Screening 1 - Friday 2 May at 7:30 pm (Double session)

FRIDAY: Session 1

Dr. Plonk

Aust. 2007   85 mins Silent Comedy "G"   Dir: Rolf de Heer

In the great year of 1907, Dr Plonk, eminent scientist and inventor calculates the world will end in exactly 101 years unless immediate action is taken. Naturally, he invents a time machine and sets out to collect the necessary proof ...

This energetic, funny, adventure-filled farce takes us back to the days of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin. Stars Nigel Lunghi, Magda Szubanski and Reg the Dog.

- Distributor's brochure

FRIDAY: Late Session

The Host

Sth Korea 2006 Horror 119 mins "M"   Dir: Bong Joon-Ho

A monster movie with heart, satirical sharpness, thrills, chills, suspense, humour and excellent special effects. There are two kinds of monster : a devouring river-dwelling mutant who terrorises a city * and an enveloping conspiracy of bureaucracy and the state that seems equally threatening. Against both monsters, a family combine forces, with unpredictable results.

- Phillipa Hawker, The Age

* Described by another critic as a giant tadpole!

Screening 2 - Saturday 3 May at 9.00am

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

USA 2006 Drama 121 mins "M"   Dir: Tommy Lee Jones

In the barren border country where Texas meets Mexico, a couple of hunters discover the body of a man ...

Mexican screen writer Guillermo Arriaga has an enviable reputation based on his two previous films, Amores Perros and 21 Grams, both of them layered, beautifully written dramas. This one, too, is suffused with a toughness and yet a tenderness which is very affecting. Indeed, it's full of surprises - small scenes and marginal characters which resonate long after the movie is over.

Impeccably acted by all concerned and beautifully photographed by Chris Menges, it is a very fine film indeed.

- David Stratton, At the Movies

Screening 3 - Saturday 3 May at 11.15am

The Namesake

India/USA 2007 Drama 122mins "M"   Dir: Mira Nair

Spanning two generations, two clashing cultures and two very different ways of life, this is the latest film from the director of Monsoon Wedding.

It is a moving drama which follows the Ganguli family who come to New York to Calcutta to experience a world of limitless opportunities - only to be confronted with the perils and confusion of trying to build a meaningful life in a baffling new society. Different challenges face the next, US-born, generation until links are seen with the world left behind.

- Fox Searchlight brochure

Screening 4 - Saturday 3 May at 4.00pm

Volver

Spain 2006 Comedy/Drama 120 mins "M"   Dir: Pedro Almodovar

Raimunda is a hardworking and very attractive young mother with an unemployed husband and a daughter in mid-adolescence. A born fighter, she is also emotionally fragile, having kept a terrible secret to herself since childhood.

This eagerly awaited new film from Almodovar is about women without men. He has given Penelope Cruz a great role and she has never been better. There's a fine supporting cast, who all won a special joint award at Cannes for "Best Actresses".

Following a wonderful opening in a windswept graveyard, the film unfolds an increasingly complex story which concentrates on character, skilfully combining laughter and tears.

- David Stratton, At the Movies

Screening 5 - Saturday 3 May at 8.15pm

The U.S. Vs John Lennon

USA 2007 Documentary 99 mins "M"   Dir: David Leaf & John Scheinfeld

This excellent documentary attempts to explain what happened to Lennon in the last decade of his life, before his murder in 1980: a period when he left his wife for Yoko Ono, moved to New York and was radicalised by the Vietnam War.

Alongside extensive documentary footage, a formidable list of talking heads (from all political persuasions) gives personal testimonies. Ono's home movie footage and songs from Lennon's albums of the time serve well to remind us what the 1970s were like. Lennon, himself, is witty, articulate and unswerving. No wonder Nixon and Hoover feared him.

- David Stratton, The Weekend Australian