DVD REVIEW: ORANGES AND SUNSHINE

Icon Home Entertainment

Now available on DVD and Blu-ray

In 2010, the Australian government apologised to the 'forgotten generation': hundreds of thousands of men and women who, as children of post-World War II Britain, were shipped out to Australia to begin new lives under the "protection" of various Christian charities.

It was the early 1980s when this government sanctioned but clandestine mass migration of children was brought to the attention of British social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson). Humphreys discovered that these children, who had been made wards of the State, were told that their parents were dead or had abandoned them when they had not.

Travelling between England and Australia to help some of these now-adult children uncover their roots, Humphreys also learns that several of them had suffered a multitude of abuses, from neglect to rape, at the hands of their carers. Suddenly Humphreys' mission becomes not just about reconciliation but one of justice.

Director Jim Loach (son of esteemed director, Ken Loach) takes a rather prosaic approach to this material with Watson providing a strong anchor for the film, successfully avoiding the cliches and pitfalls of the 'crusading woman' film. But the film is not without emotion - how could it be? - provided by the stories of abuse of the children now recounted as men to Margaret.

Hugo Weaving is particularly impressive as a man who has been searching for his mother his entire life, and equally as good but not so easy to read is David Wenham's Len. Having survived his Christian Brothers upbringing and "repaying his debt" to them, Len engages in a somewhat antagonistic partnership with Humphreys to uncover his past and, in doing so, helps her come to terms with not only what she's uncovered but what she's achieved.

In what has been a solid year for Australian film, Oranges and Sunshine is, for mine, the second best local film of 2011; behind Snowtown and, yes, ahead of Red Dog.

FILM REVIEW: MONTE CARLO

20th Century Fox Films

Now Showing

Three pretty, young things, European locales, mistaken identity and romantic misadventures: while the recipe for Monte Carlo isn't a particularly new or daring one, the results in Thomas Bezucha's film (produced by Nicole Kidman and Forest Whitaker) aren't as bland as you'd expect, and bound to sate the appetites of its intended teen girl audience.

Grace (Selena Gomez) is about to graduate from her Texan high school and embark on a much longed for life changing trip to Paris with gal pal, Emma (Katie Cassidy). But Grace's mum (Andie McDowell) puts the dampeners on when she insists Grace's older step-sister, Meg (Leighton Meester), accompany them.

What's worse, turns out the Paris holiday promised in the brochure isn't as magnifique as Grace had envisioned, with cramped accommodation and rushed bus and walking tours throughout the city; the one to the Eiffel Tower seeing our heroines left behind and caught in the rain.

And it's when the trio take refuge in the foyer of a luxury hotel that Grace is mistaken for British socialite and heiress, Cordeila Winthrop Scott (also Gomez). At first the girls, enticed by large lobster and a big bed, just crash in her suite for the night, before deciding that they'll take on the rest of the heiress's itinerary (Cordelia having abandoned her charity duties to chase the sun) and hop on over, all expenses paid, to Monte Carlo.

So ensues a series of dress ups, parties, and polo matches as Grace attempts, rather successfully, to pull the wool over the eyes of Europe's old and new money; the only one not convinced is Cordelia's aunt (Catherine Tate), who finds her niece to not be her usual mode of spoilt bitch. There's also a series of romantic misadventures for the young ladies, two with millionaires and one with a free-spirited Aussie backpacker (Luke Bracey).

It's all rather harmless and inoffensive, and a much more polished affair than that other recent 'girls abroad' film, Chalet Girl. But what Monte Carlo lacks is the spark of that film's leading lady, Felicity Jones; Gomez, Meester and Cassidy combined can't muster the verve of the pint-sized Brit.

All three hail from television (Gomez from the Disney Channel; Meester and Cassidy from Gossip Girl) and neither has much of a screen presence, although Meester bears a passing resemblance to a young Julianne Moore (she would do well to score a 'flashback' role in one of Ms. Moore's future prestige projects).

But I have a feeling the young, female target audience - know doubt more familiar with and admiring of the works of Mmes Gomez, Meester and Cassidy - will happily go along for the ride.

FILM REVIEW: FRIGHT NIGHT 3D

Walt Disney Studio Films

Now Showing

Much like family, you rarely get to choose who your neighbours are. Unfortunately for high school student, Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), his new neighbour, Jerry (Colin Farrell), isn't so much a pain in the arse as a pain in the neck - literally.

Turns out Jerry is a vampire, which would explain the blacked out windows on his house and his only appearing after dark. It would also seem to validate the theory of Charley's one-time best friend, Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who has been mapping the recent spate of disappearances and murders in their outer Las Vegas suburb, placing Jerry's house at its epicentre.

Charley comes around to Ed's way of thinking a little too late and when he does, has the same trouble convincing his mum, Jane (Toni Collette), and girlfriend, Amy (the unfortunately named Imogen Poots), that Jerry is a member of the living dead. And why not? Farrell hasn't resonated this kind of sexy heat for some time. Fangs or no fangs, I'd be stopping by Jerry's for a cup of sugar.

Of course when Jerry, having tolerated Charley's accusations and intrusions with good humour long enough, decides to go on the defensive, all hell breaks loose and Charley and Amy go in search of the only person they think can help them: Peter Vincent (a scene-stealing David Tennant), a Las Vegas lounge act who smites sexy female vamps in his nightly stage show.

If all of this sounds familiar, that's because it is. Craig Gillespie's Fright Night (penned by Marti Noxon) is a remake of Tom Holland's 1985 horror-comedy of the same name (minus the 3D). The surprising thing is that, rather than ruining a classic, this '00s update very much keeps the spirit of the original intact, delighting in the humour and horror rather than desecrating the similarly themed source material.

A remake of an '80s film, in 3D, that works? Who'd a thunk it?! (Actually, the 3D makes the visuals a little too dark but never mind.) Fright Night 3D is good fun with Farrell, as the sexy vampire (his predecessor Chris Sarandon makes a cameo), and the leather pants-clad Tennant taking top honours. In fact, the one-time Time Lord seems to relish the absence of his Doctor Who PG rating, taking to swearing like an inebriated duck to water.

Horror fans and classicists may not be so easily sold on this remake (my viewing companion was hesitant to give the film a thumbs-up) but I was converted, or turned as the case may be. Fright Night 3D is proof that, if Hollywood must do remakes (and it seems they must), than they need not all be anaemically wit and style free.

*The original Fright Night, starring Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall, has been released on DVD (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) to coincide with the cinema release of the remake. It's also a fun film, especially if approached with an '80s frame of mind, and a perfect excuse to revisit an old favourite or, like me, discover it for the first time.

FILM REVIEW: PAGE ONE: A YEAR INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES

Madman Films

Now Showing

Call it ironic or prescient but on my way to the screening of Page One, the documentary chronicling a year at The New York Times as it struggles to remain relevant and commercially viable in the new media world order, I discovered the closure of a(nother) bookstore.

The screening was being held at the Dendy Newtown, and whilst walking along King Street I realised that the Elizabeth's Secondhand Bookstore, which had been a Newtown fixture for as long as I could remember, had been replaced by a(nother) Pie Face franchise.

Not that disappearing bookstores are uncommon nowadays - sadly, it seems to be an all-too-frequent occurrence - but surely there is still a market, even as we venture further and further down the rabbit hole that is the digital age, for pre-loved books, no? Just as there is/should remain a market for print journalism.

Page One, directed by Andrew Rossi, concerns itself with The New York Times doing battle in a world which increasingly goes online for its news, and expects that news to be free. In 2009, in the wake of the global financial crisis and as other long established American newspapers folded, The NYT had to lay-off 100 workers.

Not that the doco depicts the internet as the big evil but its protagonists, namely columnist David Carr, argue rather convincingly that getting it right is far more important than being first. He also points out that even as the likes of Twitter and aggregated news sites become peoples' preferred daily news sources, without traditional media sources such as the NYT, a lot of these sites have nothing.

Twitter might be able to spread the word faster and more immediately than a paper which has to wait until the next day to drop, but the new media won't always have the depth of analysis, or even the professionalism of a broadsheet. And there remains a distinction, however increasingly small it is becoming, between fact and opinion.

Then there's Wikileaks, which fortuitously for Rossi and his team, made their mark during the filming of the doco by releasing hundreds of cables related to the United States' involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. WikiLeaks chose to share some of these cables with The New York Times and other respected international newspapers; an uneasy alliance for the team at the NYT news desk: are they part of the problem or the solution?

Page One should provide the same thrill for journalists and writers which The September Issue did for fashionistas. I enjoyed (much to my surprise) that latter documentary a lot - I'm not the least bit interested in fashion - but Page One is much more in my wheelhouse; I could watch a series on the day-to-day workings of The New York Times (here's looking at you ABC, SBS et al).

And give me David Carr over Anna Wintour any day. The direct, deceptively curmudgeonly but no doubt heartfelt Carr (think an older, emaciated Paul Giamatti) staunchly defends both the NYT and print journalism, challenging the rise of new media (though he does concede his respect for the reach an impact of Twitter) and exposing those who have wreaked havoc on his profession and its institutions from within, namely the financial powers-that-be at The Los Angeles Times.

2011 has been an exceptional year for documentaries, with plenty more still to come in the next three months. And Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times is one of the better ones, specially if you have the slightest interest in journalism, media or the printed word.