Down Under Flix

Director: John Cornell Starring: Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, John Meillon, Ernie Dingo, Charles S. Dutton, Luiz Guzman, Gus Mercurio Crocodile Dundee needs no introduction. Its worldwide popularity and equally beloved and derided status locally are well-documented. It’s a film that does not, by most yardsticks, belong on Down Under Flix , a site dedicated to spotlighting "obscure, forgotten, neglected, and under-appreciated Australian films".  Crocodile Dundee II though … that’s a conversation worth having. Released two years later, it was a hit domestically, albeit not as big as its predecessor , and a huge deal overseas , albeit not as huge as the original . Given their close proximity, one would think that scenes and lines and moments from both instalments would blur together in the haze of nostalgia, as is often the case with popular 80s franchises. But truth be told, I think the moments that stick with audiences are entirely from the first film.  Crocodile Dundee II...

    Director: Chris Thomson    Starring: Kylie Minogue, Charlie Schlatter, Bruno Lawrence, Angela Punch McGregor    As a young boy who was awfully fond of Kylie Minogue, I implored my parents to purchase a copy of The Delinquents when it hit VHS in 1990. As a young boy seeking the colourful, fizzy instant gratification of the music videos for ‘The Loco-motion’ and ‘I should be so lucky’ , I never made it past the first 15 minutes of said VHS, thus squandering my parents’ hard-earned funds. As an adult who’s willingly sat through the stately Barry Lyndon on multiple occasions, I’ve no current gripes with the pacing of The Delinquents , which positively rollicks along in comparison.    Lola (Minogue) and Brownie (Charlie Schlatter) are teenagers living in Bundaberg, Queensland in 1957. They meet cute outside a cinema after being turned away from a packed screening of The Wild One —which both have seen multiple times already—and bond over...

  Director: Werner Herzog Starring: Bruce Spence,  Wandjuk Marika, Roy Marika,  Norman Kaye, Ray Barrett Director Werner Herzog’s offscreen antics—some highlights are conveniently curated here —are as striking as the images and scenes he wrestles onto screens. In many cases, the former enable the latter, such as the feat of transporting a ship over mountainous terrain in  Fitzcarraldo , or eliciting career-best work from the legitimately bestial Klaus Kinski on five occasions. As a younger cinephile I imbibed on the Herzog Kool-Aid, marvelling at the German auteur’s derring-do even if occasionally bored by the films themselves. As I creak towards middle age, I find myself warier of both the exploitation underpinning said derring-do—whether of an unhealthy specimen like Kinski, or the South American extras who performed the actual manual labour of transporting that ship—and of directorial braggadocio more generally. This piece by Jonathan Rosenbaum nicely articulates...

  Director:  Mirrah Foulkes Starring:  Mia Wasikowska, Damon Herriman, Tom Budge, Gillian Jones, Terry Norris  The case of Mia Wasikowska and  Alice in Wonderland  is an object lesson in not throwing out the baby with the dirty bathwater. Tim Burton’s alternately bland and ghastly 2010 film remains one of my least favourite moviegoing experiences, its astronomical success baffling and its diminishing popularity vindicating. The film was my first exposure to Wasikowska as an actress, and I wrongly dismissed her as the nondescript centre of a garish designer black hole.  The ensuing years have proven me wrong about Wasikowska, and I’ve been consistently impressed with her performances and choice of collaborators (including Chan-Wook Park, Jim Jarmusch, David Cronenberg, and Guillermo del Toro) across films like  Jane Eyre ,  Lawless ,  Stoker ,  Tracks ,  Only Lovers Left Alive ,  Madame Bovary ,  Maps to the Stars ,...

Of all the directorial careers to emerge from the Australian film industry, Bruce Beresford’s pre-Hollywood run of films from 1972 to 1981 may be the most fascinating. Beresford’s first two films,  The Adventures of Barry McKenzie  and  Barry McKenzie Holds His Own , were crude and rowdy comedies that saw him almost ostracized from an industry aspiring to loftier pursuits (though the latter still managed to wrangle a cameo from then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam). His film of David Williamson’s play  Don’s Party  signalled his knack for adapting material unobtrusively to the screen, and he was awarded a Best Director gong at that year’s Australian Film Institute Awards for his efforts. His next production,  The Getting of Wisdom , marked a shift from muscular contemporary storytelling towards a more feminine milieu and the dominant aesthetics of the Australian New Wave—period setting (check!), girls boarding school (check!), literary origins (check!...

Published 2019 on Down Under Flix Sunday Too Far Away Director:  Ken Hannam Stars:  Jack Thompson, Max Cullen, Robert Bruning, Jerry Thomas Sunday Too Far Away , directed by Ken Hannam ( Dawn! ), opens with one of the most iconic scenes in Australian cinema, in which a car flips and rolls off a dusty outback road and protagonist Foley (Jack Thompson) crawls out from under his crashed vehicle. It’s an introduction befitting of and analogous to Foley, a character who’s his own worst enemy, who manages to wearily scrape through life while flirting with self-destruction. 

Published 2019 on Down Under Flix Director:  Marion Pilowsky Stars:  Emily Taheny, Eddie Izzard, Luke McKenzie, Vanessa Guide Marion Pilowsky’s 2018 comedy  The Flip Side  stars comedian Eddie Izzard as Henry, a British actor on the ascent. Five years ago while shooting a film in Adelaide he had a romantic fling with set caterer Ronnie (Emily Taheny). Now a restaurateur with a struggling business and a flaky novelist boyfriend Jeff (Luke McKenzie), Ronnie is surprised to be contacted by Henry, visiting town to promote his new movie. A love quadrangle of sorts forms between Henry, Ronnie, Luke, and Henry’s French girlfriend Sophie (Vanessa Guide) as they embark on a road trip together and Henry attempts to win back Ronnie’s affections.