William Kircher Movies

Out of the Blue, New Zealand writer-director Robert Sarkies' long-awaited follow-up to his 1999 feature debut, Scarfies, recreates the events that led up to and surrounded David Gray's November 13, 1990 mass murder of 13 locals in the town of Aramoana, New Zealand. Sarkies, however, approaches the material not as exploitation nor as an action picture, but -- like Terrence Malick in his 1973 true crime picture Badlands -- as an understated and detached drama. Sarkies uses a contemplative and reflective approach and a small-town pace and resists gratuitousness, intersecting several tales of casualties and survivors and downplaying the brutal violence. One story involves the contentious relationship between fiftysomething Jim (Timothy Bartlett) and his mother (Lois Lawn); another has a mom, Julia Anne (Tandi Wright) informing her daughter Rewa (Jacinta Wawatai) and her beau's children that they plan to share a house; and in a third, eccentric gun nut David Gray (Matthew Sunderland) cracks and guns down Julia's boyfriend, Gerry (Simon Ferry), in cold blood. These only represent the first three threads in a complex narrative tapestry; the story ultimately gives way to tense hours as the locals, realizing that a predator is on the loose and will kill anyone he can find, barricade their homes and cower in fear. Cinematographer Greig Fraser gives the picture a chilly, wintry aesthetic, rich with whites and blues. The film co-stars Karl Urban; Graeme Tetley co-authored the script with Sarkies. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A virulent strain of gonorrhea is loose in New Zealand and it is up to a nurse to find the carrier in this Kiwi thriller set in WW II. New Zealand was a popular shore-leave locale for battle fatigued American sailors. Kelly Towne is a nurse from the Hygiene Department. Her assignment is to help keep the spread of VD in check. She works with both the troops and the local brothels. In the film's beginning a Marine has been murdered and his girlfriend, a former hooker, has disappeared. Kelly becomes involved in the mystery after she finds out that both the missing girl and the wife of a local politician carry this new, deadly strain of gonorrhea. With the help of U.S. Marine Capt. Michael Starwood, she sets off to find the girl and is surprised that her trail leads to the highest ranks of the New Zealand government and the American military where a conspiracy is taking place. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Three women working for a singing telegram company contend with a variety of problems on St. Valentine's Day. The manager is gone, and one woman has lost her voice. The second woman has just broken up with her boyfriend, and the third is caught in a bitter child-custody battle with her ex-husband. One dresses in a gorilla suit to deliver one of the 50 singing telegrams scheduled for the busy day. If the trio ever hopes to find love again, they abandon all hope after meeting the meat-headed males they encounter. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi