This beautifully understated feature (2004) revolves around sex, but it’s neither erotic nor puritanical; its young characters are governed by their urges, but the experience itself seems as neutral and mysterious as sleep.

| Jul 14, 2022

Generous and authentic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 14, 2006

It is pretty, and it stays just left of the dial of darlingness, and Cornish's is the most goddamn, gosh-wow debut I've seen in years.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 27, 2006

[Cornish] creates a character who pulls us in and makes us recoil all at once.

| Original Score: B+ | May 25, 2006

Heartfelt, painful, exhilarating and, above all, truthful.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 19, 2006

My impression remained this time around of an unfinished screenplay in which too many intervals of small talk masqueraded as the forerunners of emotional events that never materialized.

Full Review | May 18, 2006

Heavy on atmosphere but very light on plot.

Full Review | Original Score: C | May 18, 2006

Shortland's payoff is good and redolent of wisdom. But getting there is like sitting in a waiting room with stale magazines.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 12, 2006

Shortland balances showing Heidi as a heartbreaking mess -- doing a jailbait dance here, impulsively swallowing a mouthful of chili peppers there -- and judging her for it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 12, 2006

Reflects surprisingly assured filmmaking sensibilities, especially when it comes to portraying the foibles and preoccupations of young women at loose ends.

| May 11, 2006

A small film, done with limited resources, but it's impressive -- and so is Cornish.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 11, 2006

Cornish is a marvel...

| Original Score: B | May 3, 2006

Somersault is a movie about the looks on people's faces and the disparity between the surface and the roiling chaos beneath.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 21, 2006

Director Cate Shortland's first film is as remote, sullen and mercurial as her protagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 21, 2006

Somersault, the feature debut of Aussie writer-director Cate Shortland, showcases a brilliantly realistic performance by Abbie Cornish as Heidi.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2006

Shortland's script takes some unnecessary turns, mostly with Joe's drinking and sexual insecurities. But as long as it's focused on Heidi's predicament, it is riveting drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 21, 2006

A frank and visceral film that at the same time exudes an unexpected innocence.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2006

The film occasionally succumbs to preciousness, but Cornish makes for an unusually complicated Lolita, as if her hormones were waging war with her heart.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 20, 2006

Shortland appears to have a great fascination with objects like pine needles and gas jets, but the pic's visual flourishes tend to be distracting in their restless artiness.

| Apr 20, 2006

Somersault's dreamy, sexy, rather chilly style captures Heidi's attempt to escape her past, to build something new atop the rubble of what came before, and ultimately to hide it.

| Apr 18, 2006