“I’m not an animal Adam, I’m a journalist.” – Erik Jensen
It’s been quite a while since an Australian film has produced so much critical buzz and excitement, and not just amongst journalists. Named one of the best films of the year by The Monthly and Screen Daily, Acute Misfortune will be released nationally in selected cinemas from 16 May. A series of special event Q&As are being held to coincide with its opening, including one at Dendy Newtown. There’s a full list of those screenings below.
Acute Misfortune has been acclaimed by The Guardian in a five-star review as “the best Australian Bio-Pic since Chopper.” Based on the award-winning biography of Archibald Prize winner Adam Cullen by Erik Jensen, the founding editor of The Saturday Paper, it’s a bold, layered depiction of the relationship between the biographer and his subject. Hollywood Reporter called it “One of the year’s most striking and accomplished directorial debuts.” It also received The Age Critics Prize at last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival.
Erik Jensen was an ambitious 19 year-old journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald when Archibald Prize-Winning painter, Adam Cullen, with a career retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW, invited him to write his biography. It is a bizarre story of their increasingly claustrophobic relationship in the four-and-a-half years leading to Cullen’s death at the age of 46, which reveals as much about the nature of journalism as the obsessive practise of art.
Featuring AACTA Best Actor Winner, Daniel Henshall (Snowtown, The Babadook), and Toby Wallace (Romper Stomper, The Turning), the debut feature of Thomas M. Wright (Sweet Country, Top of the Lake) is a meticulously researched film about theft and the commerce of theft, the instability of lies and of coming through an abusive relationship to find meaning in its wake.
And if that’s whetted your appetite for more, check out the film’s official website here
Special events screenings
Thursday 9 May 7pm Sun Theatre, Yarraville, VIC
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright and Erik Jensen.
Friday 10 May 6.30pm Luna Cinema, Leederville, WA
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright.
Sunday 12 May 6.30pm State Theatre, Hobart, TAS
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright.
Monday 13 May 6.15pm Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, Cremorne, NSW
Screening and introduction with Thomas M. Wright and Robert Connolly.
Monday 13 May 6.30pm Ritz Cinema, Randwick, NSW
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright and Robert Connolly. Moderated by Joel Edgerton.
Wednesday 15 May 6.45pm Cinema Nova, Carlton, VIC
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright, Erik Jensen and Daniel Henshall.
Thursday 16 May 8.30pm Dendy Cinemas, Newtown, NSW
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright, Erik Jensen and Daniel Henshall.
Friday 17 May 6.30pm New Farm Cinemas, New Farm, QLD
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright and Daniel Henshall
Sunday 19 May 6.30pm Dendy Cinemas, Canberra, ACT
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright.
Sunday 26 May 1.20pm & 5pm Mount Vic Flicks, Mount Victoria, NSW
Screening and Q&A with Thomas M. Wright.
Tuesday 28 May State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
Erik Jensen and Thomas M Wright in conversation: Book to Film.
