Set in rural Australia in the summer of 1965, Jasper Jones is a coming-of-age story about fourteen year old Charlie Bucktin, who is struggling with bullies, the break-up of his parents and falling in love. On the night that Jasper Jones, the town’s mixed race outcast, shares with him a secret to the whereabouts of missing teen, Laura Wishart, Charlie’s life is changed forever.

In trying to clear Jasper of any blame for Laura’s disappearance, Charlie and Jasper have to face small town attitudes, the reality of family breakdown, ingrained racism and cultural stereotypes. All the while being determined to find the truth about what happened to Laura, no matter how dangerous.

This adaption of the multi-award winning Australian book of the same name stars the up-and-coming and exceptionally talented Levi Miller (Red Dog: True Blue, Pan) in the lead role, with support from the extraordinary and perfectly cast Hugo Weaving and Toni Collette.

Both heartwarming and thought provoking, Jasper Jones is a very special, powerful and important film. From the makers of Bran Nue Dae, the film is gorgeous, with beautiful cinematography, vivid close shots and sumptuous colours. It beautifully captures that special aesthetic of the Australian bush and the picturesque ‘small town’ of the 1960s, but also holds a mirror to our past and in turn to contemporary Australian society, addressing issues of perception, inclusion and stereotypes that are still very relevant today.

Paterson (Driver) is a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey. He is a quiet man who writes poetry in his spare time, and enjoys a relatively simple life despite his eccentric Latino wife and the drama surrounding everyone else around him. We follow Paterson through a week in his life as he observes the folks around him and is casually inspired by everyday experiences to put together poems in his ever-present notebook.

Paterson sees cult American indie director Jim Jarmusch return to straight-forward dramatic fare after a couple of excursions in genre territory (most notably with the excellent Only Lovers Left Alive). Arguably his best movie in almost 20 years, which itself says a lot, the film carries all of Jarmusch’s trademarks: magnificently understated performances, calculated pacing, both comically blunt and delicately subtle symbolism, and casual dialogue that makes you feel like part of the conversation without having said a word.

More than just repeating a formula, however, the movie presents an engaging narrative that seamlessly moves through what would typically have been loosely joined vignettes in his earlier work. What’s more Paterson made me forget just how much I hate Adam Driver and poetry – for two hours they were the most fascinating things on the planet.