What would you do if you could travel through time? What would you change? If you really think about these questions, there are probably some fairly loaded answers. The object of time, if there is such a thing, and the vivid memories that come to pass within it are things we take an interest in – even more so when we’re older. But to take things for granted? We do that every single day without realising it, regardless of age. Ideas of trusting our instinct and the little voices in our heads are taken to an extreme in The Time Traveller’s Wife, where those attributes are formed in the shape of a human being just like all of us. And he too has to live with the pain that comes with life’s joy.

After all these years, Scott Hicks still finds himself so drawn to little old Adelaide. It’s taken a long time for him to film there again after the huge unexpected success of Shine (1996); although the off-beat Hollywood path he’s followed has been successful, it seems that ultimately there’s no place like home. But for anyone who’s seen Hicks’ work, the poignancy is critical no matter the location. This Australian-English co-production gives that and more as an adaptation of the memoir by English sports journalist Simon Carr, and offers a story about grief that explores the struggles of a motherless family.

Australians don’t like seeing Australian films. Sadly, that’s been the general consensus by the critics and public alike for some time, and now figures tell us it’s a fact. The issues of Australian filmic content and output have been debated since the re-emergence of our cinema with the New Wave period in the 1970s, but forty years later the output is yet to stabilise itself and distribution in Hollywood-dominant cinemas is near impossible. What this documentary shows is how this affects the livelihood of independent cinemas – not independent chains, but the family-owned cinemas of the ‘good old days’. Not that we here at Cut Print Review could honestly tell you from experience; half of Generation Y were unlucky to miss out. And Generation Xers – the poor buggers. They’ll never know any different.

An Education is a coming-of-age tale centering around a British schoolgirl in the early 1960s, I think I would be safe to wager that a great number of audience members were able to identify in some way to the wide-eyed wonder Jenny experiences upon her entry to a world of jazz, restaurants and weekend jaunts to Paris, a world so far removed from essays, dorky teenage suitors and boring parents.

Extravagant weddings are a common part of Greek culture, and first came to Hollywood’s attention through the success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). Greeks are known for their drama more than most other Europeans, so to have a wedding without it would be implausible.

For a film that has all the inner workings of a generic sports movie, Whip It somehow avoids being one. Narrative wise, it’s as cliché as it gets; absent-minded protagonist finds purpose in an unlikely sport, joins an underdog team against the will of their parents and eventually edges their team into the finals. We’ve seen it countless times before, but Whip It has something going for it that most other sport movies don’t; sheer, unbridled girl power. No, the sport in question is not dancing, figure skating or cheerleading. It’s the fierce, competitive world of women’s roller derby. And there’s something refreshing about a female contact sport being depicted on screen…that’s not boxing.

It seems to be that stories of war, whether they are films, history books or otherwise, focus on one of two perspectives: the Anglo-American, or the German. It’s either English speaking diggers and GIs, or it’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed Nazi’s sauntering around and Heil-ing Hitler. It’s not often that Russian participation is considered, nor is the impact that World War II may still be having on the current generation of young Russians.

It’s astonishing that Van Diemen’s Land is the first Australian convict film since 1927’s For the Term of His Natural Life, when you consider that this country was largely founded by settlements for UK prisoners. So as foundation of our past, the question of why this part of our history remains largely untold begs to be answered. The state of Tasmania has had its fair share of notoriety that stretches across the 19th and 20th centuries, but there has only been an increased interest in learning about the past in recent years (rather than refusing to acknowledge it). From the end of the silent era to now there has been enormous progression in cinema across the world, but within Australia, Van Diemen’s Land is all the richer being told today – because audiences can, and will, accept and learn from the brutality and horror of these events.