The best Geraldine Brophy’s drama movies

In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.

Paul (Macfadyen), a prize-winning war journalist, returns to his remote New Zealand hometown due to the death of his father, battle-scarred and world-weary. For the discontented sixteen-year-old Celia (Barclay) he opens up a world she has only dreamed of. She actively pursues a friendship with him, fascinated by his cynicism and experience of the world beyond her small-town existence. But many, including the members of both their families (Otto, Moy), frown upon the friendship and when Celia goes missing, Paul becomes the increasingly loathed and persecuted prime suspect in her disappearance. As the violent and urgent truth gradually emerges, Paul is forced to confront the family tragedy and betrayal that he ran from as a youth, and to face the grievous consequences of silence and secrecy that has surrounded his entire adult life.

A small film with a big heart, SECOND HAND WEDDING is a bittersweet dramatic comedy set in the present, in a time when trademe and e-bay threaten the primeval urge for a firsthand crack at the second-hand. Jill keeps the dream alive until she is forced to confront the habits of a lifetime and concede that no bargain is worth her daughter's happiness. Father of the bride, Brian, quips that Cheryl's upcoming wedding will be the first time anyone in the Rose family has given something away - and that's the crux of it.