Top 10 films
The Age
Saturday October 3, 2009
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (152 min) MAAFTER the failure of his great car-chase movie Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino bounces back with a fabulously entertaining war-movie jaunt that balances his infatuation for pulpy genre conventions with his signature love of long, involved scenes of dialogue. Austrian actor Christoph Waltz steals the film as the smooth-talking SS officer. The film is likely to out-gross Pulp Fiction and is an absolute must-see for QT fans. General JSMAO'S LAST DANCER(117 min) PGBRUCE Beresford's workmanlike but appropriately melodramatic adaptation of Li Cunxin's best-selling memoir about his defection to the West in 1981 while dancing for the Houston Ballet. Ham-fisted but stirring nonetheless. General. JSLOOKING FOR ERIC(117 min) MATHE life of postman Eric (Steve Evets) turns around when he begins an imaginary friendship with Manchester United soccer legend Eric Cantona. Funny, moving, uncharacteristically positive for director Ken Loach, and with his trademark dashes of social realism, this is the closest he has come to making a beautiful film.Selected. JSJULIE & JULIA (123 min) MFABULOUSLY enjoyable, fact-based culinary adventure from writer-director Nora Ephron (You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle) about modern-day office drone Julie (Amy Adams) who finds life-changing inspiration in the recipes of 1950s cooking maven Julia Child (a flighty, high-pitched Meryl Streep in one of her best turns). In preview this weekend. Opens on October 8. General. JSCHARLIE & BOOTS (90 min) MPAUL Hogan and Shane Jacobson play an estranged father and son who bond during a long road trip to Cape York in this mild-mannered, unforced, middle-of-the-road comedy. Critics didn't like it much but it's on its way to being the biggest local film this year. General. JSCHE (235 min) MRELEASED in two parts, Steven Soderbergh's four-hour, Spanish-language epic about the 20th century's most famous revolutionary is politically evasive but conceptually intriguing. Selected. JWAGE OF CONSENT (103 min) MALEGENDARY British director Michael Powell shot this beautiful, moving and affirmative final testament on Dunk Island in tropical Queensland. James Mason stars as a jaded middle-aged painter, with Helen Mirren as his teenage muse. Today, 4pm. ACMI, JWANIMATED EXPERIMENTS(59 min) UnratedTHESE experimental Spanish animations made over the past 40 years employ various techniques including stop-motion, cut-out collage and sand on glass. Part of a retrospective highlighting "50 Years of the Other Spanish Cinema". Audience restricted to 18+, today, 7pm. ACMI, JWSURROGATES (89 min) MIN THE near future, most humans have voluntarily replaced themselves with physically perfect robots; Bruce Willis plays a grizzled cop with a sceptical view of the new world order. Good fun for science fiction fans. General. JWEAST OF EDEN (115 min) PGELIA Kazan's 1955 Californian variant on the story of Cain and Abel is dated and overwrought, but James Dean practically invents a new kind of sensitivity as the sulky rebel Cal Trask. Tomorrow, 9.20pm. Screens with Rebel Without a Cause, 7pm. Astor Theatre. JWFILM QUOTE OF THE WEEK"A killer in the family doesn't look very good when you're running for the Senate!" A frazzled college girl proves you can be hot and smart in the slasher film Sorority Row.
© 2009 The Age
