Acute Misfortune

"The new Australian drama Acute Misfortune signals its intentions right out of the gate. Within just its initial flourish of images, out of context and deceptively abstract, the film immediately plants its intentions firmly in the dirt. Actor Thomas M Wright’s debut effort as director and co-writer is remarkably assured, no doubt bolstered by having worked with the likes of Jane Campion (on Top of the Lake) and Warwick Thornton (on Sweet Country)."

"A beautifully made and intensely thoughtful portrait of the life of controversial Archibald-winning painter Adam Cullen, based on the journalist and Saturday Paper editor Erik Jensen's wild and compelling book of the same name."

"While Thomas M. Wright's adaptation of Jensen's memoir of the same name attempts to frame this as an encounter from which both gained, it never quite becomes explicable as anything other than a bully-victim relationship."

"Cullen is now the recipient of a blistering, no-holds-barred cinematic portrait that, like his artwork, relentlessly flouts convention, inspires questions and courts a strong, complicated reaction."

"An artist biopic that swaggeringly busts the limitations of the well-worn subgenre, Acute Misfortune is one of the year's most striking and accomplished directorial debuts."