (more. . .)

USA | 1996 | Directed by Doug Liman

Logline: An aspiring NYC comedian based in LA, pining for his ex-girlfriend, struggles to get back into the dating scene with the help of his buddy, a cocky ladies man.

With a killer script by co-producer and star Jon Favreau Swingers is the ultimate debunking of male bravado and dating swagger that bristles with hilarious dialogue, crackles with spot on comedic characterisation and pitch-perfect comic timing. Written as a vehicle of Favreau who plays mournful Mike, it turned out to (more. . .)

Canada | 1995 | Directed by Patricia Rozema

Logline: An uptight and conservative woman, working as a Christian university professor and engaged to another of the college’s professors, finds herself strangely attracted to a free-spirited, liberal woman whom works at a local carnival which has come to town.

A deeply lush and exquisitely sensual drama streaked with a subtle, but resonating sense of humour, this romance continues to age like a fine wine; rich, vibrant, heady and intoxicating. Not to mention very erotic in particular moments!

From (more. . .)

France | 1986 | Directed Jean-Jacques Beineix

Logline: A carefree handyman begins a passionate relationship with a beautiful, but emotionally volatile young woman who wants desperately for him to succeed as a writer, and to have his child.

I love this movie with an aching in my melodic heart. A celebration of love and life inexorably entwined with melancholy and tragedy, so French you can hear it crunch like a crisp baguette. A powerful love story and an inspirational study of life’s craziness that is as sweltering (more. . .)

USA | 1991 | Directed by Hal Hartley

Logline: A college professor falls for one of his students but becomes a confused emotional wreck when she decides to end the short term relationship not long after they’ve become lovers.

I was a fan of indie darling Hal Hartley’s early movies, and still am, especially his first feature The Unbelievable Truth. But it is this featurette (only 60 minutes in length) that is my favourite. It also happens to be one of my favourite comedies and favourite love stories, (more. . .)

Belgium | 2007 | Directed by Koen Mortier

Logline: A manipulative and cynical writer joins a desperate punk band under the pretence he is as handicapped as the other three, when the reality is he simply wants to shake up his complacent existence and disturb theirs.

You want to upset your cinematic sensibilities, then leave it to the wayward Europeans to throw a spanner in the works, and they’ll twist the tool for all its worth, prizing the cogs apart with malicious and sordid glee, yet maintain (more. . .)

France | 2007 | Directed by Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire

Logline: Several nightmarish tales of the macabre, grotesque and creepy delivered in heavily-stylised monochromatic animation by leading European artists of the surreal.

We’re so used to modern animation being saturated in colour, especially the stuff that comes out of Hollywood (Pixar and Dreamworks Animation), that a collection of animated tales in stark black and white seems strangely refreshing. Add to it a distinctly European (with a dash of Asian) (more. . .)

USA | 1990 | directed by Phil Joanou

Logline: An undercover cop returns to his NYC stomping ground in order to bring an Irish-blooded criminal family and associates to justice, but finds the danger too close for comfort.

One of the best gangster flicks set in New York City, Phil Joanou’s blistering tale of corruption, deception and betrayal amidst the noise, squalor and filthy beauty of Hell’s Kitchen, the Irish core of the Big (rotten) Apple, brims with violence and seethes with conviction. It also has a brilliant (more. . .)

West Germany/USA | 1987 | Directed by Percy Adlon

Logline: When a German tourist is abandoned by her husband she seeks solace at a dysfunctional Californian desert café motel and inadvertently brings disruption, then joy to the staff, guests and patrons.

A film festival favourite when it was first released Bagdad Café (aka Out Of Rosenheim) is the quintessential 80s arthouse comedy; a quirky character study of eccentricities, idiosyncrasies, and observations of Americana from the viewpoint of a Bavarian husband and wife team: Percy and Eleonare Adlon (they (more. . .)

UK | 2009 | Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Logline: The prison life story of Michael Peterson, Britain’s most notorious criminal, originally sentenced to seven years, he’s spent thirty-four years behind bars, thirty of them in solitary confinement.

Denmark’s enfant terrible turns his attention to making a docu-drama-cum-biopic unlike anything seen before. The true story of one of the most violent, unruly, and headstrong prisoners of the British penal system who systematically sabotaged his own future, and yet made a name for himself via his alter-ego, Charlie (more. . .)

Australia | 1976 | Directed by Bruce Beresford

Logline: On the night of the 1969 Australian election, Don holds a party in his Sydney home, where his crass middleclass friends discuss sex and politics, get drunk and try to seduce each other’s wives.

Arguably playwright David Williamson’s finest hour-and-a-half, Don’s Party is a superbly sustained comedic treatise on suburban wankery, macho hoohah, feminine guile, socio-political diatribes, and other shambolic party shenanigans. It worked brilliantly (and still does) as a play, and Bruce Beresford turned it into a classic (more. . .)

USA | 1984 | Directed by Alex Cox

Logline: An indignant teenage punk-rocker is recruited by a car repossession agent and becomes embroiled in the chaotic pursuit and secret agent shenanigans for a car containing deadly cosmic material.

Made on the smell of an oily rag and sporting some of the cheesiest special effects this side of Edge City Repo Man still manages to rise above its limitations and resonates like the growling weather-beaten Chevy Malibu that is the key non-speaking character of the movie. Of course, the movie (more. . .)

USA | 2009 | Directed by Sophie Barthes

Logline: After a neurotic actor discovers an unorthodox solution to his mid-life crisis: a company that specializes in soul extraction and storage, he then rents the soul of a Russian poet, only to discover his own soul has been stolen and given to a Russian actress.

The premise alone of this debut feature was enough to pique my egocentric interest big-time. New Yorker Sophie Barthes has fashioned a delightfully black comedy streaked with the kind of existential angst and (more. . .)

Australia/USA | 1971 | Directed by Ted Korcheff

Logline: An English Outback teacher on route to Sydney finds himself trapped and out of his depth in a small township, caught up in the local pastime of drinking, gambling, and aggressive hospitality.

Based on a blistering first novel by Kenneth Cook written in 1961, with an excellent screenplay from Evan Jones, and helmed by the man who would direct the under-rated Rambo movie First Blood, Wake In Fright is a classic tale of one’s descent into a Dante’s Inferno (more. . .)

West Germany/France/Poland/Yugoslavia | 1979 | Directed by Volker Schlöndorff

Logline: In Danzig, Germany, as WWII begins, a three year old boy with extraordinary intellect and a distorted morality decides to stop growing in defiance against the absurdity and contradiction of the adult world he sees around him.

Based on the best-selling novel by Günter Grass Die Blechtrummel is a saga of morality, deception and resignation. It is a tale that resonates with dark poignancy, reverberates with an element of the perverse, and echoes with touches of surrealism. It’s a (more. . .)

Australia | 2008 | Directed by Jon Hewitt

Logline: Three mischievous teenagers decide to blackmail a suspected serial killer into murdering a perverted bully as an act of revenge, but their dangerous plans go seriously awry.

Australia’s recent genre entries have been solid and inspiring and Acolytes is one of the best horror-thrillers I’ve seen in years. Set amidst the gorgeous Queensland forest juxtaposed with the sprawling suburbia, it’s a murderous tale of deceit and betrayal, blackmail and revenge. And like all tales of this ilk, Murphy’s Law will (more. . .)

Italy | 2006 | Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

Logline: A determined and troubled Ukrainian woman becomes the maid and nanny to a young, affluent Italian family, befriending the young impressionable daughter as part of her elaborate mission to uncover a sad and shocking truth.

Nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2008 Academy Awards and winner of numerous European awards Giuseppe Tornatore’s brilliant jigsaw puzzle thriller is his first movie in six years and stands alongside his equally stunning psychological thriller Una Pura Formalita (A Pure Formality) (more. . .)