John McDonald

There’s nothing more gruesome in the cinema than films that are “just good fun”, and Pitch Perfect is a textbook example. Even as I write this I can imagine readers thinking I’m a terrible old curmudgeon for not responding positively to a movie that aims to be nothing more than light entertainment. “What could be … More

It’s hard to believe some people actually look back on their teenage years with nostalgia. That terrible state, when one is half-way out of the chrysalis of puberty – not quite an adult but no longer a child – is an ordeal we have to overcome if we are to take our place in the … More

In his James Bond Dossier of 1965, Kingsley Amis wrote: “Not much mind is needed to notice that Bond’s adventures have been getting more fantastic all the time and some critics have actually done it.” After fifty years and some 23 features, it would be an understatement to say Bond’s cinematic adventures are getting more fantastic … More

Psychopaths are so commonplace nowadays they almost qualify as normal. Not only does the media serve up one mad gunman after another, glaring at us from page one, we also read about the ‘corporate psychopaths’ who make their way to the top of huge businesses, bring them down in flames, then move on to another … More

Blood may be thicker than water but it runs a distant second to fine wines. At least that seems to be the way, vigneron, Paul De Merseul, views the world. Paul, played by veteran actor, Niels Arestrup, is the stern patriarch in Gilles Legrand’s You Will be My Son, a taut, lean story of tensions … More

By now you have probably heard a great deal about The Master, which has dominated the early chattering about next year’s Academy Awards. Director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has already given the Oscars a shake in 2007, with There Will Be Blood, which secured the Best Actor award for Daniel Day-Lewis. With The Master it would … More

Archie Roach reckons Paul Kelly is Australia’s “bard”. It’s what people used to say about Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson back in the days when poetry was a popular art. But for every man-in the-street who could recite parts of The Man from Snowy River in the 1890s, there must be thousands today who can … More

There may be a limit to the number of culturally specific films one should watch in quick succession. After spending most evenings last week previewing movies from the Jewish International Film Festival, when I answer the phone now I feel like saying “Shalom!” For the 23rd year of the Jewish Film Festival in Australia, time, … More

With so much carnage in the Middle East and the rise of terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, we tend to forget how vicious and bloody the conflict was in Northern Ireland barely a decade ago. Shadow Dancer looks back on this time, as if through a veil of tears. Director, James Marsh, has made … More

Although it should be the most depressing subject in the world there is something strangely inspiring about films that deal with disability. The Miracle Worker (1962) was a smash hit in its day, making Helen Keller into the most famous deaf and blind person in history, although she has since been overtaken by several cricket … More