I think I'm going through a phase of loving this sort of film - the gritty, true-to-life and ultimately heart-warming Australian drama. That description sounds wearisome, but I assure you that when it's well scripted, acted and shot, it's a winner.

The Black Balloon certainly is. David gave it 4 1/2 stars and I'm on the verge of agreeing with him.

I absolutely loved this film. It's massively cute and massively funny. Very visually engaging too.

This is the third in an ongoing series of thriller/sci-fi books written for upper primary school kids. They are all elegantly and vividly written but without ever losing the (15 year old) narrator's voice. The plots are absolutely gripping, and once again I find myself hankering for the next installment.

I don't normally like French films, and certainly not the ubiquitous friends-and-acquaintances-cynically-going-through-life-and-sleeping-with-each-other subgenre. But while the plot of this one was much the same, the characters were all richly drawn and convincingly acted - and that made all the difference. The intelligence of this film allowed it to be truly heart warming.