August 15th, 2026Movies

Forget body obsession
Adapted from the 2016 Disney version, Moana is a highly popular musical adventure film. The super-heroic Moana sets out on a mission to the Oceanic seas to save her people.
It has won praise for promoting diversity and rejecting the trappings of romance, as well as having a fine message for young girls in an age often obsessed with body image and glamour. (August 10, 4.30pm, August 15-16, 11am & August 17, 4.30.)
Robert De Niro is unforgettable in Taxi Driver (August 10, 7pm) as we watch him descend from painful to nerve-wracking to pitiful. Portraits of urban malaise are never darker, bleaker, or more claustrophobic than here.
The Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (August 13, 4.30pm, August 15 & 17, 2pm) is a psychological, black-humoured satire on corruption in office, which seems just what’s needed these days. A top cop kills his mistress and then tests whether he will be charged.
Backrooms (August 13 & 17, 7pm) bends the spaces that haunted the internet for years, into horror film as mesmerising as it is terrifying.
The classic satire The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is Luis Bunuel’s dissection of a sextet coming to dine but never eating as reality and illusion interject themselves. (August 14 & 15, 4.30pm.)
Tuner is based on a terrific idea. A skilled piano tuner finds a well-paid side gig in cracking safes. Smart humour, critics say, plus vivid characterisations. (August 14 & 15, 7pm).
As a distinct change of pace Klute is unconventional, being both a detective thriller and a character-driven mood piece. It helped cement Alan J. Pakula’s place as one of the great directors of the 1970s, or any decade, and won an Oscar for Jane Fonda (August 16, 4.30pm).
Coming up for five screenings, starting August 17 is the hugely well received Spider-Man: Brand New Day. That week also features the ever-popular Annie Hall, The Long Goodbye, Blazing Saddles and Harold and Maude.
Link: www.daylesfordcinema.org.au (All times correct at publication.)