Blue Valentine (2010)

Blue Valentine tells a simple story of a marriage: how Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) meet, experience that thrill of infatuation … and how, years later, that thrill stagnates and calcifies as their relationship is on the precipice of collapse. It’s a drama, but it avoids easy dramatic clichés like tragic accidents, disease…

Flight (2012)

Flight’s first act is dominated by an astounding, heart-pounding, incredibly edited flight sequence. There’s clear stakes and an ever-present sense of danger thanks to the inebriation of lead pilot, Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington, in a resonant performance that warranted the Oscar nomination). The technical details may be hard to understand, but it manages to be…

My Top 10 Films of 2012

Given the Academy Award nominations were just announced today, it seemed a good a time as any to finally publish my top 10 films of 2012 list. My criteria for inclusion is a little shaky, but critically acclaimed films like Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty and Flight are all yet to be released in Australia…

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

Beasts of the Southern Wild creates a world unlike any other I’ve encountered in either real life or fiction. It concerns the ragtag residents of “The Bathtub,” a small Louisiana community on the wrong side of a levee, in perpetual danger of disappearing beneath the ocean every time a storm hits. The tale is told…