The Leadership is a terrific Australian documentary about 76 women scientists undergoing leadership training while sailing to Antarctica. Against the backdrop of clashes between scientific and corporate mindsets, this film provides a compelling scrutiny of gender inequalities in STEMM. Released in Australian cinemas 1 October 2020
Richard ‘Dick’ Johnson and Kirsten Johnson in Dick Johnson is Dead
In Dick Johnson Is Dead documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson films imagined scenes of her father’s death, using the absurdity and black comedy of such a project to help both of them accept his declining health. The result is a sweet, sad and funny personal film about the painful price we pay for loving somebody, and how it’s absolutely worth it. Released on Netflix 2 October 2020
Jake Ryan as Danny/Damage in Savage
Savage is a portrait of a New Zealand gang member whose tough exterior and brutal actions mask a lifetime of self-doubt, divided loyalties, trauma and abuse. For a film frequently punctuated by acts of violence, it’s the moments of tenderness that have the greatest impact. Released in Australian cinemas 8 October 2020
Totally Under Control
As expected from an Alex Gibney documentary, Totally Under Control delivers rigorous analysis, contextual information and clarity to reveal how wishful thinking and actions driven by politics rather than science resulted in the USA’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 outbreak. Released in Australia digitally13 October 2020
Feels Good Man
Feels Good Man documents how Pepe the Frog, a cartoon slacker character from a zine, became an internet meme appropriated by the alt-right. It’s an excellent film about how the most toxic ideas can thrive in an online environment to have real-world social and political impact. Released on DocPlay 22 October 2020
Rose Matafeo as Zoe and Matthew Lewis as Tim in Baby Done
The New Zealand comedy Baby Done, about an unplanned pregnancy, rises above the pack for how naturally it avoids most of the usual cliches about expectant parents. It’s a well-acted and good natured film that delivers a winning blend of grounded drama with broader comedic elements. Released in Australian cinemas 22 October 2020
Sidney Flanigan as Autumn in Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Never Rarely Sometimes Always takes the story of a teenage girl from a small US town trying to get an abortion to comment on the sexualisation, harassment and struggles to maintain autonomy faced by young women. It’s a beautiful and poignant film about resilience and solidarity. Released in Australian cinemas 29 October 2020
Kyle Marvin as Kyle and Michael Angelo Covino as Mike in The Climb
The Climb is a funny and thoughtful film about male friendship told through a series of impressive long takes that present key moments in the life of the film’s protagonist whenever his path crosses with his toxic supposed best friend, who is something of a human wrecking ball. Released in Australian cinemas 29 October 2020
His House: Wunmi Mosaku as Rial Majur, Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù as Bol Majur in His House
In His House, repressed trauma manifests as a malevolent presence that haunts two Sudanese refugees who have recently been settled in a decaying house in England. Uncanny scares and real world tragedy are effectively blended to make this a moving and pertinent horror film. Released on Netflix 30 October 2020
In the US documentary Boys State, 17-year-old boys attend a program to form a mock government. It’s an enthralling insight into political processes; the voices of reason that rise above the regressive rhetoric are inspiring, while the effectiveness of the dominant discourse is horrifying. Released on Apple TV+ 14 August 2020
Jessie Buckley as The Young Woman in I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Structured around an awkward drive to and from an even more awkward meet-the-parents dinner, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is an intriguing and bewildering puzzle of a film exploring memory, identity and authenticity in an unsettling and darkly comedic world of dream logic and artifice. Released on Netflix 4 September 2020
Ilanah Cami-Goursolas as Jess, Esther Gohourou as Coumba, Médina El Aidi-Azouni as Angelica and Fathia Youssouf as Amy in Cuties
Given the inherent difficulties in depicting the uncomfortable issue of the sexualisation of children, Cuties is all the more impressive for how well it explores a young girl’s sense of identity as she tries to navigate the mixed and often contradictory messages she absorbs about how to behave. Read full review. Released on Netflix 9 September 2020
Scarlett Johansson as Nicole Barber and Adam Driver as Charlie Barber in Marriage Story
Marriage Story follows the awkward, messy, sometime hilarious and often heartbreaking process behind a couple getting divorced in Noah Baumbach’s most sophisticated and engaging film to date. This is a sincere and moving film about adjusting to enormous practical and emotional upheaval, and rather than oscillating sympathy between the couple, it explores how both perspectives are valid, even when conflicting. We see how rage and bitterness twist the memories of innocent details into arguments to discredit the other, but also how underlying all the pain is sorrow, tenderness and loss.
Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino and Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran in The Irishman
Martin Scorsese’s epic crime film The Irishman encapsulates so much of what has defined Scorsese over the decades as one of the all time great filmmakers. Both familiar and refreshing, Scorsese uses innovative de-aging visual effects with non-lineal narrative techniques to deliver a classic rise and fall – and then fall further – story about real-life gangster Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran. The result is a captivating, energetic and deeply reflective film about masculinity, family, crime, politics and history; bursting with Scorsese’s distinctive approach to melodrama, violence and melancholia.
Antonio Banderas as Salvador Mallo in Pain and Glory
While I like a number of Pedro Almodóvar films, I’ve never considered myself a fan as such, so I was surprised by how much I loved his highly self-referential and autobiographical new film Pain and Glory. Reunited with once regular leading man Antonio Banderas in the lead role as an ageing filmmaker looking back at his career, childhood, friendships and love affairs, Pain and Glory is very much Almodóvar’s 8½ as similar to Federico Fellini’s 1963 masterpiece it explores the creative process and how great art comes from artists wrestling with the past and interrogating their own identity.
I Lost My Body
The French animated feature I Lost My Body is an inventive and moving parable about a disembodied hand trying to find its owner intercut with a story about a young man attempting to find his place in the world while still haunted by the loss of his parents as a child. It’s a film both literally and symbolically about dismemberment, exploring the human desire to have a sense of belonging, but also the need to let go. It is excellent storytelling and a terrific example of using animation to tell a story that live action could not deliver as effectively.
The Senegal-set film Atlantics is a striking debut feature film by actor-turned-filmmaker Mati Diop who manages the films tonal changes and blend of genres with impressive ease and finesse. Central to the story is a woman who has been arranged to marry one man, but loves another: an exploited construction worker. What begins as a serene social realist film about class and gender politics, then goes into bewitching fantasy territory as supernatural elements and magical realism are weaved into the film in a way that feels completely organic and yet strikingly bold and original.
Annette Bening as Dianne Feinstein and Adam Driver as Daniel Jones in The Report
The Report is an excellent procedural drama about USA Senate staffer Daniel J Jones’s work on the comprehensive report on the CIA’s use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ (in other words, torture) during the Bush Administration. Detailing the investigative process and the political barriers put up against Jones and his team, The Report is a compelling film that firmly reinforces the known fact that popular culture from Zero Dark Thirty to 24 often forgets, and that is that torture is not only extremely unethical, but it has been widely proven to not produce reliable results.
Melvil Poupaud: Alexandre Guérin in By the Grace of God
By the Grace of God is a far more restrained and straightforward film than I have come to expect from François Ozon, who is a filmmaker I’ve often struggled to connect with in the past. But I was won over by this meticulous fact-based account of three men who as children were sexually abused by a priest, and now as adults want to hold the Catholic church to account and bring their abuser to justice. The detailed plotting creates a sense of immediacy behind their actions, while the characterisation of the three men conveys the very different ways individuals experience and live with trauma.
Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun in Official Secrets
Official Secrets is a dramaticisation of what happened to whistleblower Katharine Gun, a British intelligence agency employee who leaked a damaging secret memo in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Structured and presented as a thriller, it ensures that the potentially more mundane aspects of espionage remain gripping, which is especially important in Gun’s story considering the high states. The film explores the illegality of the war she opposed through the culpable actions of not just UK intelligence, but also the UK government, and hostile lawyers and media.
Ewan McGregor as Danny Torrance in Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep is an impressive sequel to the 1977 Stephen King novel The Shining and its masterful 1980 Stanley Kubrick film adaptation. For the most part it uses the original protagonist Danny (now an adult) and the concept of shining to tell a completely different type of story with its own aesthetic; while The Shining was a confined haunted house parable about domestic violence, Doctor Sleep follows the horrific activities of a group of cruel predators across America. When the new film does lean heavily into paying homage to Kubrick’s film, it does so with the perfect blend of reverence and inventiveness.
David Crosby in David Crosby: Remember My Name
Despite knowing next to nothing about American singer-songwriter David Crosby, I was completely captivated by the biographical documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name. Crosby is a generous, candid, humble and self deprecating interviewee and the film is beautifully edited to combine archival footage, music performances and recent recorded conversations with Crosby. Sincere while avoiding grandiosity, it is a great insight into the counterculture scene in Laurel Canyon during the 1960s and 1970s as well as a fascinating portrait of a complex and flawed creative spirit.
Suzi Quatro in Suzi Q
Another excellent biopic doc about a singer-songwriter (whom I also knew little about) is the Australian film Suzi Q, which covers Suzi Quatro’s rise to fame, her influences and legacy, and her strained relationship with her family. The film convincingly makes the case that she deserves more recognition as a trailblazer for women rock musicians, which is certainly articulated by interviewees that include Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Debbie Harry and Alice Cooper. Quatro is a fantastic subject who speaks candidly throughout the film, including discussing her varied activities outside of the music industry.
Aaron Phagura as Roops, Nell Williams as Eliza and Viveik Kalra as Javed in Blinded by the Light
Blinded by the Light is loosely based on the true story of a Pakistani British teenager whose life was changed forever when he discovered the music of Bruce Springsteen. Set in 1987 against the backdrop of Thatcherism, mass unemployment and the rise of the National Front, this upbeat coming-of-age film deals with culture clash, friendship, first love and the transformative power of music. It’s an unashamedly feel-good film with its combination of light drama, comedy and music montages, but it’s also heartfelt and sincere, exploring issues of race and class with compassion and integrity.
Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/Joker in Joker
While Joker is an origin story for Batman’s iconic supervillain, its style and social commentary make it much more comparable to the God’s Lonely Men anti-hero films of New Hollywood cinema, especially Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. Offering a disturbingly vicarious – and admittedly exhilarating – insight into the mind of a psychopath, Joker reflects the contemporary American psyche and political landscape, where wealth inequality, mental health neglect and bullying transform a figure who may have once attracted sympathy, into a monster of self-pity, nihilism and violence.
Jillian Bell as Brittany Forgler in Brittany Runs a Marathon
Brittany Runs a Marathon is a superb crowd-pleasing film about a woman at a dead end in her life, who turns things around when she begins training for a marathon. Inspired by the experiences of a friend of the filmmaker, it avoid inspirational cliches and unhelpful stereotypes about health and fitness. Instead, it’s a very funny and moving film that explores self esteem and friendship with empathy and intelligence. By tackling links between mental health and lifestyle with humour and sincerity, it’s an extremely rewarding and relatable underdog story.
José Acosta as Rapayet and Carmiña Martínez as Úrsula in Birds of Passage
A mesmerising variation of the organised crime epic, Birds of Passage portrays the Columbian drug trade from the 1960s to the 1980s from the perspective of the country’s indigenous Wayuu tribe. Containing many familiar gangster film tropes, the presentation of rituals and spirituality sets it apart, and contributes to its visual majesty. And while Hollywood gangster films often critique capitalism, this Latin American perspective uses the genre to examine how traditions and social structures are perverted and diluted by the pursuit of wealth and power.
Constance Wu as Destiny and Jennifer Lopez as Ramona in Hustlers
The based-on-a-true events crime drama Hustlers follows the rise and fall of a group of women who in the wake of the GFC conned thousands of dollars out of various Wall Street men. While the planning and execution of their cons is a fun and thrilling part of the film, the real enjoyment comes from the joyful camaraderie between the women who met while working as strippers and were then able to so successfully use their skills in manipulating men to flip the power dynamic between themselves and their targets.
Liron Ben-Shlush as Orna in Working Woman
Working Woman is an excellent drama about a woman having to contend with her boss’s unwanted attention. The film very effectively captures the difficultly she has in walking away from her harassment by portraying the ways in which the abuse is initially difficult to define, and the domestic pressures she has to remain in the workforce. It is a layered and complex film that looks at the ways in which so many social attitudes and workplace cultures facilitate the perpetration of sexual harassment against women by men, both overtly and through silent complicity.
Maiden
Maiden documents the experiences of the first all-female crewed boat that competed in the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989. Skipper Tracy Edwards and her crew not only faced the incredible hardship of enduring the physical and psychological demands of the race, but also the disproportionate scrutiny and chauvinistic derision of the media who did not take them seriously. Combining skilfully assembled archival footage with contemporary interviews from Edwards and her crew members, the documentary is an inspirational and thrilling story of triumph against the odds.
Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in Judy
Primarily focusing on Judy Garland’s tumultuous 1968 concert tour of London, to reflect on her life and legacy, is part of what makes Judy a more engaging biopic than most. The film sensitively covers the many facets of Garland’s life, including the self destructive behaviour and substance abuse that stemmed from her appalling treatment as a teen idol in Hollywood. Most rewardingly, the film pays tribute to her importance to her fanbase and the great power she possessed as a performer, with some truly stunning – and in one case completely heartbreaking – music numbers.
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate
Terminator: Dark Fate does what so many contemporary sequels based on beloved older franchises do: it mimics an earlier instalment (in this case 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day) where the new characters are proxies of the original characters, and some of those original ones show up anyway. And in this case, it works, delivering what is easily the most entertaining and satisfying Terminator film since the original two classics. It’s a terrific example of successful formulaic filmmaking where the new elements build upon a pre-existing groundwork, to deliver thematic and visual inventiveness.
Holliday Grainger as Laura and Alia Shawkat as Tyler in Animals
Fundamental to the charm of Animals is the the enticing energy of the fun and carefree friendship between two young women living in Dublin, the film’s protagonists. When that friendship is tested by one of the pair seemingly having to choose between living carefree and conventionally settling down, the film evolves into a sophisticated, increasingly melancholic and moralising-free story about confronting major crossroads in life. The fact that the film never abandons its high spirits nor resorts to binary oppositions is part of what makes it so refreshing, bold and entertaining.
Sarm Heng as Chakra in Buoyancy
Buoyancy is a compelling and tense thriller about a 14-year-old Cambodian boy who is forced to work on a seafood trawler, highlighting the issue of modern day slavery within Southeast Asia’s fishing industry. The superb direction and cinematography create a powerful sense of claustrophobia within the boat, which as the film’s main setting functions as a prison for the characters, contrasting stunningly with the beauty of the surrounding open sea. Naturalistic and never shying away from the horrors – while also not revelling in them – this is a deeply humane film designed to raise awareness.
Awkwafina as Billi and Shuzhen Zhou as Nai Nai in The Farewell
In The Farewell a Chinese American woman travels to China with her family to visit her terminally ill grandmother, but they go on the pretence of being there for her cousin’s wedding, since the family have decided not to let the grandmother know she is dying. Based on a true story, this is an extremely charming film that deftly manages its shift from comedy to melancholy with integrity and empathy. It’s genuinely funny and the moments designed to tug on the heartstrings are also effective, but it also delivers many sly observations of family dynamics and social rituals.
Evelyn
Evelyn follows British documentary filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel and his siblings on a hike as they attempt to reconcile the suicide of their brother 13 years ago. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking and cathartic experience for the family and the viewer as the conversations captured in the film explore how relationships can be both broken and healed by grief. Most affecting are the scenes where von Einsiedel and his family encounter strangers who share relatable experiences, articulating just how many people are touched by suicide, but also the power of sharing personal stories.
Memory: The Origins of Alien
Memory: The Origins of Alien is a fascinating and in-depth analysis of the iconic and groundbreaking 1979 horror/science-fiction masterpiece Alien. Going beyond the confines of a traditional making-of film, this documentary views Alien as a ‘cultural dream’ to dissect its literary and visual inspirations, and explore how it reflects classical mythology, our collective unconsciousness and cultural anxieties both at the time of the film’s original release right through to present day. This is entertaining and accessible film analysis that made me love Alien even more than I did already.
Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh in It Chapter Two
To my surprise and delight I enjoyed It Chapter Two a lot more than I thought I would, given that while I liked the first film, it didn’t stay with me. Set 27 years later to follow the Loser gang as adults returning to their hometown to confront Pennywise once more, this new instalment effectively builds on the foundation of the first film, not just to amp up the dread and uncanniness, but also to invest in the notion of how childhood trauma, often repressed and unrecognised, shapes us as adults. Hence there’s an emotional weight behind this film that I found immensely satisfying.
In the coming-of-age film Mid90s Johan Hill (making his feature film debut as a writer/director) beautifully captures the moment where young teenager Stevie (Sunny Suljic) embraces an identity attached to a friendship group as opposed to his family. Set at the height of the street skateboarding scene in Los Angeles in the 1990s, the film is less an exercise in nostalgia and more an empathetic portrait of a distinct subculture and its appeal for a somewhat lost soul who is seeking approval and a sense of belonging.
Yoo Ah-in as Lee Jong-su and Steven Yeun as Ben in Burning
Burning is a film rich in ambiguity both in terms of what the lovesick working class protagonist Lee Jon-su (Yoo Ah-in) believes to be happening and the film’s subtext. On the surface it is a love-triangle drama that becomes a paranoid thriller, but throughout the film there are issues of sexual jealously, fragile masculinity, class exploitation and even questioning the perception of reality. While the film unfolds over a surprisingly long running-time there is still a sense of urgency that is completely captivating.
Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir as Halla in Woman at War
Woman at War is a wonderful blend of self-reflexive absurdity, touching family drama, and droll humour, and a gleefully defiant thriller about radical environmental activism. Filmmaker Benedikt Erlingsson and lead actor Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir have created a magnificent cinematic hero in Halla, a woman who conducts the local choir and is preparing to adopt an orphaned child, while carrying out missions to sabotage the pylons on the Icelandic highlands, blocking the electricity supply to an aluminium plant.
John C Reilly as Eli Sisters and Joaquin Phoenix as Charlie Sisters in The Sisters Brothers
For his first English-language film, French filmmaker Jacques Audiard brings an off-kilter outsider’s perspective to the American western with The Sisters Brothers. As interested in character interaction as it is with plot, the film follows a pair of brother on a job as hired assassins. Like most post-classical Hollywood westerns, it challenges the conventions and ideals of the genre, but the most distinguishing characteristics of this continually surprising film are its moments of humour, melancholy and tenderness.
Cory Michael Smith as Adrian Lester in 1985
There are many interesting comparisons between 1985 and Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World as they are both films about young men returning to the family home and struggling to reveal a secret. However, while Dolan’s film utilised the techniques of melodrama, 1985 is low key, subtle and shot on grainy black-and-white film, thematically and stylistically evoking many of the films associated with 1990s New Queer Cinema. It’s a work of great sincerity and huge emotional power.
John Turturro as Arnold and Julianne Moore as Gloria in Gloria Bell
With Gloria Bell Sebastián Lelio’s successfully adapts his 2013 Chilean film Gloria, about a divorced woman entering into a new relationship after a chance encounter in a nightclub. Relocating the action to Los Angeles and starring Julianne Moore in the titular role, this new version loses none of the original film’s blend of tenderness, high spirits and bittersweet tone in its portrayal of a woman battling feelings of loneliness and regret, but also fiercely determined to bounce back from whatever life throws at her.
