The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Celia
Drama · Fantasy · Horror · 1989
In 1950s Australia, young Celia is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother and father won't let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she's the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
Movie details
Celia
“A tale of innocence corrupted.”
1989 Drama · Fantasy · Horror 1h 43m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.3 / 10
Community rating
In 1950s Australia, young Celia is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother and father won't let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she's the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Celia?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Paperhouse
Drama · 1988
A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.
Donovan's Echo
Fantasy · 2011
A series of uncanny déjà vu events force a man to re-examine his tragic past, memory, instinct, and future.
Carnival of Souls
Horror · 1962
Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.
The Witches
Fantasy · 1990
While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, a young boy named Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches. The Grand High Witch reveals a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When they discover the eavesdropper, the witches test the formula on him. Now, with the help of Helga and hotel manager Mr Stringer, Luke the mouse must fight back against the witches.
Quicksand
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A married couple on the brink of divorce becomes trapped in quicksand while hiking through a Colombian rainforest. It’s a struggle for survival as they battle the elements of the jungle and must work together in order to escape.
Hereafter
Drama · 2010
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
We Go On
Horror · 2016
Paralyzed by his fear of dying, Miles Grissom takes out an advert offering $30,000 in reward money to the first person who can show him evidence of an angel, a demon, or prove that ghosts exist - anything to prove to him that we go on after our deaths. He narrows the responses down to three viable candidates - a scientist, a medium, and a worldly entrepreneur. Along with his protective mother, he embarks on an adventure through Los Angeles that will spiral into an unthinkable nightmare.
Before I Fall
Drama · 2017
Samantha Kingston has everything. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, she wakes up with no future at all. Trapped into reliving the same day over and over, she begins to question just how perfect her life really was.
One & Two
Thriller · 2015
In an isolated farmhouse, located in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a mysterious wooden wall, Zac and Eva, two siblings gifted with extraordinary abilities, endure every day the wrath of their strict father while witnessing how a cruel sickness lurks their beloved mother.
The Lovely Bones
Fantasy · 2009
After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family -- and her killer. As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge with her desire for her family to heal.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Ann Turner
Written by
Ann Turner
Rebecca Smart
Celia Carmichael
Nicholas Eadie
Ray Carmichael
Mary-Anne Fahey
Pat Carmichael
Victoria Longley
Alice Tanner
M
Margaret Ricketts
Grandmother
J
James Newman
Hobyah's Pack
A
Alexander Hutchinson
Steve Tanner
Court is in session
Put Celia on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.