Wanting to dip your toes into arthouse cinema, or are you a seasoned veteran looking for something that's out of this world bonkers? Look no further, because from April 21st until May 6th, Fantastic Film Festival Australia is back in town, and it's as bold and beautiful as ever.

At its core the narrative is great on paper: the idea of taking traditionally villainous criminals and attempting to redeem them is ripe with potential, potential reaped by films like last year’s The Suicide Squad, and even Dreamworks’ own Megamind, but it’s the tropes it ends up using to get there that make it feel like it’s largely re-treading familiar ground.

Koyaanisqatsi is a word used by the Hopi peoples of northeast Arizona which literally translates to “corrupted/chaotic life”, though the film prefers to define it as “life out of balance”, among other similar interpretations.

What the film succeeds at that I didn’t quite expect, is how thoroughly entertaining and engaging it remains throughout its 127 minute runtime. Given its reputation, I thought it’d be rather one-note with its kitchen sink drama, but the deeply rich characters and their maniacal tendencies lent to a plot that is truly hard to predict.

Earwig is like any insect, leaving your skin crawling more at the thought of it than what is actually physically present, though what is present proves undeniably sickening in its own right.

Take Chronicle, mix it with Village of the Damned, add a splash of Stranger Things, ground it with an almost social realist tone, and what do you get? The Innocents (Der uskyldige).

What starts off as a fairly cold and staid experience slowly but surely takes shape, each subtle curve of the narrative shaving what could be a much more generic film in the hands of a lesser filmmaker into something beautiful.

Benedetta balances its sexuality and violence with explorations of what those who seek power will do to get it, and what those in power will do to keep the peace, all set against the backdrop of the black plague.

Belfast takes us on a walk down director Kenneth Branagh’s memory lane, telling the tale of an extraordinarily difficult and violent time in the history of Ireland through the innocent eyes of a child.

Coen’s first directorial effort without brother Ethan couldn’t feel further from prior works like The Big Lebowski and Burn After Reading, but a tale told by an idiot this is not.