TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
6/10
As someone who has experienced their role at work being made redundant, and who's had their lives impacted by depression suffered by others, this film about a post-treatment depressive being made redundant touched a bit of a nerve for me. In this film, a group of employees is offered a choice between having their agreed to performance bonus, or to keep the main character in a job, but nor both. Additionally the foreman is putting unfair pressure on the staff to pick the bonus. When the owner of the business is appealed to by the woman whose job is at risk, he agrees on a Friday afternoon to allow the team to have a new vote on Monday, so this film covers the attempts to sway those involved to let the heroine keep her job.

I didn't dislike this film, but I felt it was a little bit too linear, and at points repetitive to the point of (dare I say it?) redundant. I think with some more editing this film could have been a little more snappy in its telling. The subtitles also seemed to be confusing; I was unable to follow exactly how many colleagues she had to convince to let her win the vote, as the discussed numbers relating to it seemed seemed to keep changing throughout.

THE OVERNIGHTERS
6/10
Another documentary that would be best served waiting for a TV broadcast. This film is about a pastor in Texas, in a town whose mining interests are booming, and how he is providing food and shelter to those who are arriving in their town and down on their luck, hoping to find work and get back on their feet. It was well filmed, and the main character certainly was interesting enough to remain engaged. However, for such a divisive topic for the townspeople, it seemed that the filmmaker was making a pretty one sided representation of the subject matter. The abrupt direction change towards the end of the film appeared to be an attempt at salvaging a film that could have been interesting, but was apparently self-sabotaged by some of the pastor's actions external to the core subject at hand, and kind of seemed irrelevant. I guess I was hoping for a better overall story to be told.

PARTICLE FEVER
5/10
I seemed to enjoy this film about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the discovery of the Higgs Boson Particle less than most people I spoke to about it afterwards. Really was a TV documentary blown up to a big screen presentation. Also went for longer than the 60 minutes it could have been with some better editing. I would have liked to have walked out having learned a little more. And I wish they'd have used a wider angle lens; it felt very hand held and hard to get a good feel for the scale at hand of the LHC. That said, the subjects themselves were well picked by the film makers. It was nice that they had several woman scientists partaking in the telling of the story, and the physicist factions between the theorists and he experimentalists provided some good entertainment. Overall, I'd suggest just waiting till you can stream it or watch it on TV.

LOVE IS STRANGE
7/10
A very nicely paced film starring John Lithgow and Anthony Molina, about two aging gay men in New York. They've been together for decades, but late in life decide to get married. Despite the laws being liberal, it unfortunately doesn't follow at the workplace, and this film tracks their relationship as a result. However, it's not even so much about that, but a film about family, relationships and love, with several story lines and snapshots showing us the life of a group of fairly everyday people. I liked that there wasn't a big collection of neatly tied points to end this film, and that bar a couple of particular circumstances this story really could have just about been about any old married couple and their family.

PREDESTINATION
7/10
This opening night film starring Ethan hawke and Sarah Snook is probably my favourite opening night at the festival that I've seen (having been to at least a few). It's a sci-fi film based on the short story 'All You Zombies' by Robert Heinlein, and was filmed in Melbourne.

I'm a bit of a sucker for a decent sci-fi flick, and the time travel-bending plot generally doesn't go astray. Effectively this is a story about a government agent with time traveling abilities who is tasked to divert history where deemed necessary to avoid major crimes from occurring. Admittedly, I guessed some of the plot points before they were revealed, but overall I thought it was well made and very well acted. Best to see it with as little knowledge as possible beforehand.