Top five moments that Rocked My World (in no particular order):

Tropical Malady – Fisting: on a scene-by-scene basis, its first half reigns as one of the most arresting pieces of cinema this year, a heady fusion of Thailand's morphing (pop)cultural landscape with a burgeoning gay romance. But if I had to pick just one, it would be the point at which Tong begins licking Keng's fist, turning day into night, like into love, and the film's universe into something so much more.

Kill Bill, Vol. 2 – Bride in a Coffin: makes for one of the most nimble negotiations of sound/space in recent memory.

Twentynine Palms – Knife to the Chest: first time round, made me want to put my foot through the floor. Second time round, what had appeared to be whiny Euro-malaise suddenly became like an existential noose to the neck.

Before Sunset – Nina Simone: where the eighty-minute battle fought between an entrenched past and untenable present comes not so much to as a standstill as it seems to evaporate entirely.

Napoleon Dynamite – "I see you're drinking 1%. Is that 'cause you think you're fat? 'Cause you're not. You could be drinking whole if you wanted to."


Top five films that will never see the light (or is that dark?) of day in New Zealand outside of a festival context:

1. Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont)

2. Anatomy of Hell (Catherine Breillat)

3. Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi)

4. Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho)

5. Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin)

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