Here we go again! After no less than 5 years, finally another post about my favorite films from allover the world! This is a rather special special, as it’s completely linguistically unchallenging. All the movies are in the English language, with the slight advantage of not being Hollywood crap but made in and focusing on the countries they originate from. Contrary to my previous installments of this long neglected series of blog posts, you might actually have seen some of these movies.

Australia

Ned Kelly Ned Kelly (2003)
Apparently Ned Kelly is the Jesse James (or something) and this film attempts to portray his life. I’m afraid it’s been too long since I’ve last seen it, so I barely remember anything that happened in it. It’s probably worth watching just for Heath Ledger, who is as usual great in this leading role.

Candy Candy (2006)
I didn’t really enjoy this film much, nor would I really recommend it – but that’s just my personal aversion to watching movies about drug addicts. I hated Trainspotting, therefore it just unlikely that I could ever like this. I admit that I only watched this because of Heath Ledger out of interested shortly after he died.

Australia Australia (2008)
This movie is about – Australia?! I don’t really know. Clearly it sort of lives off the scenery, because the plot is somewhat thin and cheesy. Not particularly recommendable unless you really dig chick flicks or stuff like that. I’m unhappy that I haven’t seen any truly great Australian films yet. Do they exist?

England

Harry Brown Harry Brown (2009)
Michael Caine in probably one of his best roles lately. He plays a senior citizen who lives in a London estate and clearly has nothing to loose. When his best friend is murdered, he turns into a kick-ass vigilante. A story both sort of tragic and compelling.

Wild Target Wild Target (2010)
In this film, Bill Nighy plays an old-ish assassin who comes from a long line of assassins. He appears to be tired of doing his job, even tough he does it with an amusing lightheartedness. Things go awry when he is hired to kill an evasive woman, guaranteeing lots of fun in typical British black humor.

Ireland

Waking Ned Waking Ned (1998)
A charming portrayal of an insular Irish village, in which the citizens of said village attempt to “revive” recently deceased fellow citizen Ned Devine who has won the lottery. Naturally it would be a shame if all that money would go to waste, so the villagers try to fool the lottery spokesperson into thinking Ned is alive and well, guaranteeing a lot of black humor.

A Film With Me In It A Film With Me In It (2008)
In this strangely titled film, a jobless actor and a jobless screenwriter encounter a streak of incredibly bad luck: suddenly, all the people around them start dying under bizarre circumstances within one evening. Terribly strange at first, but in retrospect another one of those lovely black humor gems.

The Guard The Guard (2011)
You might think there aren’t any Irish films without black humor. I’m not sure, but I think all of the ones I’ve seen were such movies, this included. Brendan Gleeson stars as quirky (and somewhat racist) police officer, who is teamed up with a black FBI agent on an investigation. Again somewhat strange, but kind of fun.

New Zealand

Black Sheep Black Sheep (2008)
If there is one thing this movie gets right, it’s honoring its heritage: there are some very obvious references to New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s works prior to Lord of the Rings in here, amusingly combined with the one thing that appears to characterize New Zealand: sheep. Deadly, evil, zombie sheep.

Scotland

Angel's Share The Angel’s Share (2012)
This is one movie of which I am not sure if I really enjoyed it. In general, I don’t really enjoy watching lower class lowlifes in their awful tracksuits and their general lack of intelligence. However, after a painful-to-watch first half, this film has a somewhat amusing turn towards the end. If you like Whiskey and/or Scottish accents, you will probably enjoy it a lot.

South Africa

District 9 District 9 (2009)
If you have not yet heard of District 9, you missed out. This is one of the most brilliant science fiction films released in the last couple of years, and unlike most science fiction films, it doesn’t need shiny spaceships to tell its story. It takes place in South Africa, where an alien race is stranded on earth and condemned to live in a ghetto, controlled by human military-like people. Naturally, it’s all just a metaphor and this film has a particularly great ending.

Wales

Undertaking Betty Plots with a View (Undertaking Betty) (2002)
Though the English like to produce their stuff in Wales a lot, it appears that not so many films are truly Welsh. This is the only one I’ve encountered in the last five years, but it’s a truly lovely and amusing one. Again there is a lot of typically British black humor in here, as again we deal with death in the form of two rivaling undertakers. Christopher Walken is one of those in a supporting role and takes things to bizarre extremes – though that’s not really the main plot of the film. It’s actually more about how the other undertaker tries to help a local woman ‘divorce’ her husband.

If you are interested in more films from Canada, Scotland, New Zealand and South Africa, check out my previous installments of “International Cinema”, where I mentioned several great titles. Also, it appears that Canada is not big on original, truly Canadian movies. Can you recommend any?