Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
s Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Yvonne Jodi Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Michael Ledo The film starts off with Tom (Matthew Goode) masturbating while looking at a naked girl (Rachel Griffiths) dressed as a nurse. We then see him bleeding out from an auto accident and the 90 minutes later we are back to where we started with a seriously disted film with flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks. Not too terribly hard to keep up, it just didn't add anything to the film. We find out Tom is a successful chef whose wife Sarah (Bojana Novakovic) has died from cancer, but is alive for half the picture. They have a son Oscar (Jack Heanly) and Aunt Karen (Essie Davis), who wants to help out while Tom grieves and has sex with his therapist and then later we see him meet her for the first time.The film is about Tom dealing with grief in his own disted way.Guide: F-word, sex, nudity.
imagineda When we first meet Tom, we see a rude, selfish, out of control guy engaging in some pretty self destructive behaviour. Unsympathetic to the core, it's not until this unconventionally told story reveals more about him that we find out why he is this way. By the end of the film, your feelings about this guy will do a complete 180. You may even shed a tear or two.The way this film is constructed is either going to deter you, or capture you hook, line and sinker. I'm in the latter group. It rightly won an award for Best Editing at the 2011 Film Critics Circle of Australia. The Australian vocalist from Dead Can Dance, Lisa Gerrard, does most of the soundtrack which also scored awards. From a budget of 9 million we have a beautifully shot, artistic and emotional film, with strong acting by the leads. It takes an unconventional look at what it would be like to lose someone close, and the process of grief, especially for men, who are not known for their outward displays of emotion.Some of the transitions between scenes may seem a little contrived. I think the intention was to reveal the story in much in the same way that our memory works .. by association.It loses a point for a few rather silly scenes. Burning Man deserves a much bigger audience, especially outside Australia. Looking forward to Jonathan Teplitsky's next feature.
Binoy Santhakumar (bonzybino) "Burning Man" is one movie which can be tagged under Art-house. Stories about grieving men ain't that novel nowadays, yet Burning Man slaps at the very thought of giving us yet another clichéd piece, this one with all its brilliance is indeed refreshing a watch for the story it deals with.The drama which unfolds in reverse chronological order - just like in "memento" - goes deep into the lives of the characters, all shown so roughly with incoherent fragments from the story that we feel like watching digged out incidents from the protagonist's memory. It did irk me at first, and i really had to be patient to get the hang of it. Its awfully slow at times that you would start hating it or, the worse, might stop watching it just like my cousin :D - I hate to stall in between. After I finished watching the movie, was amazed by the simplicity of the plot, which was fed to the viewer in a rather unconventional but powerful manner.The pain the characters go through was brilliantly acted and shot. With some absorbing performances - my first Mathew Goode movie and am already a fan - amazing locale and soulful background score, this drama easily gets into my top Art-House Movies list - stressing on the term "Art house", for it might not be enjoyable outing for all. A good watch for serious movie buffs. 7/10
fionaonei At the opening of the movie I was unsure of what was happening this did lead to some confusion as to what this movie was really about, but hang in there as half way through the movie things start to get put into place and the jigsaw comes together, like the above reviewer some sex scenes were not warranted but the intimacy between both Matthew and Bojana (as husband and wife) were what brought this movie together.The sadness of what happens to the family left behind and how they struggle through grief and loss is heartbreaking, the hospital scenes which were portrayed in a dignifying and honest way are the sad reality of what really does happen to somebody who is terminally ill.This move in my view is better than my sisters keeper and shows what real Australian Talent is about I recommend it to everyone - but warning bring an open mind and plenty of tissues.
