Ladies in Black (2018), directed by Bruce Beresford

It is 1959 and Lisa has just started work as a Christmas temp in the cocktail gowns section of Groves department store. She is anxiously awaiting her final exam results and hopes to go on to University, if her father can be persuaded that it’s not a waste of time and money for a girl. Lisa grows up a little and learns a lot through her interactions with her fellow ‘ladies in black’ as they deal with the Christmas rush. A nostalgic ode to Sydney, there are many long lingering shots of the beauty of its architecture and natural surroundings, plus a few gratuitous digs at Melbourne. Some gentle points are made about the limitations set on women and on the potential benefits that refugees and migrants bring to a society, all of which have contemporary resonance. Julia Ormond is wonderful as Magda, the Slovenian ‘reffo’ with elegance and ambition. She is perfectly complemented by French heartthrob Vincent Perez as her laid back Hungarian husband. Up-and-comer Angourie Rice hits all the right notes as the ingénue Lisa, well supported by Susie Porter and Shane Jacobsen as her suburban mum and dad. Rachael Taylor is lovely as former dancer Faye and it’s a different role for Ryan Corr, playing her Hungarian suitor Rudi. Noni Hazlehurst does a particularly poignant turn as Miss Cartwright, the department store supervisor who encourages Lisa to make the most of her opportunities. The film occasionally hints that it will take a darker path, but steps back from the brink and stays charming but inconsequential, carried by its cast rather than its story.

The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder, by Sarah J Harris

Jasper doesn’t recognise faces and sees sounds as colours, just like his Mum did before she died of cancer and left him alone with his Dad. The 13-year-old likes to paint the colours he hears, especially the noise of the parakeets in the tree in his neighbour’s garden. He makes friends with his colourful neighbour, Bee Larkham, who seems to get him a bit more than others in the street, the kids at school, or his Dad. But there is a darker shade to Bee and when she goes missing Jasper thinks it’s his fault. As he desperately tries to paint the true colours of what happened a very strange tale unfolds. The story is reminiscent of the Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime, its young hero with mental challenges finding himself at the centre of a crime. It would be difficult to write a murder mystery from the POV of a teenage boy with ‘learning difficulties’ and this attempt is not entirely successful. The back and forth between the present, the past and Jasper’s clouded memories of the night Bee disappeared is occasionally confusing and sometimes tedious until the action steps up towards the end. Harris engenders great sympathy for the boy who believes he has killed someone and has trouble communicating with the world. Is Dad a villain? Is the neighbour across the road? In the end all is resolved a little too neatly, but it is an interesting look at childhood trauma and its consequences.

The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean, by Mira Robertson

During WWII teenage Emily is sent to country Victoria while her mother is ill. Insecure, lonely, immature Emily hates the family farm and doesn’t particularly like the family. The device of seeing events through Emily’s naïve eyes doesn’t quite work as it leads to a detachment from them and you end up not particularly caring about any of it. Even though the story takes place over only a few weeks, it comes across as a series of vignettes – Emily has a crush, Emily gets drunk, Emily gets a bra, Emily realises her cousin is a Lesbian – rather than as a full narrative. None of the characters is particularly appealing, least of all awkward adolescent Emily. She does manage to grow up a little but not much and her optimistic departure for Melbourne at the end seems overstated.

The Merger (2018), directed by Mark Grentell

The Bodgy Creek Roosters haven’t won a game in three years; they lack the players to make up a full team; and their asbestos-ridden clubrooms have been condemned. Troy Carrington was a local hero who made it to the AFL, but now he is hermit - regarded as a town killer after his activism resulted in closure of the timber mill. Can he really turn around the fortunes of the team and the town by involving the controversial refugee centre? It will come as no surprise to discover the answer is yes; the fun is in the journey Troy takes to arrive there. The messages of inclusivity and diversity are not subtle, but the film is nevertheless both heartwarming and funny as Troy forges a group of misfits and no-hopers into a true team. Comedian Damien Callinan adapted the screenplay from his own one-man play and stars as Troy. Some very familiar faces ably support him, including John Howard, Penny Cook, Kate Mulvaney and Angus McLaren, as well as newcomers Fayssal Bazzi and Rafferty Grierson. It is not often that the end credits of a film are greeted with an outbreak of applause. The Merger is a welcome addition to the ‘Aussie as’ genre.

Neverland, by Margot McGovern

Kit Learmonth was orphaned at the age of 10 when she survived a sailing accident that killed her parents. It is fair to say she has issues, with clouded memories and a tendency to self-harm. Kit’s uncle and guardian is a psychiatrist who has turned her childhood home, Learmonth Island, into a treatment centre for troubled teens but sends his niece to various boarding schools on the mainland. She regularly manages to get expelled in order to return to the island, which she calls Neverland, where she escapes into a fantasyland that she created with her author father. At 17 Kit is outgrowing her fantasy world of pirates, mermaids and monsters and needs to come to terms with her patchy memories and tragic past. The story is set in Australia, but could almost be anywhere - the otherworldly qualities of Neverland existing outside of time and geography. At the same time the experiences and responses of Kit and her friends in treatment are grounded in a rather dark reality, which makes for an interesting and challenging tale that is ultimately hopeful.

Annihilation (2018), directed by Alex Garland

Lena is a biologist, formerly in the Army, whose soldier husband went MIA while on a secret mission a year ago. She is depressed and isolated but continues with her academic career. A strange circumstance sees her investigating Kane's disappearance, along with a team of military scientists, who happen to all be women. Written by Alex Garland, with a stellar cast including Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Oscar Isaac, the film is somehow less than the sum of its parts. Portman is good as Lena; Isaac’s role is barely more than a cameo; and JJL’s performance as a detached psychologist is just odd. There are good things about it; there is a suitably creepy atmosphere, some gripping action and suspense. The flashbacks work well to reveal the reasons for Lena’s mindset. Some interesting, even intriguing concepts are introduced but not fully explored, possibly because it is based on the first book of a trilogy. But the tone is off. For a good portion of the film Portman and JJL speak in a monotone, which is clearly a deliberate directorial choice, but is irritating. Ostensibly a sci fi/horror flick, the film seems confused about what it’s really all about – is it actually an allegory for grief and redemption?

The Golden Minute, by John Birmingham

This sequel to A Girl In Time sees game developer Cadence McCall and 19th century cowboy John Titanic Smith back in Cady’s right time in Seattle. The pair has reset and restored everything that went wrong in their previous adventure and now aim to use their two mysterious time travel appliances to retrace Smith’s steps through time and reunite him with his lost daughter. You would think that after their earlier experiences Cady would have learned not to spend a fortune amassing elaborate equipment to aid their quest – given that they inevitably lose it all when things go pear shaped. Again her confidence is misplaced as she and Smith are separated by centuries, each winding up in very troubled times. Can they manage to reunite and get back on (time) track? Or will Cady remain stranded among witches and pirates? Fast paced and action packed, like the first book, Cady and Smith are larger than life, rather exaggerated characters that border on cliché and caricature. But it is fun to see them contend with experiences well outside their respective comfort zones. Wry humour is the story’s saving grace, although there are few too many Handmaid’s Tale references and a rather unlikely romance, setting up for the next book.