Hysteria ticket giveaway!

We'll be honest with you, when we heard that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy were to star in a period romantic comedy, we didn't really feel the inclination to run to our local cinema and start queuing up in anticipation. Then, our buddy who works at CLEO whispered to us "You know it's about the invention of the vibrator, right?"

"SAYYYY WHAAAAA?" we responded.

It's true. Set in 1880, Hysteria is an offbeat and amusing tale about the invention of said instrument in Victorian England. Based on what actually happened, the film follows Mortimer Granville (Dancy), a young doctor disillusioned by his colleagues' medieval practices. He starts working for Dr Dalrymple, who treats cases of the female ailment commonly known as hysteria by offering them intimate manual relief. Demand becomes so great that Dalrymple and Mortimer cannot keep up with 'curing' women. And so came about the invention of a machine that would solve his medical challenges.

Thanks to our mates at Hopscotch, we're giving away a few free tickets to Hysteria. If you wanna win just drop an email with the subject line "Ooh baby yeah" to info@bobbysix.com. Include your name and address and we'll select the winners at random. As usual with these movie ticket giveaways, the tickets are only valid in Australia. Sorry everywhere else, we're working hard on getting some freebies for you guys too. Soon soon.

Where Do We Go Now?

From the creator of Caramel, this is a genuinely charming and inventive film which takes its audience through a spectrum of emotions. The story is thus: In an isolated village, a close-knit group of friends of Muslim and Christian women gather daily at the local cafe to share gossip and song. However, their community comes under threat from outside tensions. How do they stop their husbands and sons tearing their lives apart with a sectarian war?

Banding together, the women devise ingenious plans to distract their menfolk. The narrative is really funny, the characters utterly believable and the use of song is superb. The musical number about getting the men stoned is fantastic. What's more, the light tone of the majority of the movie gives all the more weight to the moments of heartbreak which punctuate proceedings like a bullet.

In the same way that the wonderful Life Is Beautiful did with the Holocaust, this film gives heart to a difficult subject-matter through laughter and levity. This certainly doesn't make it any less relevant than more heavyweight movies. Rather, Where Do We Go Now? is a compelling and touching tale of motherhood, family, religion, tolerance and community.

Review by Bobby Townsend

Haven - Season Two DVD giveaway!

We're always bragging about how we don't own a TV at Bobbysix. We reckon it makes us sound all bohemian and cool. It is true. We don't own a telly. But what we always accidentally forget to tell you is that we spend many, many hours watching TV shows on our laptops. You name it, we dig it. From Game of Thrones to Breaking Bad via 30 Rock, we're all over that shit.

So we're pretty happy to learn that Season Two of Haven is out today. Starring Emily Rose from Brothers & Sisters, and based on Stephen King's novella The Colorado Kid, the series is spot-on for lovers of top-notch TV with a sci-fi leaning. Basically, if you like a bit of supernatural mystery, then Haven will be right up your alley.

Thanks to our buddies at Hopscotch, we've got three DVDs to give away. Featuring all 12 episodes and a heap of extra features, this'll keep you out of trouble for a while. So, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one, just email info@bobbysix.com with the subject "Haven" along with your name and address. We'll select three lucky winners at random and shoot these badboys out in the post. We'll happily send the prize anywhere, but you'll need a DVD player that plays Aussie disks, or you'll just end up using them as coasters, and, with a retail price of 50 bones, those would be some pretty expensive coasters. 

Wish You Were Here ticket giveaway!

Wish You Were Here is a psychological drama/mystery starring Joel Edgerton, Felicity Price and Teresa Palmer. Four friends - husband and wife Dave and Alice, and Alice's sister Steph and her new boyfriend Jeremy - head off on a South East Asian holiday, but only three return back to Australia. Dave and Alice come home to their young family desperate for answers about Jeremy's mysterious disappearance. When Steph returns not long after, a brutal secret is revealed about the night her boyfriend went missing. But it is only the first of many. Who amongst them knows what happened on that fateful night when they were dancing under a full moon in Cambodia?

We were lucky enough to have a beer or two with director Kieran Darcy-Smith the other day, and will be bringing you the results of our chat real soon. For now though, wanna see the movie for free? Course you do. Well, we've got a bunch of passes to give away thanks to our mates at Hopscotch. All you gotta do is complete the following sentence: "I wish I was...". Just send your answer, along with your address to info@bobbysix.com, we'll randomly pick some winners and shoot some free passes in the post this week. The passes are only valid in Australia, so, you know, bear that in mind when entering the competition, otherwise it might be quite a pricey cab ride home.

This Must Be The Place ticket giveaway!

Okay, so any movie which has David Byrne in it and features a fair amount of Will Oldham on the soundtrack was always gonna appeal to us. Add to that Sean Penn as a perplexingly funny goth rocker and the ever-wonderful Frances McDormand as Penn's wife, and you have yourself quite the film.

The story is thus: Penn plays Cheyenne, a bored, retired, eye-linered, wealthy American former celeb living in Dublin. He's a complex character, bumbling around town with friends and living in an enormous mansion. When he learns of the death of his father - who he has been estranged from for over 30 years - he returns to America to embark on a road trip that will change him forever. His quest is driven by the revelation that his father was humiliated in Auschwitz at the hands of an SS officer, who may still be alive and living in America. Cheyenne's search takes him across the heartland of a country now foreign to him, encountering some great people as he is reawakened to the possibility of reconciliation and self-discovery.

At first, Penn's character is hard to get a handle on, but soon, his bumbling confusion combined with some cracking one-liners make him genuinely appealing and his journey across The States is intriguing and shot beautifully. This really is a stunning film to look at - an absolute feast for the eyes. While some of the sub-plots serve to confuse, This Must Be The Place is entertaining and at times touching, sad and laugh-out-loud funny.

The good news for you (if you live in Australia) is that Bobbysix.com has teamed up with our mates at Hopscotch Films and have a couple of double passes to give away. All you have to do is send your name and address to info@bobbysix.com with the subject "This must be the place to score a double pass" by April 4th and we'll select the winners at random. The pass is valid at selected cinemas in Sydney, Perth, Brisvegas, Radelaide and Melbs and the film is rated M. 

A Separation

A Separation is an Iranian film which deals with the fallout of a married couple's difficult decision over whether they improve the life of their child by moving to another country or stay in Iran and care for a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimers.

A tragic event soon leads to the taut and utterly engaging A Separation bouncing between thriller and courtroom drama. The film, directed by Asghar Farhadi, is fascinating in that, while it deals with an world completely alien to most - Iranian family life, its religion and the chaos of its legal system - ultimately the themes at the heart of the tale are universal. There are so many questions asked, so many moral issues raised. When is it okay to lie? What constitutes sinning?

Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. When Nadar refuses, she moves back to her parental home in protest. Nadar remains torn between loyalty to his Alzheimers-ridden father and trying to save his marriage, while Termeh just wants her parents to get back together. When Nadar hires a maid to look after his father, he introduces a whole new world of problems into his own and, as events spiral, the swim against the tide of turmoil that all the characters face is a futile one. Crucially, the lines between who the audience is supposed to sympathise with become increasingly blurred.

This tense, beautifully scripted and directed picture offers gritty, believable and exceptional performances across the entire cast. It will win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It deserves it.

POST OSCARS UPDATE: Told you so!

Review by Bobby Townsend

Waste Land - 2 for 1 ticket giveaway!

Once again, we're teaming up with our good mates at Hopscotch Films to give away some film tickets because, you know, we're nice like that. We've got three 2-for-1 passes to dish out for the Oscar-nominated documentary, Waste Land, which are valid at the Hoyts Cinema Paris in Sydney for the duration of the film's run (we had some for Melbourne too but they have already been snapped up by our Twitter followers - sorry).

Filmed over nearly three years, Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores" - self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (Countdown To Zero) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

For your chance to grab one of these two-for-one passes, simply tweet us @bobbysix (including the hashtag #wasteland) or drop an email to info@bobbysix.com with the subject heading "I'm wasted." We'll shove everyone's name into a hat and send the winners' passes this week.

Midnight in Paris ticket giveaway!

Here at Bobbysix.com, we've teamed up with our good friends from Hopscotch films in Sydney to give you the chance to see the brand new Woody Allen film for FREE!

The romantic comedy is about a family travelling to the French capital for business. The party includes a young engaged couple forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better. Yeah, okay, we totes just copy and pasted that off IMDB. Well, we haven't seen it yet. What do you people expect from us?

What we do know is that it stars Owen Wilson, who we love so much for his performance as Dignan in Bottle Rocket that we can even forgive him for Drillbit Taylor. And, also, that our fave reviewer, Mark Kermode - who has been quite critical of Woody Allen of late - really enjoyed it. Being fans of Mr Allen (Annie Hall is never off the DVD player at Bobbysix Towers) we're super excited to head along to check this new offering out.

If you want the chance to WIN one of THREE DOUBLE PASSES to this film, then all you have to do is either LIKE BOBBYSIX.COM'S FACEBOOK PAGE, FOLLOW BOBBYSIX ON TWITTER or, if you are already a follower, then simply SHOOT AN EMAIL to info@bobbysix.com titled "Hells yeah, I want some Woody." We'll put everyone's name in a hat and draw out the three lucky winners on Wednesday.

The double passes are valid for screenings from October 20 for the duration of the film's run. Oh, and while we love our chums from around the globe, this giveaway is open to Australia-based readers only. Sorry.