Bruce Myles Movies
- 2007
Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Paul Cox directs this intimate drama about the unlikely bond between a prostitute and a bible scholar. Natalia Novakova plays Irina, a Russian immigrant forced to sell herself out of necessity. Bruce Myles is Barry, a man married to a religious zealot who leaves him unfulfilled and seeking solace in the arms of Irina. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Myles, Natalia Novakova, (more)
- 2006
A teenage girl from the coastal town of Robe in South Australia realizes that hoping for change just isn't enough as she sets out in search of the father she never knew. Seventeen year old Emily (Victoria Thane) lives with her single mother Susan (Susie Porter) in a sleepy seaside town. Emily never knew her father, a man her mother claims was just a drifting summer tourist who wandered into town one day before disappearing without a trace. Susan's devoutly religious parents were mortified when their daughter got pregnant at the age of fifteen, and ever since she had Emily she's been struggling to forget the past. Kindly local Stephen lost his wife and baby daughter in a tragic accident, and remains haunted by the incident to this very day. In Stephen Emily sees a surrogate father, and in Emily Stephen sees the daughter his baby daughter could have grown into. Though Stephen's sister Elizabeth is married to local policeman Carl, she suspects that her husband is currently engaged in a clandestine extramarital affair. Could Carl be Emily's real father? If so, what would that mean for Emily's relationship with Elizabeth and Carl's teenage son Joel? Perhaps by summoning some much needed courage, Emily can bring about the change in her life that she so desperately craves. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susie Porter
Director P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding, My Best Friend's Wedding) helms this live-action retelling of J.M. Barrie's classic children's play Peter Pan. Starring Jeremy Sumpter (Frailty) in the title role, the film follows the adventures of the Darling children, Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), John (Harry Newell), and Michael (Freddie Popplewell), as they are visited by the boy who never grows up and whisked away to Neverland, where they encounter The Lost Boys, Tinker Bell (Ludivine Sagnier), and the evil Captain Hook (Jason Isaacs). ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter, (more)
The second and third novels in author Anne Rice's popular book series The Vampire Chronicles provide the inspiration for this horror sequel starring ill-fated actress and recording artist Aaliyah, who was killed in an airplane crash before the film's release. Stuart Townsend is the vampire Lestat, who has awakened from a century-long slumber and turned his considerable energy to rock music. His vampirism identity mistaken for a gothic hard rock publicity stunt along the lines of Kiss or Marilyn Manson, he quickly becomes a pop music sensation. Lestat's powerful music reaches the ear of the slumbering Akasha (Aaliyah), the millennia-old "queen of the vampires" who was the first immortal bloodsucker. Akasha is soon free and embarking on a quest to seize control of the world with Lestat at her side. In the meantime, Lestat becomes an object of fascination for Jesse Reeves (Marguerite Moreau), member of a secret order studying the supernatural called the Talamasca, and a band of ancient vampires come together in an effort to stop Akasha, even though her destruction could potentially cause their own deaths. Queen of the Damned co-stars Lena Olin and Vincent Perez. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aaliyah, Stuart Townsend, (more)
A young man fascinated with the workings of the world of banking forms an alliance with an unscrupulous corporate predator in this drama. Jim Doyle (David Wenham) developed an interest in finance while he was a young boy growing up in a small Australian town, and as an adult he and his partners have developed BTSE (Bank Training Simulation Experiment), a sophisticated computer program that can anticipate the ups and downs of the world's money markets. Jim's program attracts the interest of Simon O'Riley (Anthony LaPaglia), the head of a major Aussie financial services corporation, Centabank; O'Riley is looking to cut costs and increase profits, and he's convinced BTSE can help him do just that. However, O'Riley has other, more aggressive ways of boosting his bottom line; Centabank has been shutting down small-town branch offices that have been faithfully serving customers for decades, and has developed a new enthusiasm for foreclosing on loans from smaller customers having trouble making ends meet. Two such customers are Wayne and Diane Davis (Steve Rodgers and Mandy McElhinney), who obtained a loan to start their own business building houseboats; when the local economy went into a nosedive, the Davises found themselves under the thumb of Centabank, and the bank's hounding of the couple led to an unfortunate accident that took the life of their young son. Determined to make Centabank pay for their son's death, Wayne takes on the corporation with the help of Stephen (Mitchell Buell), an activist lawyer. Jim, meanwhile, becomes romantically involved with Michelle (Sibylla Budd), a Centabank employee, and through her gets a clearer idea of just what O'Riley is trying to do. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Wenham, Anthony LaPaglia, (more)
- 1991
- PG13
Australian director Paul Cox, skilled at intense psychological stories about lone souls looking for comfort in a cold world, was at his best with this original script co-written by the director and Barry Dickins. Martha is a 78-year-old woman living out her final days. Not a maudlin tale of a lonely woman wasting away, A Woman's Tale focuses on a human who manages to maintain an amazing vitality in the face of death. She encourages her young nurse, Anna (Gosia Doborowolska), to use her flat for romantic trysts; she looks in on Billy (Norman Kayes), an elderly neighbor, and she resists attempts by her son Johanathan (hris Haywood) to place her in a nursing home. Sheila Florance's performance as Martha is a marvel, especially given the art-imitates-life aspect of production: Florance was terminally ill, and she died soon after she was nominated for the Best Actress Award for Australia's Academy Awards. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheila Florance, Gosia Dobrowolska, (more)
In Sweet Talker, an amiable, charming ex-convict (Bryan Brown) arrives in a small Australian costal city with the intent of duping the populace into investing money in a phony excavation of a sunken ship, which is allegedly filled with gold. Unexpectedly, he falls in love with a young widow (Karen Allen) and becomes a father-figure to her young son. His new romance complicates his planned scam, and he can't decide whether to carry his plan through or stay with the woman. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Karen Allen, (more)
A barely recognizable Meryl Streep plays the real-life Lindy Chamberlain, who for a long period in the early 1980s was the most hated woman in Australia. While visiting the Ayers rock monument in the Outback with her husband Michael (Sam Neill), Lindy notices a dingo creeping into the tent where her baby lies sleeping. Seconds later, the horrified woman discovers that her child is gone. Despite Lindy's anguished insistence that the dingo killed her baby, the Australian public is of the opinion that Lindy herself is the murderer. This lynch-mob atmosphere is fueled by the press, which insists upon crucifying the Chamberlains in print on a daily basis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 1987
- R
Ground Zero details a governmental cover-up as seen through the eyes of commercial photographer Colin Friels. Tipped off to the possibility that the death of his father was tied in with radioactive contamination, Friels runs into several official brick walls as he presses his investigation. At the root of everything is a hush-hush nuclear radiation test, conducted in Australia in the mid-1950s. With the help of a slightly-addled survivor (Donald Pleasence) of those tests, Friels uncovers the truth. Ground Zero was inspired by the real-life nuclear testings at Maralinga. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Friels, Jack Thompson, (more)
- 1971
- R
Adapted by Roald Dahl from a novel by Joy Crowley, The Road Builder is better known by its American release title: The Night Digger. Patricia Neal, then Mrs. Dahl, stars as the repressed middle-aged adopted daughter of blind and elderly Pamela Brown. Both women are drawn to Nicholas Clay, a seriously disturbed young handyman whom they shield from the authorities. Neal and Brown are particularly fascinated by Clay's mysterious nocturnal forays. When Neal decides to offer herself sexually to Clay, she learns to her horror just why Clay spends so much time outdoors at night. An eerie Bernard Herrmann score enhances the stomach-churning tension. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Neal, Pamela Brown, (more)
