Australian Top Twenty

It's been a while, but here's another Top Twenty. This time, my favourite Australian films. There are quite a few recent Aussie films I haven't seen, so I'd be happy to hear recommendations, but this is the list I've come up with. Once again, aside from the number one, the ordering was difficult, not to mention the beauties that missed out (Mad Max 2 & 3, Lantana, The Dressmaker, Muriel's Wedding, The Tracker, Don's Party, Look Both Ways, Newsfront, The Sum of Us and Bad Boy Bubby, just to name a few). So, in ascending order, have away at it.

20. The Boys (Rowan Woods - 1998)

An uncomfortable watch but really well-acted with David Wenham in fine form. Based on the real life case of Anita Cobby, this film creeps to its ugly finale. I foolishly took a girl to see this at the cinema back in 1998. A great movie but not a date movie.

19. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller - 2015)

Simply structured (I can only think of Withnail & I that has such an equally obvious framework) but inventively bonkers with breathless chase sequences. Hardy and Theron could crack marble with their faces.

18. Sunday Too Far Away (Ken Hannam - 1975)

Jack Thompson stars as a unionised shearer in the 1950s who likes a drink and a brawl. This is a biting political drama dressed up as a knockabout blokey romp, but don't be fooled.

17. The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent - 2018)

Hard to watch but kind of beautiful in its horror. A stark look back at Australia's shameful history. Aisling Francioisi and Baykali Ganambarr work brilliantly together as Clare and Billy. Don't be put off by the chat around this, it's required viewing.

16. The Rover (David Michod - 2014)

A fairly dystopian view of Australia's future with no sugar and loads of dust. Guy Pearce could be the guy you see walking along Scarborough Beach Road with no shoes but plenty of intent.

15. Mad Max (George Miller - 1979)

And speaking of dystopian...say hello to Mr. Rockatansky. The original is still (just) the best for me, though I really like parts of 2 and 3 as well. This is a pure, animalistic revenge drama in an inhospitable landscape. The post-apocalypse never looked so bronzed Aussie.

14. Chopper (Andrew Dominik - 2000)

Eric Bana with a bravura performance here as Mark 'Chopper' Read, notorious Melbourne gangland figure. This film skirts glorification very close but the ridiculousness of Read and Bana's take on him give the film some nicely odd balance.

13. The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir - 1982)

Gibson's star on the rise here, and regardless of the twat he's since shown himself to be, he had bags of charisma back then. He plays an Aussie reporter in Indonesia during an attempted coup against Sukarno in 1965. Pretty gripping stuff, well maneuvered by Weir.

12. Breaker Morant (Bruce Beresford - 1980)

A fine dissection of crimes in wartime and the consequences of them. Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson put in some sterling work in a film often distilled to its climactic lines.

11. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir - 1975)

Creeeeepy shit, this. The shooting style, the pace, the ethereal performances, the music - all make this one of the scariest Aussie films made. Weir again pushes all the right buttons.

10. Idiot Box (David Caeser - 1996)

I'll be honest here. This may be a bit high on the list as I can't remember too much about it. What I do remember is that I thought it was a bag of stupid fun and Ben Mendelsohn was one of our best actors. And still is.

9. Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg - 1971)

I really hope we can accept this Nic Roeg gem as an Aussie co-prod, because it's a great little piece of cinema. David Gulpilil stars with Jenny Agutter and the director's son, Luc in this oddly affecting film of privilege and pathos.

8. Travelling North (Carl Schultz - 1987)

Probably the quietest film here but one of the best. Old Rumpole of the Bailey (Leo McKern) stars with Julia Blake as a couple who head north from Melbs to Queensland to retire. Graham Kennedy pops up and is brilliant as usual.

7. Gallipoli (Peter Weir - 1981)

Simply, one of the most iconic films Australia has produced. No surprise that Peter Weir helmed it, nor that playwright David Williamson co-wrote it (he's responsible for two more on this list - 8 & 12). Gibson and Mark Lee star as champion runners who sign up for WW1 and end up at the infamous Turkish battleground. A film rightly famous for its finale.

6. Death in Brunswick (John Ruane - 1990)

Sam Neill and the late, great John Clarke star in this weird black comedy set in the Melbourne suburbs. I reckon this was an influence on many lesser 90s Aussie urban comedy dramas. Hard to bottle this stuff.

5. Animal Kingdom (David Michod -2010)

Bloody Nora. What a brilliantly misanthropic film this is. And 10 years old now! Mendo and Joel Edgerton ooze grungy menace and Guy Pearce adds integrity but Jackie Weaver is the standout for me. Hell mother in spades.

4. Little Fish (Rowan Woods - 2005)

Yeah, you may like Blanchett doing English Queens or classy Yanks but she's never better than on her home turf and this is her best performance for my money. With Sam Neill and Hugo Weaving to bounce off, she's supreme as a recovering addict. The choir doing Flame Trees is a spine-tingler.

3. Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright - 1992)

This was Russell Crowe's breakout film (though he was still a few years away from being a Hollywood big hitter). Nobody does brooding intensity like Crowe, and his Neo-Nazi thug, Hando, is the perfect outlet. Far from sensationalising this pathetic sub-culture, Romper highlights the dead-ends expertly. Jacqueline McKenzie is incredible, too. Sadly, Daniel Pollock (centre) killed himself just after filming wrapped.

2. The Proposition (John Hillcoat - 2005)

An amazing Aussie western from a script by Nick Cave, this has a basically perfect pace. Guy Pearce stars alongside Danny Huston, Ray Winstone and David Gulpilil. It's all very bleak, very outback, very harsh and illustrates what extreme circumstances can do to people. The cinematographer, Benoit Delhomme, certainly lent a majestic external eye to the landscape.

1. Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse - 1991)

A peerless three-hander with Hugo Weaving, as a blind guy who likes photography, Genevieve Picot, as his housekeeper and Russell Crowe, as his new friend, who agrees to describe his photos to him. The performances are excellent and the bubbling emotions and anxieties are perfectly teased out by Moorhouse. It's a crime she hasn't made more films.

Comments

The Quiet Girl

This is a great film, especially in the way that it manages to create something interesting out of a reasonably mundane synopsis. A young girl is sent away to a relative's house for the summer where she is treated better than at home. Sounds like it could have a bit of Rohmer-style youthful awakenings? Or maybe some gritty Loach-ian societal comment? Even perhaps a revenge tinged 'fear the youth' theme? Well, it's none of the above, and more power to its style. The Quiet Girl herself (Cáit) is a newcomer, Catherine Clinch, and she was apparently found via an Irish language school call out. She's incredible - meek, direct, no airs nor graces whatsoever, with a clear-eyed awkwardness. She's almost like a little female Bowie in The Quiet Girl Who Fell to Earth (no, not a film but I thought I'd italicise anyway). There are orbiting performances that complement her perfectly. Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet play Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach, the couple who tak...

Supergirl

This new superhero flick from the DCU is an incel's nightmare. Following on from James Gunn's Superman of last year, Craig Gillespie takes the director's reins for this spin-off, Supergirl . Quick deviation - partway through, there's a clever aside about how Kara gets the 'girl' label, while her cousin Kal-El can use 'man'. Starting as it means to go on. Before we actually see the lead, we open with the motivating event of a family slaughter by the face-studded Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), sending young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) off on a revenge quest, which eventually drags in Kara Kor-El (Milly Alcock). Kara is on a week-long birthday bender, making sure to stay in red sun systems so that her powers don't work and the booze does. This is significant for the showstopping transformation yet to come on an interplanetary bus. Look, the film itself is fine, nothing new in the storyline structure (Andrew from The Curb notes that 'the ...

The Last Resort

This preview for the Nordic Film Festival is a proper drama for grown-ups, directed and co-written by Maria Sødahl, that poses some curly questions. It's about a middle class Danish couple on holiday with their young daughters in the Canary Islands. Interestingly, the Danish title is Paradis , which carries a bit more irony than its English title. Mikkel (Esben Smed) and Louise (Danica Curcic) are a typically 'normal' couple from northern Europe, enjoying their island holiday when they run down a bloke while driving at night. He turns out to be Ahmed (Aziz Çapkurt), a refugee from Afghanistan, and his leg is pretty munted. Trying to do the right thing, they take him to hospital and leave him with some cash, and crucially, their resort room and phone numbers. This minor act of kindness, and no little guilt, sets in motion a slow building series of events that fucks with the couple's holiday, and relationship in a wider sense. The resurfacing of Ahmed is clearly signpost...

The Christophers

The title of the film refers to a series of paintings started by Julian Sklar in the 90s but left unfinished for reasons made clear later. Sklar, as played by Ian McKellen, is eccentric and irascible, and seems to be a blend of famous British painters, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. As Sklar is getting on in years, his grown children hatch a plan to have the paintings 'completed' for sale, with, or preferably without, their father's knowledge. For this undertaking they must enlist renowned art restorer (and dab hand forger), Lori Butler, an old acquaintance from art college. The premise is fine, but unfortunately, as created by Steven Soderbergh (director) and Ed Solomon (writer), it doesn't have any legs. Paradoxically, the best bits are probably also part of the reason it falters. McKellen is superb as the lovelorn painter, artistically blocked and emotionally bitter. His pithy, acerbic dialogue is great and he gives the performance full welly, but the actual storyli...

The Good Boy

This English/Polish co-production is not to be confused with Good Boy , a dog-based horror film, even though in most regions the definite article is removed - it seems only Australia and the UK have it as The Good Boy . To muddy the waters more, in some areas, including the US, Brazil and the Netherlands, it's called Heel , something you might say to a dog. Anyway, I'll call it THE Good Boy because that's how it's being sold here. It's directed by a Polish guy called Jan Komasa, who's done some features in Poland, and written by first time writer Bartek Bartosik, alongside slightly more established Naqqash Khalid. They've concocted a genre pic that flirts with horror, winks at black comedy and straight up propositions psychological dependency drama. At the beginning of the film, young scally Tommy (Anson Boon) is a hateable twat, acting 'the big I am' on a night out, drug-fucked and aggro with everyone, until he sets off on his own for more action. ...

The Captive

Screening at the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival , Alejandro Amenabar's first film since 2019 is a mildly controversial take on the 5-year captivity of legendary Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes. We begin the film as Cervantes is led into a dusty courtyard in Algiers, along with many other kidnappees. Before he can be sold as a slave, or sliced up for insubordination, he presents a letter from the Spanish court, signalling that perhaps it's better he be kept as a hostage for ransom. The film takes a bit of time to get rolling from here but when it does it settles into a clever mix of melodrama and weighty ideas. Cervantes, with his weak left arm acting like an acting crutch, slowly becomes the cheerleader of the prisoners, writing his stories in the air, only stopping when he temporarily runs light on material. The story takes a hurdle when the Bey, a high-ranking provincial governor (Alessandro Borghi) overhears the stories told in the courtyard and summons Cerv...

Head-On

I saw this confronting 2004 drama at the German Film Festival as part of a retrospective of Fatih Akin films. Unfortunately, there was only one screening in Perth, there might be extra shows in other cities. Akin's a great stylist, authentic and functional, and his films are informed by his cultural standing as a German-Turkish writer/director. In this film, a rough looking bloke called Cahit (Birol Ünel) smashes his car - head-on - into a wall after a heavy night on the turps. While getting treatment, he meets Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), a young woman who recognises his shared dual nationality status. She's looking for a 'Turkish' guy to marry, so her parents will get off her back. Initially sceptical and aggressively dismissive, Cahit realises Sibel is dangerously desperate, so he agrees to the sham marriage. There's an early bump in the road when Cahit kicks Sibel out on their wedding night for asking about his dead wife. Soon enough though, things settle into a room...

Franz: Becoming Kafka

In this fractured, somewhat unconventional biopic, various characters take on the role of narrator, breaking the fourth wall within the story. As curious as the method of delivery here is, the bones of the film itself still function to paint the picture of one of the 20th century's most lauded writers. We witness Kafka's less than perfect childhood with unloving father and powerless mother; his possible spectrum hovering; his near-crippling insecurities; his tricky relationships with women; and eventually the illness that brought on his early death. Director Agnieszka Holland is still firing at 77 years old, she's quite happy to lean towards experimentation and, along with her co-writer, Marek Epstein, she imbues the film with a surrealism similar to Kafka's work. Aside from the 'to camera' narration, the timeline jumps around, even bringing in elements of 21st century Kafka tourism with French, Japanese and American tour guides, who may or may not be on the lev...

Nope

Jordan Peele really doesn't flinch from a stoush. His first film, Get Out , took an excoriating swipe at racism and white privilege in the US. His second film, Us , delved into class divides and human rights. His latest film, Nope , takes aim at man's subjugation of nature, primarily for profit. The marketing of this film suggests a creepy, sci-fi alien invasion film, and while this is all accurate, there's more going on here too. Daniel Kaluuya, returning for a second Peele film (after Get Out ), plays OJ Haywood, a trainer of horses that appear in films or TV. His father, Otis senior (Keith David), is killed early doors in a freak accident....or is it? Well, no obviously, it isn't, but life moves on for 6 months before more manure flies. OJ is joined by his sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer), as the Haywood Hollywood Horses business, bereft of the old man's guidance and experience perhaps, begins to flounder. OJ has been selling some of the horses to Steven Yuen's ...

The Talented Mr. F.

Screening at the German Film Festival, this is a mind-boggling tale of a 'you-tuber' dickhead who nicked a short animation film off a couple of German university students and passed it off as his own work. The thief, or the 'talented' Mr. F. of the title, is Samuel Felinton, a ubiquitous pud with a probable case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This diagnosis has been mentioned on Reddit but his baggage is weighty so fucks knows what's wrong with him. We open with Moritz and Julius, who made a cute little robot anime, uploaded it to YouTube to see if anyone liked it, and when it gained loads of hits and positive comments, took it down. Emboldened by this public favour, they then started to enter their short, Butty, into various film festivals. When the replies came back that it couldn't be accepted because the film was already doing the festival circuit, the lads freaked out. Turns out Butty 's brief online life was enough time for Felinton to d...

Film Shapes

Search This Blog