Down Under Flix

  Christmas gift hamper: Paul Goldman’s working-class noir Suburban Mayhem (2006) , about a femme fatale’s machinations to get her brother out of prison, starts strong but runs out of steam; despite a committed and star-making (in another film industry alas) lead turn from Emily Barclay, its diabolical streak eventually becomes tiresome. Much as Emily Barclay is the MVP of Suburban Mayhem , the wonderfully expressive Miranda Otto is the MVP of Love Serenade (1996) [1]. Shirley Barrett’s Camera d’Or winning film, about small-town sisters (Otto and Rebecca Frith) enchanted by the arrival of a new radio host (George Shevstov), is willfully offbeat and indefatigably charming. Little Australian film headlined by child star of beloved global blockbuster #1: From the star of E.T. and the director of Turkey Shoot ...  While it’s unlikely E.T. would have survived the blood sport of Turkey Shoot , his pal Henry Thomas negotiates Trenchard-Smith’s Frog Dreaming (1986) intact. ...

  Like The Giver , reviewed yesterday , Tomorrow When the War Began (2010) is a 2010s adaptation of 1990s young adult fiction. Unlike The Giver , which boasts an Australian director and star but was a Hollywood production drawn from American source material, Tomorrow is a homegrown production   utilizing Australian source material, funding, shooting locations, and a large pool of talent behind & before the camera. While I’ve read neither Lois Lowry’s nor John Marsden’s source texts, as a child of the 1990s I can attest to the Tomorrow series' popularity, and having read other Marsden works (notably So Much to Tell You and Letters from the Inside ) can attest to his uncommonly good knack for writing about and for teenage readers. The film adaptation of Tomorrow is written and directed by Stuart Beattie, whose prolific screenwriting career encompasses productions from Australia ( Australia , Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan ), America ( Pirates of the Caribbean , Col...

  Between Patriot Games , Clear and Present Danger , The Quiet American , and Salt (2010) , director Phillip Noyce has arguably spent more time engaged in the Hollywood business of representing the American espionage business than any other Australian filmmaker. The last of this quartet, Salt was Noyce’s return to Hollywood action movie carpetbagging after abandoning his third (and in franchise terms the fourth) Jack Ryan film The Sum of All Fears (eventually directed by Phil Alden Robinson) to helm lower-budgeted, socially progressive historical dramas Rabbit-Proof Fence , The Quiet American , and To Catch a Fire . I wouldn’t say his time on those smaller-scale productions significantly altered his modus operandi on his return to big-budget action filmmaking: like Patriot Games , the villains in Salt are clearly delineated, culturally demarcated, and thoroughly unheroic and non-American. Clear and Present Danger and The Quiet American are more nuanced and complicated in grapp...

  I typically address the features in these double bill reviews separately, but there’s not a lot of point trying to parse The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021) . Unlike, say, George Miller’s distinct accomplishments across the four Mad Max films, or Phillip Noyce’s differentiating touches across Jack Ryan sequels  Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger , The Hitman’s Bodyguard and its sequel are the same flavour of film, the latter entry distinguished by foregrounding the titular wife, a supporting character in the original. In this respect, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard follows the rather 1990s comedy sequel stratagem of "+1", ala Addams Family Values (add a baby), Look Who’s Talking Too (add another baby), and Another Stakeout (add Rosie O’ Donnell),    The constants across both titles—the hitman and his bodyguard—are played by Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds. In the first film, Jackson’s incarcerated hitman Dar...

Sunday (2014) is an Australia/New Zealand co-production about an ex-couple at a relationship crossroads. After months of separation, Australian Charlie (Dustin Clare) and New Zealander Eve (Camille Keenan) are reunited when Eve tells Charlie she’s pregnant. Over 24 hours in Christchurch, the couple must decide about their and their unborn child’s future. Sunday is gentle, cleanly executed, and at a tight 70 minutes economically told. Director Michelle Joy Lloyd co-wrote the film with her actors, and befitting the story the production feels intimate and propelled by its time and narrative constraints. It also nicely utilises its backdrop of post-earthquake Christchurch, adding thematic heft. I have a fondness for Australian films that share titles with better-known overseas productions, among them Fair Game , Thirst , and now Disclosure (2020) . Clocking in at 80 minutes and with nary a Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, or VR machine in sight, Michael Bentham’s Disclosure  is another ec...

  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 ( Liqu...

  Backroads (1977) and Last Ride (2009) are two Australian road movies with downbeat denouements, both headlined by Australian character actors playing criminals: the former (Bill Hunter) at the outset of his lengthy career, the latter (Hugo Weaving) several decades into his meaty filmography. Backroads , clocking in at an economical 60 minutes, is ostensibly Phillip Noyce’s feature debut, but in tone and style contrasts sharply with his better-known sophomore feature, 1978’s elegantly-made Newsfront . The plot sees vagrants Jack and Gary (Hunter and Gary Foley, a prominent Aboriginal activist of the era) stealing a Pontiac and hitting the open road, collecting other passengers (Zac Martin, Terry Cammileri, Julie McGregor) along the way and running afoul of the law. Performances are naturalistic, and Hunter’s work as a scum-bum criminal also contrasts with his dignified work in Newsfront and later Gallipoli , not to mention his cantankerous men of influence in Strictly Ballroo...