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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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X (Film)

by Erin Free | November 18, 2011 10:59 | Edited November 18, 2011 11:01

A sordid but sophisticated full throttle thriller which once again proves Jon Hewitt to be one of Australia’s most daring filmmakers.

On the often rarefied local film scene, writer/director Jon Hewitt is one of a small few who could legitimately be called an "outlaw filmmaker", a creative force who has more in common with the likes of Larry Clark and Gaspar Noe than any card-carrying member of the Australian cinematic firmament. He was one of the first to ride the wave of shooting-on-video with his 1992 B-movie Bloodlust, and has continued to work outside the traditional funding system ever since. Hewitt's subsequent films have been far more sophisticated and mature in approach: Redball turned the police thriller upside down; Darklovestory bent the romantic drama out of shape; and Acolytes was what happened when Hewitt mixed the teen flick and the serial killer thriller. His latest work, X, is his best yet.

 

Boasting an impressive neo-noir sheen, and set in Sydney's lurid King's Cross, X tracks the violent collision that plays out when jaded, set-to-retire high class prostitute, Holly (Viva Bianca), meets naive, teenage-runaway-turned-hooker, Shay (Hanna Mangan Lawrence). After a sexy double-act-gone-wrong ends in death, the mismatched ladies of the night are sent hurtling through the neon horrors of The Cross, a vicious twilight world where depravity and cruelty hover on every corner. With corrupt cops and scavenging street thugs to contend with, Holly and Shay have to mine all of their strength just to stay alive.

 

While genre-fiend Hewitt is obviously high on the possibilities that his enjoyably sordid premise and seamy setting offer up, he's also a highly intelligent and deeply sensitive filmmaker, creating not just two terrific female characters, but a crudely fascinating world for them to inhabit. A slick, stylish, in-your-face, sex-and-violence packed thriller from one of Australia's most daring and uncompromising filmmakers, X starts with a bang (literally...in a scene that has to be seen to be believed) and never lets up for a second.