A few years back Florian Habicht delved into the psyche of New Zealand's Far North with Kaikohe Demolition. Now he has refurned to this fertile ground to cover the Snapper Classic, the world's largest snapper fishing competition. Held on Ninety Mile Beach, the competion's $50 000.00 prize brings fishermen from around the world. Habicht follows a group of men and women as they battle it out, in a Northland storm, to haul in the biggest catch.

Habicht himself asks the questions, often curly ones like whether fish have feelings, something most New Zealand blokes who fish may never have considered before. Yet his disarming of these people makes them answer honestly and it is both intriguing and hilarious to see these people wresting with such philosophical ideas.

Fishing is generally a solitary pursuit, something that people do in order to have time out from real life, time to think and imagine. And the film grasps this well, truly getting across the almost religious nature of fishing as contemplation.

web: www.flicks.co.nz (info)

trailer: www.flicks.co.nz (trailer)

films website: www.picturesforanna.com

Roald Dahl's beloved book about a wily fox outwitting three mean-spirited farmers has delighted children for years, and this big-screen adaptation will too. Wes Anderson's quirky visual style is tailor-made for this kind of film, and he does not disappoint with this vibrant stop-motion adaptation.

The story is, like most of Dahl's work, simple on the surface, but hinting at more serious things underneath. Mr. Fox is a good husband and father, providing for his family the only way he knows how: by thieving from the neighbourhood farmers. When the farmers decide to fight back, the fox family and several others, are trapped underground with no way to escape except to dig. And dig they do, outwitting the hapless farmers in the process.

Featuring a veritable constellation of star power in the voice talent. Fantastic Mr. Fox will delight adults as well as children with its expressive animation and visual flair.

web: www.fantasticmrfoxmovie.com

In a Romanian village in 1953, a couple, Iancu and Mara, are preparing for their wedding. Everything is not running smoothly. Their fathers are not thrilled with the match, and the village mayor is both a fool and a Communist.

When the news of Stalin's death reaches the village, the mayor, bound to Moscow, must enforce a general state of mourning. All celebrations are called off. Including weddings. Iancu and Mara are determined to go ahead with their matrimonial celebration in spite of the ban and decide to go ahead with it in silence.

Emir Kusturica is the master of this slightly absurd slice of Eastern-European life cinema, and director Horatiu Malaele owes much to Kusturica here. The film is centred firmly in village life, form the old drunks in the local tavern to the proprietors of the Mom & pop store. The Communists are seen here as buffoons and nincompoops, following orders that make no sense for no good reason.

Witty, whimsical and at times dabbling in what can only be called magic-realism, Silent Wedding is an entertaining look at another culture at another time and gives us hope that the joys of human nature can always overcome politics.

web: www.nuntamuta.ro

Set in the Midwest in 1967, this is perhaps the most autobiographical film the Coen Brothers have ever made. It is also the most dense in terms of plot and features some of the most complex characters in the Coen's career. It is also about as far away from No Country For Old Men as you can get.

Larry Gopnik is a physics professor whose life gets thrown into turmoil when his wife abruptly announces she is leaving him for an overbearing smooth talker. His brother Arthur has been sleeping on his couch and shows no signs of leaving any time soon, something that irritates Larry's nose-job seeking daughter no end; Arthur stays in the bathroom far longer than even a teenage girl. His son, Danny, is smoking pot and listening to Jefferson Airplane while he is supposed to be studying the Torah for his bar mitzvah. On top of this he has a gun-toting redneck living next door, a failing student who is bribing and threatening him and anonymous letters threatening his chance at tenure. Overwhelmed, he turns to religion to help him through. But can religion really help one become "a serious man"?

Opening with a flashback to an earlier time in a Polish shetl, the film's multiple themes are set up before the main story even begins. And what themes they are! Man's search for meaning in life, the existence of God, pattern and randomness in the universe, and the solitude of the human condition are all touched on here. It sounds heavy, and in many ways it is. But it is also extremely funny; outrageously so in places.

The detail in this film is outstanding, with props and costumes offering sly insights into characters. The little known actors in the lead roles give outstanding performances of great depth and subtlety. And this has one of the best endings of any film this year, one that will have you thinking for days after the screening, and probably coming back for a second viewing. Which would be very worthwhile because this is a film that both deserves and demands multiple viewings.

web: youtube

Based on the highly successful novel by Steig Larssen, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a taut and twisty thriller. Mikael is a journalist who has been sentenced to three months in prison following his revealing of a financier’s dodgy tax shelters. Still at large while waiting for the date his incarceration is to begin, he is contacted by an industry tycoon, Venger, who has a forty-year-old mystery he would like solved. Impressed by Mikael's journalistic work, and his tenacity when he knows he is onto something, Venger hires him to try and get some answers.

Mikael moves to Venger's island community and begins investigating, helped with his odd quest by a Goth woman hacker, Elsbeth. Elsbeth has a criminal past of her own, and is reluctant to give away anything about her past.

I can't say much more about the plot without giving it away, so I'll stop here. Anyone who has read the book is likely to be a little disappointed by how compressed the novel has become in this screen translation, despite it being close to two and a half hours long. But for those who haven't read it, there are enough plot twists, dramatic turns and unsavoury characters to fill two regular movies. With news of a US version going into production already, make sure you don't miss the Swedish original!

web: loshombresquenoamabanalasmujeres.es

trailer: youtube trailer

From the director of The Italian comes The Admiral, a huge hit in its native Russia and a film that has gone a long way toward rehabilitating the reputation of the titular Admiral, Alexandr Kolchak. This is an epic movie in the style of Doctor Zhivago or Titanic, a film this owes much to in terms of structure.

In the midst of the First World War, Kolchak is at sea fighting the Germans. Back on land he meets Anna, the wife of one of his colleagues. Despite both being married, the pair share an instant attraction that maintains its strength throughout the Russian revolution and the Civil War that follows.

With a good mixture of history, romance and action, this film has something for everyone. The war scenes are exceptional, incredibly violent and with blood, guts and lost limbs flying everywhere. The romance plays out a little more sedately. With both parties already married, the relationship is very chaste and it is difficult to believe that the pair would hold out for each other so long based on just attraction. It almost makes you think the film makers skipped the good bits.

A new cinema is coming out of Russia and The Admiral is an excellent example of the quality and passion being put into telling Russian stories for audiences in Russia and beyond.

Living in a shed with six children may not be many people's idea of an idyllic way of life. Yet for the Karena family, living in one room is an opportunity for sharing and togetherness, not hardship. This remarkably intimate film follows the Karenas over a four year period in which they lose their home and an unborn child, but never their ideals of raising a family in harmony with nature.

Peter's long-running bad blood with his step-father has made him staunch about raising his own children in the way he would have liked to have been, rather than the way he was. And the six Karena children are given freedom to roam and experiment while also being given much love. A respect of nature and the natural world is being instilled in them, and the children clearly thrive in the outdoors whether it is riding horses bareback on the beach or hunting in the mountains for deer.

Never has New Zealand's East Coast been filmed so beautifully. And the gorgeous Karena children fit so naturally into their environment it is like they were made for one another. While it is easy to be cynical and call these parents hippies, perhaps we would all be better off taking a leaf out of their books and allowing our children the freedom to become themselves.

web: thiswayoflifemovie.com

web: facebook.com/thiswayoflifemovie

A tense revenge thriller, Law Abiding Citizen opens with a horrific home invasion in which Clyde (Gerard Butler) is forced to watch as his wife is killed and unspeakable atrocities (thankfully offscreen) are done to his daughter. The perps are caught, but through some legal loophole, get off easily, something that Clyde finds unforgivable. He is bent on revenge.

The form his revenge takes is best not gone into here for it will spoil your viewing pleasure. But let it be known that his resourcefulness is almost super-human. As the unexplainable crimes mount up, District Attorney (Foxx) is as determined to take the killer down as he is on getting his revenge.

Often quite daft and logic-defying, this film remains compelling even in its more preposterous moments. Both leads have a gritty determination that informs their every move, while director Gray manages to build layers of suspense and dread into each consecutive scene until the tension level is near unbearable.

Infinitely enjoyable while in the cinema, this one will not stand up to much post-film discussion or dissemination, but really, if you've spent an entertaining hour and a half, who cares?

web: www.lawabidingcitizenfilm.com

A gothic building on an isolated island, an impending hurricane and a locked room mystery. It all sounds like something we've seen before, a genre movie which will have beats as predictable as those of our own heart. Yet in the hands of Martin Scorcese, this film is not what it may initially seem to be.

It is 1954, the heart of the Cold War. US Marshall Teddy, and his new partner, Chuck, are sent to investigate the seemingly impossible disappearance of a woman from an asylum for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. She is a child murderer, considered dangerous and constantly watched. Yet somehow, she has vanished from a locked and barred room.

The asylum's director seems to be helpful, yet as the film progresses, it becomes more and more likely that he and his colleagues are up to something sinister. Flashbacks hint at Teddy's past, as do his vivid and disturbing dreams. As these layers are added, it becomes more and more clear that Teddy’s calm, competent exterior is masking deep-rooted trauma.

Like all the best film-noir, nobody is quite who they seem to be, and motivations are murky. With thrilling visuals and a deep-rooted sense of unease that creeps over you as the film unfolds, Shutter Island is perhaps the culmination of all the work Scorsese has done over the years and showcases his mastery of telling unbearably human stories that follow the same illogic as real life. And the ending will leave you gasping for breath!

web: www.shutterisland.com

Before I start, let it be known that I am a passionate admirer of Cormac McCarthy and The Road is my favourite of his books. When I heard a cinematic adaptation was in the works, I was sceptical that it would work. In the novel, the language is so intrinsic as to be a character in the tale. When I discovered that John Hilcoat was to direct the film version, I breathed a little easier.

Set in an apocalyptic world after some unnamed disaster - probably environmental - The Man and The Boy are on the road, heading to the coast in the hope there might be some relief there. There are few survivors, and those that remain have descended into cannibalism. The Man and The Boy do not do that though, hold on and scrounge for whatever morsels they can find. They steer clear of other people where possible, despite needing to raid houses for possible supplies.

The world in which these characters move is unremittingly bleak, the colour leached out of it, nature destroying itself before our eyes. In contrast, the scenes from before, flashbacks in which The Man remembers his wife and happier times, are bright, colourful and suggest prosperity and plenty.

While the film does capture the bleakness and inevitability of the book, it doesn't contain any of the horror. Even a scene in a farmhouse where people are essentially being farmed for food doesn’t come across as being as disgusting and abhorrent as it should. Everything is distanced, almost as if it were being viewed from behind a veil. The score, written and performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is obtrusive, telegraphing events and short-handing emotion that the actors should be able to provide.

Which is not to say this is a bad film, or even a bad adaptation. It isn't. But it isn't the book. It is a faithful adaptation of the book, down to a voice-over that has clearly been placed to try and capture some of the beauty of McCarthy's language. Yet the film doesn’t capture the book. The flashback scenes, of which there is only one in the book, detract from, rather than highlight the bleakness of the future these characters face. And while Mortenson does a great job with the part of The Man, he comes across as too Christ-like, making it difficult to engage with him. As The Boy, newcomer Smit-McPhee is not always convincing. He’s grown up in this world, yet still seems surprised by its harshness.

This is a film that will generate rapturous reviews from some circles, while people stay away from the box office in droves. Which is a shame, because despite its flaws, The Road is at times awesomely beautiful.

web: www.theroad-movie.com

Michael Winterbottom has one of the most interesting film careers around. His films are so wildly different to each other, it is almost impossible to see his body of work as being that of one man. Here he uses his fly-on-the-wall style to observe a single family as they deal with their grief over losing their wife and mother. In a move to revitalize their lives, widower, Joe, moves his two daughters to Italy. Genova changes all of them in different ways, and perhaps not the ways Joe might have expected.

The early part of the film focuses on the car accident that took Marianne from her family. The colours are stark here, all white and black and silver. Once the action moves to Genova, the colours become warmer and more inviting, a visual metaphor the change that is coming in the lives we observe.

The two daughters respond to the change in different ways, one exploring her blossoming sexuality and the other finding solace in talking to her mother's ghost. Meanwhile, Joe is reaquainting himself with an old friend, Barbara, who is now teaching in Genova.

The lives portrayed here are simple, the choices made mundane. Yet through his storytelling and use of music and visual cues, Winterbottom leads us to believe that every action will have a significance, each choice will lead to something more. None of these portends eventuate, but by this time we are so sucked into a story and characters that touch us in a profound and meaningful way, that we no longer care.

web: www.diaphana.fr

"Jeon Woo-chi" begins in the Chosun Dynasty in 1509 and involves a trio of Taoist wizards, a magician named Jeon Woo Chi (Dong-won Kang) and his dog, a corrupt king, evil goblins, and a prophetic pipe everyone is after. Eventually Jeon Woo Chi becomes sealed inside an ancient scroll for a crime he did not commit.

Jumping ahead to the year 2009, the wizards are called out of peaceful retirement as goblins start appearing in modern Korea to wreak havoc all around. The trio call on Jeon Woo Chi, who is released from his ancient scroll entrapment, to save the day. The problem is, Jeon Woo Chi, a kind of anti-superhero, becomes more interested in sightseeing and womanizing in modern day Korea.

Mixing the traditions of Asian cinema with the perils of time travel, Dong-hun Choi has made an entertaining, fast paced film that will have viewers glued to the screen, waiting for the next piece of magic to unfold.

trailer: www.youtube.com

Last year's Young @ Heart showed us how singing in a choir could be an uplifting and life affirming activity for people of any age and ethnicity. The Choir confirms this, and adds to it the redemptive qualities that singing in a group can have for a group of hardened criminals.

Shot over four years, The Choir takes us inside Leeukwop Prison, South Africa's largest penitentiary. Jabulani, a teenaged robber, and his fellow inmates struggle for survival, rebellious and angry. When Coleman, a wily old bank robber asks him to join the prison choir, his life is changed forever. The film follows the choir as it prepares to perform at the National Prisoner Choir Competition.

The prisoners are amazingly open, Davie having spent considerable time in the prison, gaining their trust. The stories they tell are often horrific, but we need to see where these people have come from if we are to fully appreciate the distance they have come. Music has changed their lives in such an immense and significant way that it is impossible not to be overcome by emotion when the beautiful voices soar.

This is an inspiring film about finding hope and freedom in one of the unlikeliest places on earth.

trailer: youtube trailer

With Sea Shepherd's actions in our own waters making headlines recently, there seems no better time to screen this outstanding documentary about the organisation's founder, Paul Watson. The film takes us through Paul's activist background; his first claim to fame is having been the youngest founding member of Greenpeace. Once he realized that Greenpeace were primarily about raising funds and awareness and less about actually protecting the ocean, he left them to form his own organization to do more.

Now he is best known as the vigilante environmentalist who arrests illegal fishermen and shark-finners (see Sharkwater which we screened in 2008 for his scene stealing turn). This documentary covers several of Paul's most recent and noteworthy accomplishments including the time Paul saw Japanese fishermen fishing illegally. He rammed their boat after documenting their criminal act. The Japanese vessel filed a complaint against him. Paul admitted guilt and provided his videotape of the infarction as evidence to the courts. The fishermen never turned up to court and ended up dropping all charges, claming the event never happened.

A more disturbing section of the film deals with the Canadian culling of baby fur seals. Not only is the slaughter of these beautiful creatures horrific to watch, but the spewing invective coming from the cullers at the Sea Shepherd crew is full of blind, misguided hatred.

In the face of such a glowing portrayal, it would be easy to imagine that director Ron Colby kept something off camera, some darker side of Watson that he doesn’t wish to show. But Paul is an open book, admitting openly to damaging vessels whose occupants are performing illegal acts. But he also proudly claims never to have killed or injured anyone in the process. He has complete knowledge of maritime law, and is enforcing it in places where no national government is doing so.

Charismatic and committed, Paul Watson is a vigilante, but not in the classic sense of the word. The cause he champions is an important one, and he and his organization are clearly taking on a role that nobody else is willing to. This film will, I'm sure, bring more people together to support him.

web: www.pirateforthesea.com

Last year saw the criminally under seen romantic gem In Search of a Midnight Kiss. This charming French/Canadian film is similar in tone, but adds a fish-out-of-water element that makes it even funnier than Midnight Kiss.

Jack is an isolated games designer whose relationship with Liza is fading. When he wins a trip to Paris in a Coke can, he gives the ticket to her and she storms out. Encouraged by his best friend, Rufus, Jack decides to go instead. At the airport Rufus tucks a book into his suitcase, in case he gets bored.

Chloe is an oddball loner who finds social interaction difficult. She watches hundreds of romantic movies, but relies on others to do her actual interacting for her. Upon returning to Paris from Brussells, her bag is lost at the airport. The one they deliver to her is not her own. It is Jack's. In going through his things, Chloe thinks she has found the man of her dreams. She dresses in his clothes, takes pictures with his camera and fantasises about who he might be. When the time comes to return his bag, she leaves notes and clues, hoping he will find her.

Melanie Laurent is a likable, charming lead - perky and just a little odd. Despite coming across as slightly deranged, we empathise with her and hope that her romantic dream might come true. As the bumbling object of her affection, Justin Bartha is just the right mixture of dumb American and loveable fool.

Witty, sweet and above all romantic, Every Jack Has His Jill is a fun, frothy way to spend an hour and a half.

web: www.jusquatoi.fr