Heatwave (1982) is the fifth film I’ve spotlighted since August from the resourceful, intermittently underrated and overrated Phillip Noyce. While this exercise has not engendered any major reevaluation or revelation about his work—due in part to highlighting three fairly mainstream American works ( The Bone Collector , Salt , The Giver ) and one raw early work ( Backroads )—revisiting his collaborations with Angelina Jolie on The Bone Collector and Salt has reinforced Noyce’s adept handling of actresses. This trait—not one necessarily shared by other thinking man’s action film directors like John McTiernan, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, or Christopher Nolan—is also evident in Noyce’s work with Nicole Kidman on Dead Calm , Everlyn Sampi on Rabbit-Proof Fence , and Judy Davis on Heatwave . Heatwave is based in part on the story of missing journalist Juanita Nielsen, also dramatized in Donald Crombie’s The Killing of Angel Street one year earlier; here, it is Mary Ford, a reporter ...
Australia has an impressive and eclectic national cinema, but too often its films struggle to attract attention, receive brief theatrical runs, are ignored by audiences, and simply fall through the cracks. Down Under Flix was created to shine a light, show some love, and where necessary throw shade at obscure, forgotten, neglected, or under-appreciated Australian films