Click each image to play the film in full at SBS On Demand. Please note that the films on this list expire at various times throughout the month (If there is no 'play' button in the image, the film is no longer available).
Eyes Wide Shut
MA 15+
USA / UK, 1999
Genre: Thriller
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Sydney Pollack, Leelee Sobieski, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise
What's it about?
Relations between Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman) are intensely strained. When he attends a mysterious Christmas party, the awkwardness of the situation forces him to confront his fascination for extra-marital relations.
[link title="Eyes Wide Shut" url="node/234"]
[link title="Was ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ merely an elaborate, expensive way for Stanley Kubrick to toy with Tom Cruise? " url="node/155669"]
[link title="Eyes Wide Shut review: Kubrick's final masterpiece" url="node/4058"]
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
MA15+, 2006
Genre: Biography, Drama
Language: [language]
Director: Steven Shainberg
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Nicole Kidman, Ty Burrell, Jane Alexander
What's it about?
Photographer Diane Arbus (Nicole Kidman), forms a bond with a new neighbour who covers his face with grotesque masks (Robert Downey Jr). Diane is exposed to a whole new world but risks alienation from those close to her.
[link title="Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus review: Imaginary is the operative word" url="node/4344"]
Ragnarok
Norway, 2013
Genre: Action, Adventure
Language: Norwegian, Swedish
Director: Mikkel Brænne Sandemose
Starring: Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Bjørn Sundquist
What's it about?
No, not that one. Archaeologist Sigurd Svendsen discovers that the Oseberg ship hides a secret from the Viking Age. Along with his two children put Sigurd out on a quest to find the truth. The mystery leads them into "No Man's Land" between Norway and Russia where no man traveling in modern times. Old runes take on new meaning when the secret they uncover is more frightening than anyone could have imagined.
They Have Escaped
Netherlands, Finland, 2014
Genre: Drama
Language: Finnish
Director: Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää
Starring: Pelle Heikkilä, Roosa Söderholm, Jari Pehkonen, Sara Paavolainen
What's it about?
Two troubled teensbreak out of their halfway house and make their way home.
Piranha 3DD
MA15+
United States, 2012
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Director: John Gulager
Starring: David Hasselhoff, Danielle Panabaker, Ving Rhames, Gary Busey
What's it about?
Having awoken from their spring break at Lake Victoria, the piranha swarm heads upstream where they look to make a meal out of Big Wet, a local water park. The staff and patrons get more than they bargained for when they must face the fiercest, most bloodthirsty piranhas yet.
The Iceman
MA15+
United States, 2012
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director: Ariel Vromen
Starring: Chris Evans, David Schwimmer, John Ventimiglia, Ray Liotta, Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder
What's it about?
Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) is a bit player in the porn industry. He comes to the attention of a mob boss (Ray Liotta) who appreciates Richard's iciness. Soon Richard is contracting hits, often partnering with Robert (Chris Evans), who has an ingenious method of body disposal. All the while, Richard appears to be a loving family man, keeping his sociopathic tendencies away from his devoted wife (Winona Ryder) and children.
[link title="The Iceman: Michael Shannon interview" url="node/1589"]
[link title="The Iceman Review" url="node/6226"]
Jimi: All is by My Side
United Kingdom, 2013
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Language: English
Director: John Ridley
Starring: Imogen Poots, Hayley Atwell, Andre Benjamin
What's it about?
In 1966, Jimi Hendrix (André Benjamin), an unknown backup guitarist, is doing the pub and club circuit. The following year sees him move to London and making his mark in the music scene there. Then there's his triumph at Monterey Pop Festival, which alters the history of rock music forever.
[link title="Jimi: All is by My Side Review " url="node/17322"]
Elite Squad
MA15+
Brazil, 2007
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Language: Portuguese
Director: José Padilha
Starring: Milhem Cortaz, André Ramiro, Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira
What's it about?
In Rio Di Janeiro, an elite group of cops use violence to control the notorious favelas as a first and only resort. Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) seeks a replacement to whom he can entrust his team so he can leave the highly dangerous job and devote himself to family life.
Mammoth
M
Sweden, Germany, Denmark, 2000
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Michelle Williams, Gael García Bernal, Marife Necesito, Sophie Nyweide
What's it about?
While on a trip to Thailand, a successful businessman (Gael García Bernal) tries to radically change his life. Back in New York, his wife (Michelle Williams) and daughter (Sophie Nyweide) find their relationship with their live-in Filipino maid (Marife Necesito) changing around them. At the same time, in the Philippines, the maid's family struggles to deal with her absence.
Killer Joe
MA15+
United States, 2011
Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Thomas Haden Church, Matthew McConaughey
What's it about?
Desperate for dough, degenerate drug dealer Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) hatches a plan with his moronic father (Thomas Haden Church) and slutty stepmother, Sharla (Gina Gershon), to have his mother murdered and split the 50-grand insurance payout. Enter 'Killer' Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a smooth-talkin' local cop with a profitable sideline as a hitman. Nothing's that simple of course, and once Joe's lecherous eye lands on Chris' virginal sister, Dottie (Juno Temple), things go from bad to extremely worse for everyone.
[link title="Killer Joe Review" url="node/5895"]
Under the Skin
United Kingdom, 2013
Genre: Sci-Fi
Language: [language]
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Michael Moreland, Jessica Mance, Scott Dymond, Robert J. Goodwin, Paul Brannigan, Krystof Hádek
What's it about?
Scarlett Johansoon plays an alien that takes on human form, who commences a quest of seducing men as 'she' travels throughout Scotland.
[link title="Under the Skin: Scarlett Johansson & Jonathan Glazer interview " url="node/17190"]
[link title="Under the Skin Review" url="node/3635"]
[link title="Under The Skin Review" url="node/6308"]
The Grump
Finland, 2014
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Language: English, Finnish, Russian
Director: Dome Karukoski
Starring: Antti Litja, Mari Perankoski, Petra Frey, Ilkka Forss
What's it about?
A stubbornly traditional eighty-year-old farmer – whose social attitudes verge on the prehistoric – raises hell when he is forced to move in with his sadsack, city-dwelling son and domineering daughter-in-law, in this hilarious social satire based on the wildly popular novel by Finnish author Tuomas Kyrö.
Victoria In Dover
Austria, 1954
Genre: History, Romance
Language: German
Director: Ernst Marischka
Starring: Adrian Hoven, Karl Ludwig Diehl, Romy Schneider
What's it about?
When young Victoria (Romy Schneider) is crowned the Queen of England in 1837, she aims to do her best in order to help her country prosper. However, the family and her trusted advisor, Lord Melbourne (Karl Ludwig Diehl), plan marriage for her. She is to get married to the German prince, Albert (Adrian Hoven). But Victoria sees her future differently and decides to leave London for a few days and travel to Paris incognito.
The Sea Inside
2004
Language: Spanish
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Starring: Javier Bardem, Francesc Garrido, Lola Dueñas, Celso Bugallo, Clara Segura
What's it about?
Based on the true story of Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem), who was left a quadriplegic after a swimming accident some 28 years prior. Ramon later attempts to win the right to an assisted suicide through the courts. Following a lengthy and mostly unsuccessful struggle, Ramon decides to take matters into his own hands with some help from a voluntary euthanasia group and grudging loved ones.
[link title="The Sea Inside review: A truly moving story" url="node/2784"]
Lone Wolf And Cub: Sword Of Vengeance
M
Japan, 1972
Language: Japanese
Director: Kenji Misumi
Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Fumio Watanabe
What's it about?
A professional hit man known as Lone Wolf Itto is hired to kill a bunch of rogues and destroy the conspiracy to topple the legitimate heir of a fiefdom.
The Libertine
MA15+
France, 2000
Genre: Comedy
Language: French
Director: Gabriel Aghion
Starring: Josiane Balasko, Tom Burke, Vincent Perez, Fanny Ardant, Michel Serrault, Audrey Tautou
What's it about?
Denis Diderot (Vincent Perez), one of the great minds of the pre-revolutionary era, has been forced to go underground to print his encyclopaedia since, no sooner was it published, it was outlawed by the government. Diderot and his family go into hiding at Baron d’Holbach’s chateau where concealed in the chapel's cellar, the encyclopaedia continues to go to print. Will the underground operation be revealed when the Cardinal (Michel Serrault) comes sniffing around the estate, and what secret is the mysterious artist, Madame Therbouche (Fanny Ardant) hiding?
Things We Do for Love
Finland, 2013
Language: Finnish,
Director: Matti Ijäs
Starring: Krista Kosonen, Tommi Korpela, Sampo Sarkola
What's it about?
Vaarala, a reserved romantic photographer, has an odd artistic vision of loneliness: he takes serial photos of an empty park bench in remote spaces of nature. When he meets and falls in love with the spirited, unruly Ansa, his ‘bench’ is suddenly filled. But in order to be with her he has to not only overcome his own frailties, but also the impending danger of Ansa’s volatile ex-con ex, and then Ansa herself, a woman prone to impulsiveness and impetuousness.
Nightfall In India
Spain, 2014
Language: Spanish
Director: Chema Rodríguez
Starring: Juan Diego, Ken Appledorn, Javier Pereira, Clara Voda, Linda Molin
What's it about?
Middle-aged Ricardo decides to travel overland to India, as he used to do in the old days, when he brought hippies to the East in his van. But the situation is very different now. Ricardo has been in a wheelchair for the last ten years, suffering from a degenerative disease. But when Dana, his Romanian housekeeper, joins him on the trip, it turns out to be a funny and inspiring journey, opening doors both Ricardo and Dana thought were closed forever.
Children of Glory
MA15+
Hungary, 2006
Genre: Drama, History, Sport
Language: Hungarian
Director: Krisztina Goda
Starring: Tamás Jordán, Iván Fenyö, Ildikó Bánsági, Károly Gesztesi, Sándor Csányi, Kata Dobó
What's it about?
In 1956, while Soviet tanks were destroying Hungary, the Hungarian water polo team faced off against the Russians at the Olympic Games in Melbourne. Taking place in Budapest and Melbourne, this film follows the events surrounding what was to become known as one of the bloodiest water polo matches in the sport’s history.
Midnight's Children
M
Canada, United Kingdom, 2012
Genre: Drama
Language: English, Hindi, Urdu
Director: Deepa Mehta
Starring: Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Shabana Azmi, Rajat Kapoor, Siddharth, Shriya Saran, Charles Dance, Anupam Kher, Salman Rushdie, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Kusum Haider
What's it about?
A Canadian-Brith film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel of the same name. The film tells the story of a pair of children born within moments of India gaining independence from England grow up in the country that is nothing like their parent's generation.
[link title="How Deepa Mehta Overcame Protests to Film Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children'" url="node/1537"]
Prime
M
United States, 2005
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Language: English
Director: Ben Younger
Starring: Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg
What's it about?
A career driven professional from Manhattan is wooed by a young painter, who also happens to be the son of her psychoanalyst.
Shadows of Time
M
Germany, 2004
Genre: Drama
Director: Florian Gallenberger
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Tillotama Shome, Prashant Narayanan, Tannishtha Chatterjee
What's it about?
The love story of Ravi and Masha, spanning 60 years. Ravo and Masha are just children when they are sold into labour by their parents. When they meet, friendship blossoms, but when the factory manager threatens to sell Masha, possibly into sex slavery, Ravi gives up his hard earned savings to buy her freedom. They agree on a way to find each other once Ravi has earned enough money to buy his freedom but a series of misunderstandings and fear tear them apart.
Blood Creek
MA15+
United States, 2009
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Language: German, English
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Henry Cavill, Dominic Purcell, Emma Booth
What's it about?
A man and his brother on a mission of revenge become trapped in a harrowing occult experiment dating back to the Third Reich.
Populaire
M
France, 2012
Genre: Comedy
Language: English, French, German, Italian
Director: Régis Roinsard
Starring: Romain Duris, Deborah Francois, Berenice Bejo
What's it about?
Set in 1958, Populaire focuses on Rose Pamphyle, who lives with her widowed father and is destined to marry a son of the local mechanic. Rose travels out of town and applies for a secretarial job with an insurance agency run by Louis Échard. Louis learns that Rose can type with extraordinary speed - using only two fingers - and he tells her to compete in a speed-typing competition if she wants the job.
Salinger
2013
Genre: Documentary
Language: [language]
Director: Shane Salerno
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Martin Sheen
What's it about?
An unprecedented look inside the private world of J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye.
[link title="Salinger Review" url="node/6316"]
Please Give
M
United States, 2010
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Catherine Keener
What's it about?
Kate (Catherine Keener) has a lot on her mind. There’s the ethics problem of buying furniture on the cheap at estate sales and marking it up at her trendy Manhattan store. There's the materialism problem of not wanting her teenage daughter (Sarah Steele) to want the expensive things that Kate wants. There's the marriage problem of sharing a partnership in parenting, business, and life with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt) but sensing doubt nibbling at the foundations. And there’s Kate’s free-floating 21st century malaise—the problem of how to live well and be a good person when poverty, homelessness, and sadness are always right outside the door.
[link title="Please Give Review" url="node/5172"]
Bottle Shock
M
United States, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: English
Director: Randall Miller
Starring: Chris Pine, Rachael Taylor, Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman
What's it about?
In 1976, Steven Spurrier, a sommelier in Paris, comes to the Napa Valley to take the best he can find to Paris for a blind taste test against French wine. He meets Jim Barrett, whose Chateau Montelena is mortgaged to the hilt as Jim perfects his chardonnay. There\'s strain in Jim\'s relations with his hippie son Bo and his foreman Gustavo, a Mexican farmworker\'s son secretly making his own wine. Plus, there\'s Sam, a UC Davis graduate student and free spirit, mutually attracted to both Gustavo and Bo. As Spurrier organizes the \"Judgment of Paris,\" Jim doesn\'t want to participate while Bo knows it\'s their only chance. Barrett\'s chardonnay has buttery notes and a Smithsonian finish.
[link title="Bottle Shock Review" url="node/4548"]
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
PG
United States of America, Japan, 1990
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Science Fiction
Language: Japanese
Director: Akira Kurosawa, Ishirô Honda
Starring: Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisho, Toshie Negishi, Mieko Harada, Mitsunori Isaki, Martin Scorsese, Toshihiko Nakano, Yoshitaka Zushi, Hisashi Igawa, Chosuke Ikariya, Chishu Ryu, Masayuki Yui, Mieko Suzuki, Shû Nakajima, Sakae Kimura
What's it about?
A collection of magical tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.
Pale Rider
MA 15+
United States of America, 1985
Genre: Romance, Western
Language: English
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Chris Penn, Richard Dysart, Sydney Penny, Richard Kiel, Doug McGrath, John Russell, Charles Hallahan, Marvin J. McIntyre, Fran Ryan, Richard Hamilton, Graham Paul, Chuck Lafont, Jeffrey Weissman, Allen Keller
What's it about?
A small gold mining camp is terrorised by a ruthless land owner wanting to take their land. Clint Eastwood arrives riding a pale horse just as a young girl is praying to God to help the miners. He is revealed to be a preacher with mysterious and possible otherworldly origins who teams up with the miners to defeat the land owner and the corrupt sheriff.
Lone Star
MA
United States of America, 1996
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Language: English, Spanish
Director: John Sayles
Starring: Chris Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, Elizabeth Pena, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Morton, Frances McDormand, Stephen J. Lang, Oni Faida Lampley, LaTanya Richardson
What's it about?
When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
PG
United States of America, 1976
Genre: Drama, Western
Language: English, Navajo, Spanish
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon, Paula Trueman, Sam Bottoms, Geraldine Keams, Woodrow Parfrey, Joyce Jameson, Sheb Wooley, Royal Dano, Matt Clark, John Verros, Will Sampson, Len Lesser, Doug McGrath, John Russell, Charles Tyner, John Mitchum, Madeleine Taylor Holmes
What's it about?
After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.
Dog Day Afternoon
M
United States, 1975
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Language: English
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Al Pacino, Carol Kane, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, James Broderick, William Bogert, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, Beulah Garrick, Sandra Kazan, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Amy Levitt, John Marriott
What's it about?
Al Pacino is a desperate man resorting to desperate measures for love, in Sidney Lumet's gripping crime classic. An attempted bank robbery goes awry on a hot summer's day and a hostage situation escalates into a media circus. Lumet directs with a naturalistic style, and keeps his story of cops, robbers, gawkers and hostages, free of any bad guys.
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
United States of America, 1973
Genre: Western
Language: English
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Starring: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Jason Robards, Bob Dylan, John Beck, Charles Martin Smith, Harry Dean Stanton, Bruce Dern, Sam Peckinpah
What's it about?
An aging Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons--his sole purpose being to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.
The Searchers
M
United States, 1956
Genre: Western
Language: Spanish, English, Navajo
Director: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Natalie Wood, Ward Bond, Vera Miles, Harry Carey, Jr., Hank Worden, Jeffrey Hunter, John Qualen, Olive Carey, Henry Brandon, Ken Curtis, Antonio Moreno, Beulah Archuletta, Walter Coy, Dorothy Jordan, Pippa Scott, Patrick Wayne, Lana Wood
What's it about?
A troubling masterpiece from America's King of the Western, John Ford. John Wayne plays Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards, whose devotion to searching for his abducted niece is at first heroic, and finally, obsessive. His hatred of Native Americans is palpable, and neither Ford nor his star soften the edges of what amounts to a murderous fixation.
The Swarm
PG
United States of America, 1978
Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Science Fiction
Language: English
Director: Irwin Allen
Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Jose Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray
What's it about?
A huge swarm of deadly African bees spreads terror over American cities by killing thousands of people.
All the President's Men
PG
United States, 1976
Genre: Drama, History, Thriller, Mystery
Language: Spanish, English
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, F. Murray Abraham, Hal Holbrook, Jack Warden, Robert Redford, Stephen Collins, Martin Balsam, Lindsay Crouse, Meredith Baxter, Penny Fuller, Penny Peyser, Robert Walden, Anthony Mannino, David Arkin, Richard Herd
What's it about?
The definitive story of how dogged investigative journalism pieced together the Watergate scandal that brought down a president. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, as they follow a lead about a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. The film won Oscars in 1977 for its screenplay and for the supporting actor turn from Jason Robards (as the Post's editor Ben Bradlee). As relevant today as ever.
Corpse Bride
PG, 2005
Genre: Animation/3D, Comedy, Fantasy
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Joanna Lumley, Tracey Ullman, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson
What's it about?
One Wedding. Two Brides. A Grave Misunderstanding. Returning to the painstaking stop-motion animation he employed with amazing success in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton presents a hair-raising legend based on a 19th-century Russian folktale, in which a young man mistakenly weds a corpse while on a two-day trek to the village of his real bride-to-be. It is up to the groom's flesh-and-blood fiancée, who has been pining for the arrival of her intended, to face her wraith-like rival and make peace with her by promising to live her dreams for her and by vowing to remember her always. Only then are the living bride and groom free to proceed with their own wedding ceremony in the warmhearted fable Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.
[link title="Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Review" url="node/2668"]
The Man with Two Brains
M
United States, 1983
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Science Fiction
Language: English
Director: Carl Reiner
Starring: James Cromwell, Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner, David Warner, George Furth, Paul Benedict, Richard Brestoff, Randi Brooks
What's it about?
Steve Martin is at his bumbling best in this throwback to Mad Scientist movies of Golden Hollywood. He plays a brilliant brain surgeon who is stuck in a bad marriage to a gold digger (Kathleen Turner), but plots an unconventional way to solve his marital problems, when he falls for a disembodied brain in a pickle jar.
Omar
2013
Genre: Drama, War
Language: Arabic
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Starring: Samer Bisharat, Leem Lubany, Wafaa Aon, Iyad Hoorani, Adam Bakri
What's it about?
Omar's village is separated from his friends' by the Isolation Wall. He scales the wall and dodges bullets frequently to visit his friends Tarek, Amjad and his girlfriend Nadia. The boys let together and practice shooting rifles, preparing to become fighters. When some Israeli soldiers humiliate Omar, the situation escalates quickly and ends with the boys killing a soldier. The next day Omar is arrested and is pressed by his captors to become a traitor and betray his friends or face 90 years in jail.
[link title="Omar: Hany Abu-Assad interview" url="node/1630"]
[link title="Omar Review " url="node/17278"]
