Australian comedies often display a certain sense of humour that, to the unaccustomed eye, can come across as plain silliness. Most modern Hollywood and British (romantic) comedies try to be quite serious about their humour; filmmakers want you to appreciate their jokes as well as just laugh at them. So it usually takes me a few minutes to change gears whenever I watch an Australian comedy. At first, the lack of pretentiousness strikes me as somewhat immature. It’s only after the first few scenes that I start appreciating it for what it is: plain, honest, and easygoing.

Danny Deckchair is just like this. It starts off a bit silly, with eternal daydreamer Danny Morgan becoming so frustrated with his life and his girlfriend that he implements one of his hare-brained ideas: to see how many helium ballons it takes to lift him and his lawn chair into the sky. And he really does get carried away.

But once the opening act is over, the film gives way to a sweet love story, and a heart-warming tale about finding yourself and following your dreams. I had never really pictured Rhys Ifans as a romantic lead, but opposite Miranda Otto he really shines with an innocent, playful quality that is totally endearing. It’s definitely worth a look.

Alfred Kinsey is the man who almost single-handedly revolutionised sexual research in the late 1940s and early 50s. With his exhaustive studies of human sexual behaviour, not only did he bring some hard data to a field previously dominated by anecdote and prudish superstition, but his reports also became mainstream bestsellers, and are given credit for kick-starting the sexual openness and freedom of the latter half of the 20th century.

Kinsey is a look at the life of this unusual, shy, and highly driven man. Liam Neeson takes the title role, with Laura Linney playing his wife Clara. Their relationship, and Kinsey’s research form the core of the story, with Kinsey’s close friend and research associate Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard) weaving the two threads tightly together. The screenplay takes great delight in juxtaposing sweet romantic innocence and 1940s attitudes with unflinching sexual frankness, to both humorous and sympathetic effect. It’s a warm, informative, and above all joyful film.

Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is a reverse engineer. He takes pieces of intricate technology, figures out how they work, and rebuilds them from the ground up. Companies pay him highly for this skill, but they also require him to erase his memory of the time he was working for them. For his latest job, he commits to a three-year contract in return for a paycheck that would make him rich. But when he comes out of the contract, he finds that his reward consists of an nothing more than envelope full of cheap trinkets that he apparently mailed to himself a few weeks earlier–a time he no longer remembers. And the FBI are hunting him on suspicion of treason…

A worthy Philip K. Dick movie should be both playful and paranoid. Paycheck uses traditional Dickian themes of memory and identity to weave an exciting story about Jennings’ race to figure out why he sent himself that envelope, and what the objects inside mean. The overall plot may be predictable, but it is tremendous fun to watch all the little details slide neatly into place.

Three childhood friends whose lives have taken very different directions are forced to confront each other, and the ghosts of their past, when one of their daughters is murdered. It’s a tough story with some uncomfortable moral questions (typical of Dennis Lehane, on whose novel the film is based). Eastwood’s directorial touch is restrained, allowing strong performances from the whole cast to shine through.

Touching portrayal of four men, as they gather to mourn the death of their old friend Jack, and take a road trip to scatter his ashes off Margate pier. The film intersperses their drive to Margate with flashes back in time as they reminisce about Jack’s life. On the way, grievances will be aired, laughter will be shared, and secrets will be revealed. It’s a complex yet down-to-earth tale about friendship and love in all their forms. Funny and sad, with some lovely performances by an extraordinarily strong British cast. Well worth looking out for.

Black but ultimately sweet comedy about intelligent and talented high school student Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) who nonetheless fares appallingly poorly in his academic subjects at the exclusive Rushmore Academy. When he sets his mind on winning the heart of teacher Rosemary Cross, his obsessive devotion to her leads him into conflict with his friends, and threatens to destroy the extraordinary reputation he has built for himself.

It’s a clever and subtle film that delights in misdirecting the audience’s sympathies. Max is much more than the stereotypical high school dork, and the film isn’t afraid to show him indulging in the nasty and sometimes creepy side of infatuation. All the while, though, it remains funny, with absurd humour cropping up in the strangest of places. Very worthwhile.

Alex is an ordinary teenager in East Berlin. In the turmoil leading up to the collapse of the Wall in 1989, his mother has a heart attack and falls into a coma. She remains unconscious for the next eight months while the world she has known undergoes massive social and economic change. When she awakens, her doctor fears than another heart attack would kill her. He recommends that she stay calm, and not be exposed to any kind of excitement. Alex’s mother was an active and dedicated Socialist, and Alex decides to take her home and build an elaborate fantasy bubble around her in which the Wall never fell, and where the DDR is as strong as ever.

Good Bye Lenin! is a witty and touching family drama. It has strong comedic elements, but even though the main story revolves around an elaborate deception, in never descends into simple farce. It much prefers to to explore the limits of white lies: where does kindness end and cruetly begin? This theme is present throughout the plot in several other guises, and it comes full circle in the end, with moving results.

Matt Whitlock (Denzel Washington) is the chief of police of a small town in the Florida Keys. He is having an affair with his old school sweetheart, who is now married to another man. When she and her husband are murdered, Whitlock finds himself having to cover his tracks to avoid becoming the main suspect, at the same time as trying to figure out what happened to them. Of course, things are not as they seem.

It’s a one-trick plot, but it’s very well executed. The script is tight, and the pace is fast. Denzel Washington gives a terrific performance as a man under unbearable pressure, and the supporting cast breath enough quirky life into their characters to give the film interest beyond the main storyline, and to add a touch of humour to the situation. (John Billingsley, probably best known as Dr. Phlox from Star Trek: Enterprise, is particularly amusing as the laid-back, slightly shifty medical examiner.) It’s a well-balanced and very entertaining movie.

Tight little emotional thriller about two illegal immigrants in London who disover a secret trade in human organs while struggling just to get by in life. The interplay of plot and characterisation is beautifully balanced, and the twists in the last half hour keep you wondering just how happy or sad the story can possibly turn out. Strong performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tatou combine to round this off as an intense and sympathetic drama.

You’re not going to see better sci-fi CGI this year, period. The film just looks glorious. (My favourite bit was the coronal loops around the sun on Crematoria.) The plot is also well structured, with a solid introduction, and a classic three-act arc beyond that. The character of Riddick is built up into more than just a hero: he is the archetype incarnate. And the ending has a delicious little twist that promises more and even better to come.

And yet…throughout the whole film I was wondering, “what the hell is actually going on here?” Much is shown, but very little is explained. Riddick’s background is only hinted at. The socio-politics of the future environment are essentially a blank slate. Who or what are the elementals? Even the Necromongers, whose quest for the Underverse provides the central conflict for the film, remain shadowy and underexplained. It might seem like a triumph of style over substance, but it always gave the impression that the substance was there–the filmmakers just chose not to make much of it.

What this adds up to is a very pure sci-fi action flick that satisfied all my cravings for heroic escapism, and left me wanting more of the characters and universe, but not disappointed by their absence here. It’s a good trick.