It’s Only the End of the World (2016)

Xavier Dolan’s sixth feature film, It’s Only the End of the World, had its Australian premiere at Sydney Film Festival from a precarious position. Arriving from Cannes with a pair of strange, if increasingly common bedfellows – widespread critical derision and the Grand Prix prize – it’s perched on a pedestal that demands either full-throated…

Partisan (2015)

The community at the centre of Ariel Kleiman’s Partisan is introduced with rare restraint and precision. After a short prologue, we are deposited into a secluded society, buried within sheltering slabs of through which thin rays of sunlight shine. The society (described in most reviews as a ‘cult’, though I’d argue that’s an overly simplistic…

Trance (2013)

Trance, Danny Boyle’s latest, uses hypnotherapy to venture deep into James McAvoy’s head, aiming to find out the location of a missing painting after an art heist goes wrong. Appropriately, it’s more a film for the head than the heart, presenting an interesting, intricate puzzle that keeps you thinking long after the film is over…

Sheitan (2006)

A French Deliverance with a satanic twist, Sheitan focuses on a group of crass twentysomethings who travel into the countryside following a flirtatious girl. These characters are exceedingly unlikable, and if you’re anything like me, fifteen minutes in you’ll be eagerly looking forward to whatever unpleasant plight awaits them. You’ll be waiting a while. The…