Byte Size: Cringeless Australian Cinema
Regional Aussie films without the social awkwardness and tired stereotypes.
For the longest time, I’ve had a bone to pick with Australian cinema. Sure, we have our classics, our regional canon: The Castle; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Romper Stomper; Muriel’s Wedding; Wolf Creek; Chopper; The Dish; and many others.
But my issue has always been how these successful Australian narratives often rely on a parochial sense of national identity: that is, one entirely subsumed to an idealised ‘Outback’ or the inner life of ‘bogans’ or twentieth-century colloquialisms (“g’day”; “mate”; “drongo”; etc., and repeated ad nauseam). Australia, and more to the point, being Australian, has much more to offer than dungarees and a funny accent.
So, in light of the much-maligned Australia Day national holiday that is fast approaching, I thought I’d highlight some underappreciated regional films, ones that work to expand and diversify Australian stories in engaging and interesting ways.
Animal Kingdom (2010)
Written and directed by David Michôd, Animal Kingdom is about as close as Australian cinema gets to the lofty heights of HBO’s The Sopranos. Inspired by events which involved the Victorian Pettingill crime family during the late 80s/early 90s, the film is a gritty gangland crime drama with plenty of urban atmosphere and gripping performances. Apparently, Quentin Tarantino was a fan of the film, and Jacki Weaver garnered both Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody, the Pettingill matriarch. Watch the trailer here.
The Nightingale (2018)
Circling back to the conversation surrounding Australia Day, Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale is poignant, gut-wrenching, and a savage indictment of colonialism’s ills. As I outlined in my review for FilmBunker, it’s a tough watch but one that I feel is ultimately worthwhile:
“Violence in cinema can be many things: unflinching; harrowing; gratuitous; claustrophobic; visceral; inevitable; powerful. And yet, for all of its evocative realism, the one thing The Nightingale proves is that it is not forgettable. As Kent admits: ‘I don’t have all the answers to the question of violence. But I feel they lie in our humanity; in the empathy we hold for ourselves and others.’ For this reason alone, The Nightingale demands to be seen and to be challenged, but perhaps, most importantly, for its story to be told.”
Watch the trailer here.
Predestination (2014)
Aussie sci-fi is hard to come by, but for me, Predestination is one of the better examples of it. Written, produced, and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, Predestination is an adaptation of a 1959 short story by sci-fi luminary Robert A. Heinlein—a story famously written in one day and then later rejected by Playboy—which focuses on Ethan Hawke as a time-travelling agent trying to disarm a bomb. Without jumping into spoiler territory, shit goes off the rails real quick and the ending is a total doosie. It’s a wild ride but worth seeking out. Watch the trailer here.
Upgrade (2018)
I saw this one on a whim a few years ago, and it was a pleasant surprise. The film stars Logan Marshall-Green as Grey Trace (a little too close to his character Trey from The OC, but I digress), a self-described technophobe in a near-future society who is implanted with an advanced chip against his will that allows him to control his body after a mugging leaves him paralyzed. Upgrade is a cyberpunk action film written and helmed by Leigh Whannell of the Saw franchise. It’s violent and brutal at times, weirdly funny in others, and the ending is bleak and dystopian enough to be thought-provoking. Watch the trailer here.
Pimped (2019)
It feels gross to say that rape-revenge films are currently “in vogue” right now, but the facts don’t lie. Recently, Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman (2020) has re-ignited important and contentious conversations around accountability, trauma, and toxic masculinity. Similarly, David Barker’s directorial debut, Pimped, speaks to those same discussions, albeit with a more philosophical bent. As I mentioned in my review for FilmBunker:
“What I enjoyed most about Pimped was its universality. It’s refreshing to see a local indie film that doesn’t rely on our colloquial or traditional Australian identity to propel the narrative. While there’s an undeniably Australian heart to the film, Barker’s direction and writing could easily translate to any other metropolitan setting to explore the same themes of violence, trauma and identity.... While the gruesome portrayal of rape and murder might be hard for some to stomach, Pimped is a taut and gripping psychological thriller that does a whole lot with very little. It’s a real testament to Barker’s skill as writer and director that’s he’s able to turn out a world-class thriller from very modest resources.”
Watch the trailer here.
The Rover (2014)
With the coveted distinction of being the only director to have two films on this list, David Michôd’s much-anticipated follow-up to Animal Kingdom took a decidedly weird turn. Co-written with Aussie mainstay Joel Edgerton, The Rover is a contemporary western that takes place in the Australian outback, ten years after a mysterious and largely undefined global economic collapse.
Guy Pearce gives a live-wire performance as Eric, a volatile, former soldier with nothing to lose and a propensity for explosive violence. Robert Pattinson is almost unrecognisable as Reynolds, a withdrawn and naive American youth (also, keep in mind, this is post-Twilight/pre-Batman Pattinson, too). I like to think of this film as a spiritual prequel to the surreal world of Mad Max, where we get to watch civilisation gnaw on itself in a race to anarchy and societal rock bottom. Watch the trailer here.
Babyteeth (2019)
We all know that being a teenager sucks. Your body is doing whatever the hell it wants, you’re horny, and The Olds are constantly trying to tell you what to do. Babyteeth is about the white-hot rage of adolescence and the pain generated when the age of innocence is suddenly eclipsed by the finality of a terminal illness. As I discussed in my review for FilmBunker:
“In the director’s Q&A before my screening of the film, [Shannon] Murphy described her approach with the cast and characters as working towards an ‘authenticity in their messiness.’ And, indeed, this is one of the strengths of Babyteeth, as it achieves a gritty realism through occasionally endearing portrayals of personal chaos and the complexity of social interactions. While the coming-of-age story is a well-worn genre convention in its own right, Murphy manages to make Milla’s story feel regionally grounded to its domestic Australian setting, while also speaking to the universal lived experience of young women the world over.”
Watch the trailer here.
The Proposition (2005)
I love watching westerns almost as much as I love reading the work of Cormac McCarthy. I recently spent an entire year of my life attempting to unravel the genius of Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West (1985), and it pains me to no end to know that John Hillcoat almost had the audacious opportunity to turn that incredible tale into a film. And the only reason that I believe such a feat might even be possible (director Ridley Scott once famously said that McCarthy’s novel was “unfilmable”), is because The Proposition exists. But don’t take my word for it. Instead, I’ll let Roger Ebert sell it to you:
“Why do you want to see this movie? Perhaps you don’t. Perhaps, like Bloom, it will take you more than one try to face the carnage. But the director John Hillcoat, working from a screenplay by Nick Cave, has made a movie you cannot turn away from; it is so pitiless and uncompromising, so filled with pathos and disregarded innocence, that it is a record of those things we pray to be delivered from. The actors invest their characters with human details all the scarier because they scarcely seem human themselves.”
Watch the trailer here.
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