The Screen Show

The new American film Whiplash is about an ambitious young jazz drummer who comes under the mentorship of a bullying teacher. It’s young star Miles Teller is being tipped for an Oscar nomination, as is J.K. Simmons who plays the sadistic bandleader sparking broader debate. But is the film really about bullying or is it more about the American obsession with cutthroat competition and individualism? Plus, director of the Swedish film Force Majeure Ruben Östlund discusses why he wanted to tell the story of a father who abandons his young family and saves himself in a moment of extreme physical danger.

From Gone Girl to Gone Boy. Siddharth is about a poor Indian family whose 12 year old son goes missing. Writer director Richie Mehta, a first generation Indian Canadian, discusses returning to the country of his parents to make it, and how his poverty-stricken, non-western characters suggest alternate ways to read grief and anger on screen. Plus, The Judge stars Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jnr as father and son in a story about a small town legal scandal that's as much about courtroom drama as it is about prickly homecomings.

Everyone is talking about Gone Girl, the Hollywood film starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike that’s based on the best selling novel about a husband suspected of his wife’s abduction and murder. The book was dogged by criticisms of misogyny, but became a worldwide hit. Guest critic and film scholar Sarinah Masukor discusses why she thinks the movie, directed by David Fincher (The Social Network), says less about gender and much more about status anxiety. Plus, ever watched a romantic comedy about abortion? The new indie film Obvious Child could be your first.

This week how two American films - the action blockbuster The Equalizer and indie dramedy The Skeleton Twins - approach fantasies of catharsis in very different ways. Plus Georgian director Nana Ekvtimishvili discusses In Bloom, a film about bride kidnapping based on the stories of her own friends and relatives.

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson discusses his touching, often hilarious coming of age tale. We Are The Best! about three girls who form a punk band in 1982. Plus, what’s wrong with Australian film this time? Two new romantic comedies miss the mark.

American dreams and terror. This week a disturbing look at terror from within that has nothing to do with Islamic extremism. Night Moves is about eco-terrorists in Oregon who plot to blow up a dam, and we meet its writer director Kelly Reichardt. Plus, the film US critics are calling a masterpiece, The Immigrant, starring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix.

Do vampires who live for centuries accomplish more than us mere mortals, or are they the ultimate procrastinators? New Zealand comedians Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby discuss this and other dilemmas of immortality ahead of the release of their mockumentary about a vampire share house, What We Do In The Shadows. Plus, Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai is back with a sumptuous Kung Fu romance, The Grandmaster.

There are few precedents in the history of cinema that compare to Boyhood, the film from American director Richard Linklater that took twelve years to make. It’s astounding to see actors age in real time, without the help of make up or prosthetics. The film’s producer Cathleen Sutherland and young star Ellar Coltrane reveal the process. Plus Australian actor Joel Edgerton and director Matt Saville discuss their new thriller Felony.

The new movie from Brisbane filmmaking twins the Spierig brothers does something most contemporary science fiction films don’t – it makes you think. Deeply. The brothers discuss how an obscure Robert A Heinlen story inspired them to make Predestination – a film about time travel and gender politics starring Sarah Snook and Ethan Hawke. Plus, British comedy The Inbetweeners 2 has arguably the best gross-out set piece ever. But is the rest of it any good?

Does an authorised documentary about a public figure necessarily end up a hagiography, devoid of insight? Or can collaborations between filmmakers and famous subjects deliver authentic, unguarded moments? This is the question pertinent to a new film about the iconic Australian performer Nick Cave, 20,000 Days On Earth, and we'll meet the pair of British conceptual artists who made it. Plus, the verdict on Palo Alto, a film from a new director in the Coppola clan - Francis's granddaughter Gia.