Children's literature has often strayed into dark realms. The tales of brothers Grimm and Grimm are notorious for their sinister edge. The events in the Lemony Snicket tales are frequently unfortunate, to say the least. Alongside the humour and whimsy in Roald Dahl's writing there was always a dose of the macabre. And so the increasingly menacing world of Harry Potter is hardly without precedent. So does that make the movie version of The Goblet of Fire suitable for children?

It’s important for prospective marriage partners to have something in common. A pulse for starters. That is unless you’re the Corpse Bride desperate to find a husband.

The plight of the impoverished is hardly the stuff of blockbusters. Being reminded that millions die each year through civil war, hunger and disease is a little too real for a medium addicted to escapism. The Constant Gardener probably won’t break any financial records but murmurs of Oscar nominations have already begun which can only broaden the appeal of this eloquent if didactic film.

A month into their ‘motor mission’ Sydney Anglicans Nathan Brown and Melbourne-based friend Julian Price have found themselves building tents in disaster-struck Kashmir.

Romantic comedy is a genre dogged by cliché and formula; there are only so many variations on the boy meets girl scenario. But instead of confronting this essential flaw filmmakers are too often satisfied in changing the peripherals of the same plot. Throwing in a quirky situation that threatens to derail the romance is – for many – the solution to the sameness.

Jane Austen’s novels have been read and loved for generations. Although a shrewd observer or social mores and manners, Austen is probably best known among readers for her deft handling of love and relationships. And love is something we never seem to tire of. While each of her novels are admired and esteemed, Pride and Prejudice is viewed by many as the pinnacle of her career. Witty and wry, this novel is rich in subtlety and humour.

The Proposition is set a century into Britain’s invasion/colonisation of Australia. And despite the passing of a hundred years, social dysfunction and racial hostilities are rife. In the outback town where the film is set gangs rape and murder; Aborigines are targets for the avaricious and the bigoted; the police are often drunk, violent and corrupt.

In a city where primary schools are known by a number and not by name, education can seem somewhat impersonal. But, as the makers of Mad Hot Ballroom have discovered, a dance program has been providing excellent opportunities for building connections between teacher and student and among the students themselves.

Ever since Ovid wrote his Metamorphoses we have loved stories about transformation and disguise. Whether it’s the gentrifying of an Eliza Doolittle (Pygmalion) or the cross-dressing camouflage of a Viola (Twelfth Night) transformation can be both liberating and constraining. Alteration to appearance changes the way a person is viewed and how they view themselves – for better or worse.

About sixteen years ago a young English animator introduced us to the eccentric can-do duo of Wallace and Gromit. Nick Park had spent six years working on his stop-motion clay animation. For his efforts he won an Oscar a BAFTA and a devoted following.

It’s been some seven years since Rowan Woods’ confronting drama, The Boys, was released to critical acclaim. And while his work in the intervening years has been glossy TV products, his latest film sees a return to the gritty, unassuming world to which he seems drawn. His no-frills style of filmmaking and his fascination with the marginalised and the wayward in society takes him to Cabramatta in Little Fish .

Writer Roald Dahl was well aware that children could be rotten. And there are few kids as deliciously rotten as the quartet in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Childhood is a precious and fragile time. In the first years of life children learn and absorb at a rate that exceeds any other stage in life. From conception to birth and beyond, children are little miracles. Their very existence is testament to the profound genius of a creative God. Yet in the daily work of parenting the miraculous can be overwhelmed by the mundane. Parenting is hard. It can be humbling and frustrating.

What would you do if you found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash? If it simply fell from the sky and landed in your lap? Spend it? Save it? Give it away? That’s the dilemma facing seven-year-old Damian (Alex Etel) in Danny Boyle’s Millions.

The coexistence of predestination and freewill is a difficult concept and finds little expression in fiction, yet intriguingly it forms a key part of the drama and the thematic concerns of the sixth JK Rowling novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HBP).

The baddie in The Island is a well-dressed scientist (ok you’ll have to suspend disbelief) named Merrick (Sean Bean). He runs an immaculate facility populated by survivors of a catastrophic toxic spill. Apart from their sterile environs there is only one pathogen-free place left on earth – ‘the island’, a place each inhabitant longs to see. But you can only go if you win the lottery.

When one of the key actors involved in a film advises that audiences shouldn’t “think too much, just grab a big bag of popcorn and have a good time” you know that you’re in for some vacuous entertainment. And that can be ok, as long as there’s enough humour to offset the silliness. Alas this is not the case in the matrimonial comedy Monster-in-Law.

Dreams are a fascinating and mysterious part of our lives. They can reveal prophecies and promises. They can cause us to wake in terror. In our sleeping state we experience stories and images that can frighten or delight. In our waking moments the memory of these nightly visions slips away from us. In Elizabeth Knox’s spellbinding novel, Dreamhunter, dreams are more than a physiological part of sleep they are a cultural phenomenon.

About forty years ago the superpower quartet known as The Fantastic Four first appeared in Marvel Comics. Beloved by generations of comic devotees, The Fantastic Four is one of the most popular and longest running series.

The latest re-imagining of the Batman myth focuses on how the caped crusader came to be. What is it that leads a man to don a silly costume, including pronounced pointy ears, and swan about at night biffing bad guys? Surely such behaviour is the domain of the mentally unhinged? Well, yes.

No, this is not a film about wedgies but a surprisingly enjoyable chick flick about four teenaged friends and a mysterious pair of jeans.

As much as we like to plead independence, our identity as individuals is tied to that of our parents. Knowing and being known by those who gave us life is an intrinsic part of human experience. But what of those who cannot know their parents – the adopted, the abandoned and the orphaned? Craig Monahan’s drama Peaches examines this desire to know one’s parents and the need to belong… to something.

In the battle of good versus evil there’s a need for a bit of comic relief. At least there is when you’re in a world of George Lucas’ making. In the Star Wars saga Lucas conceived and contrived a grand epic with grand themes; love and hate, friendship and betrayal, freedom and slavery. Yet the smirk factor of exploring such themes against a backdrop of alien planets and peculiar life forms makes it all a little hard to swallow.

The first film ever to be made in the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, Travellers and Magicians is a road movie set against the glorious ranges of this Himalayan country.

There’s something about the death of a man’s wife and child that sends cinematic icons into a killing frenzy. Mel Gibson’s Mad Max might have been the wildest of the lot but Russell Crowe’s Mad Maximus wasn’t far behind. Ridley Scott’s new historical epic, Kingdom of Heaven has a sort of Mad Sir Max in the character of Balian.