Look Both Ways (12A)

Australian writer-director Sarah Watt's debut feature nods to the ensemble drama of Magnolia as it explores how a suburban railway accident touches the lives of several characters over a single weekend. Fear of death is its theme: news photographer Nick (William McInnes) discovers he has cancer the same day he runs into painter Meryl (Justine Clarke), just returned from her father's funeral. Both of them are plagued by sudden reminders of mortality, expressed in watercolour animations of disaster for her, and weird, high-speed montages of cancerous tumours for him.

Meanwhile, a divorced news reporter (Anthony Hayes) discovers his on-off girlfriend (Lisa Flanagan) is pregnant. At times it feels like a depressive's attempt at a romcom, which the flat light and sudden squalls of a late Adelaide summer do nothing to enhance. Watt also allows a sob-rock score to dictate the mood, as Aimee Mann's music did in Magnolia, the difference being this isn't nearly as good. Still, Clarke and McInnes are likeable as the grieving strangers who find each other, and there's a nice strain of laconic Aussie humour underscoring the whole.