Unlucky numbers: 1% (2017), The Death & Life of Otto Bloom (2016)

Sandy Harbutt’s Stone—with its ambitious scale, impressive action set pieces, and an ensemble studded with excellent character actors—casts a fairly imposing shadow over any Australian biker films in its wake, but 1% (2017) carves its own scrappy, gnarly place at the table, with shades too of Rowan Woods’ The Boys and David Michod’s Animal Kingdom. Directed by Stephen McCallum and also known as Outlaws, it centres on the power dynamics in a motorcycle gang between its president (Matt Nable), recently released from prison, and interim leader (Ryan Corr, surprisingly adept in the role) who’s covering for his erring brother’s (Josh McConville) misdemeanors. There’s a more interesting side story to be told about fraught relations with Aaron Pedersen’s charismatic rival gang leader, but 1% manages to tap a Shakespearean vein or two with its themes of succession and Lady Macbeth-esque wife characters, played well by Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Simone Kessell (Liquid Bridge).

The Death and Life of Otto Bloom (2016), written and directed by Cris Jones, centres on the titular Bloom (played by Xavier Samuel), whose consciousness experiences time in reverse. The film unfolds in a mockumentary format utilizing, among other things, talking head interviews, archival media, videotape & home movies, and stills, depicting Bloom’s early romance with an academic psychologist (Matilda Brown and later Rachel Ward), later relationships, international celebrity, and subsequent controversies and retreat from the limelight. The potentially lumpy concept is fairly well-executed, with whiffs of its more stylized antecedents The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Zelig, the latter most notably in the talking heads interviews (themselves cribbed by Woody Allen from Reds). The film is somewhat hampered by casting the likeable but thoroughly ordinary Samuel as the extraordinary Bloom; he’s serviceable, but lacks any enigmatic quality.

Ben

Beyond Innocence (1989)

Published 2017 on Down Under Flix Director: Scott Murray Stars: Katia Caballero, Keith Smith Scott Murray is one of the premier commentators on Australian cinema. He’s best known as editor and contributor to Cinema Papers and Senses of Cinema , as well as for editing, authoring, and contributing to various volumes on Australian film, including one particularly indispensable resource for my work on Down Under Flix, Australian Film 1978–1994 . In the 1980s, Murray directed the film Beyond Innocence , also known as Devil in the Flesh . It was both his theatrical feature debut and swansong, though he’d later helm a music documentary, Massenet: His Life and Music .

The Way, My Way (2024)

As someone on a perpetual two-to-three-year pop culture delay, it’s very rare I see a new film in theatrical release, let alone its first day of theatrical release, let alone a new Australian film on its first day of theatrical release. However, I had this opportunity for Bill Bennett's The Way, My Way (2024) . Bennett's film is also, by coincidence, the second film I’ve seen in as many months about someone making a pilgrimage along the famed Camino trail, the other being Emilio Estevez’s The Way . Both films, intriguingly, foreground their filmmakers in the screen story and provide onscreen surrogates for them: in The Way , Estevez appears briefly as a deceased doctor whose father—the film’s protagonist, played by Estevez’s real-life father Martin Sheen—embarks on the Camino trail to scatter his son’s ashes; in The Way, My Way , adapted from director Bennett’s autobiographical travel writing, Chris Haywood is cast as the filmmaker and follows in his director’s footsteps. ...

John Hargreaves double feature: Hoodwink (1981) and Sky Pirates (1986)

Published 2017 on Down Under Flix Discounting the film Blackfellas , in which he plays a minor role as a racist policeman, I’m surprised it’s taken this long to cover any John Hargreaves films on Down Under Flix. A six time AFI Award nominee (including for Hoodwink ) and triple winner, Hargreaves is one of the best leading men to emerge from the Australian New Wave, and I have particular regard for his work in Don’s Party, Long Weekend , and The Odd Angry Shot . Hargreaves was a natural performer: gifted and charismatic, but not unnecessarily flashy; handsome, but not movie star handsome, and slightly crumpled like a creased jacket. He was a quintessential Australian everyman ala Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown, though he’s less familiar to young filmgoers today, partly due to his untimely passing in 1996 at age 50. This article looks at one of Hargreaves’ best films… and one of his other films…

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