The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

The world of T.S. Spivet (Kyle Catlett) is certainly inviting. It’s a splendiferous realm of rare bugs, perpetual motion machines and preternaturally gifted preteens, painted in a hyper-saturated palette of green grass, gold wheatfields and cerulean skies. Save for the dead twin brother, who wouldn’t want to live there? Jean-Pierre Jeunet delves into dense fantasia…

The Turning (2013)

Revisiting The Turning (2013)

I liked Tim Winton’s The Turning more than most critics. Looking back at my review now, I don’t think I succeeded in explaining why it appealed to me; it’s an assumption underlying my write-up, but I don’t think I made it clear. In part, it’s based in my fondness for Winton’s original anthology, which I’d…

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

The opening shots of Y Tu Mamá También stem from the mindsets of its two male teenage protagonists. They’re sex scenes, of course, rushed and frantic; defined by jealousy and uncertainty. But the film – part sex-comedy, part coming-of-age story, part road-movie, part reflection on the class inequities of modern Mexico – has broader ambitions…

Tim Winton’s The Turning (2013)

Last night I went to a preview screening of Tim Winton’s The Turning, presented by director and producer Robert Connolly. The book it’s based on is a collection of seventeen short stories from one of the Australia’s greatest authors, stories set on or around the Western coast of Australia; stories about childhood and parents and…