With the Golden Globes broadcast earlier this week, awards season is now truly underway sparking conversations about film and great current filmmakers. A lot of this conversation might have left you pining for more from some of the great creatives currently working.
Luckily, SBS On Demand has you covered with a selection of films from resumes of filmmakers, actors and writers who have been making waves over the past year.
Only Lovers Left Alive
Writer and Director, Jim Jarmusch, has a new film with Adam Driver now out in cinemas, Paterson. SBS Movies critic Rochelle Siemienowicz"a charming and unpretentious masterpiece about the beauty of an ‘ordinary’ life".
You can catch Jarmusch’s last film, Only Lovers Left Alive. A gothic ode to a decaying culture and the joy of being alive from the perspective of the living dead. If you can live forever, what do you live for? Easily shoots to the top of the list of great vampire movies with a wooden bullet.
Snowtown
Australian director, Justin Kurtzel, has made the leap to blockbusters with the big screen video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed. Before Kurtzel was wrangling a multi-million dollar budget, he burst onto the Australian film scene with his polarising debut film Snowtown. The story is based in the true tale of the ‘bodies in the barrels’ murders that took place between August 1992 and May 1999 in South Australia.
The Hunt
It’s hard to miss Mads Mikkelsen at the moment. Between Marvel’sand his pivotal role in blockbuster – he’s everywhere. Go back to 2012 with The Hunt, the film that resulted in a best actor win for Mikkelsen at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Mikkelsen plays a kindergarten teacher in a small Danish community who is acused of abuse by a student and is shunned by the town.
Idiot Box
Ben Mendelsohn (Mendo) continues to take over Hollywood with a major role alongside Mads Mikkelsen in Rogue One. Mendo had a strong presence in the Australian film and TV scene before his breakout role in Animal Kingdom, but go back to a much younger Mendo in Idiot Box. Mendo is in fine form as a bogan who decides to rob a bank with his brother after their dole cheques stop rolling in.
Blue Ruin
You’ve no doubt seen Jeremy Saulnier’sThe Green Room pop up on a lot of end-of-year best film lists, but why not make a double feature out of your catch up? Saulnier’s previous film, Blue Ruin, pairs with it nicely. Both films tell stories about violence in pockets of America and Blue Ruin is a stunning revenge tale about the unending cycle of brutality unleashed by the vengeful.
Orgazmo
Book of Mormon, one of the biggest Broadway hits of the past decade, is coming to Australia this year - finally! See where it began for the Mormon and South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with Orgazmo. They were fascinated by Mormons back in 1996 with the story focusing on a Mormon missionary who goes to Los Angeles and becomes a porn star superhero.
Fish Tank
American Honey is another film that took up real estate on end-of-year lists. Wind back to 2009 with Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, which put the director on the map after the film won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of a socially isolated 15-year-old living in an East London housing estate. Fish Tank was listed as on the by a BBC poll of critics.
Oldboy
When you see ‘directed by Park Chan-wook’ on a film you have to see it immediately. Why? Because of Oldboy. We were lucky to have his new film released in 2016, but it’s worth going back to the film that ensured we’d be flocking to whatever he did next.
Sightseers
Filmmaker Ben Wheatley hit us with the trippy High-Rise last year and his next film, Free Fire, is set for release in Australia in 2017. Wheatley is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today and you can check out his horror/comedy right now. Prepare for one of the most twisted caravanning holidays ever.
Boy
Writer and director, Taika Waititi, set a new record at the New Zealand box office this year with his film , which is currently the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time. The news for Waititi got better when Marvel hired him to direct Thor: Ragnarok, which is set for release in 2017. He also had a hand writing Disney’s Moana. What led to all this wonderful work? The 2010 coming of age film Boy is an excellent primer for all that came after it.
