Mud
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Sam Shepard, Reese Witherspoon - Dir: Jeff Nichols

Matthew McConaughey has been on something of a roll recently. After just about destroying his credibility with an endless series of rom-coms and throwaway nonsense he has re-established himself as a serious actor (Killer Joe, The Paperboy, Magic Mike, Bernie) and one who can carry a movie (The Lincoln Lawyer). Mud continues that fine form.
McConaughey's titular Mud is a drifter who is discovered hiding on a small island by two exploring boys. They are 14-year-old Ellis, who lives with his father in a houseboat on the Mississippi river in Arkansas, and his friend Neckbone. This is really their story, and the story - like Beasts of the Southern Wild - of people living on the fringes of society. But unlike that film there's no magical realism here.
As Mud's backstory is slowly revealed we find that he is waiting to meet the love of his life (Witherspoon) while on the run from some very dangerous people. Things are going to get nasty and we fear for the boys, who don't really understand that. It's a beautifully calibrated and observed piece.
Strong support comes from Shepard and Michael Shannon, who also took the lead in director Nichols last film, the excellent Take Shelter. Part thriller, part drama, part coming-of-age story, this is great stuff all round, and another home run for McConaughey.

The Place Beyond the Pines arrives on a wave of critical acclaim, rather more than it deserves in my opinion. It's an undoubtedly handsome film and serious too, charting the family fall-out from the sins of the fathers. One father is Ryan Gosling's dumb motorcycle stunt-rider and bank robber, the other is Bradley Cooper's cop. Then there are their sons. The problem, and it may not be for some, is that the various characters barely interact. Gosling is only in the first third and things drift a little after his departure, but lovers of big ambitious dramas should still find much to enjoy.

It's a very brave artist who follows closely in his father's footsteps but that's exactly what Brandon Cronenberg has does with Antiviral, writing and directing a film that, if you didn't know better, could come directly from father David's early oeuvre. It proposes a future where celebrity culture is completely out of control. Think it's bad now? In this future people even buy food made from cloned celebrity cells and infect themselves with viruses extracted from celeb illnesses. Our hero smuggles out said viruses from the lab where he works to sell on the black market. By injecting them into himself. What could possibly go wrong?

Fans of ghost-hunting TV schlock are presumably the target market for Muirhouse, which consists of 'found footage” and people with green night-vision faces. It posits that writer Philip Muirhouse is spending the night at the Monte Christo Homestead, known, apparently, as 'Australia's most haunted house”. The gimmick here is that it really was shot at the house in question. A valiant attempt has been made to pretend, a la Blair Witch, that this is a true story but that ploy is surely getting old by now. It's short and has a long slow build-up to nothing interesting at all.

Oblivion put Tom Cruise on a deserted future earth. After Earth does the same with Will Smith and son Jaden. Both were notably unsuccessful at the box office. I thought Oblivion, while too long, was somewhat better than its rep and you could say the same to a lesser degree about After Earth. It's not that bad. Basically Will and Jaden crash on earth - mankind having long since relocated - and Jaden has to recover a beacon so that he and his injured father can be rescued. There are monsters along the way, though not nearly enough. It's OK, if a bit boring.