Archive of Australian movie capsule reviews

Here we’ve preserved Travis Johnson’s short but sweet reviews of vital Australian movies, formerly available to stream on Netflix or Stan. Click each film title to see their new streaming homes.

Below (2019)

Ryan Corr’s desperate grifter takes a job at a refugee detention centre under his stepfather (Anthony LaPaglia) and starts streaming cage fights between the inmates for cash. However, his conscience gets woken by the plight of one prisoner (Phoenix Raei), and he soon finds himself using all his cunning to help him. Maziar Lahooti’s debut feature is a lo-fi sci-fi rich in ideas and righteous anger. And while the budget strains at the seams, its fierce intelligence carries it through.

Breath (2018)

For his directorial debut, actor Simon Baker adapts Tim Winton’s coming-of-age novel. Set in Western Australia’s Margaret River region in the 1970’s, the film charts the maturing of young surfie Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and his best mate Loonie (Ben Spence) as they come under the influence of reclusive surfing champion Sando (Baker) and his alluring girlfriend Eva (Elizabeth Debicki). This being a Winton joint, they must navigate both the mysteries of adulthood and the mysteries of the ocean. Featuring fantastic surf cinematography and a palpable sense of time and place, this is one of the best Winton adaptations going.

Bran Nue Dae (2010)

The first Aboriginal movie musical comes to the big screen courtesy of director Rachel Perkins, who brings the story of young Willie Johnson (Rocky McKenzie), his love for the beautiful Rosie (Jessica Mauboy), and his journey from Broome to Fremantle and back again in the swingin’ (but still pretty racist, yo) ‘60s. It’s a big, colourful, joyful explosion of song and dance, with a belter of a cast including Ernie Dingo, Missy Higgins, Geoffrey Rush, Magda Szubanski Dan Sultan, and more. An absolute delight.

Dark City

Dark City (1998)

Australian genre specialist Alex Proyas followed up The Crow with this wildly ambitious sci-fi noir. In a vast city seemingly always shrouded in night and rain, an ordinary man (Rufus Sewell) discovers that everything he knows is controlled by The Strangers, a race of creepy albino aliens who can manipulate reality at will. Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, Colin Friels and Bruce Spence co-star in this gorgeous, mind-bending thriller that pipped The Matrix to the “what is reality” post by a full year.

Hearts and Bones (2019)

Hugo Weaving’s shell-shocked combat photographer crosses paths with Andrew Lurie’s resettled refugee when the latter seeks him out, saying that photos in an upcoming exhibition may contain images of a massacre that took place in his home village. What follows is a poignant exploration of the connections that common experiences can forge between very different people as both men, each scarred by their pasts, learn to live with their trauma.

Ladies in Black (2018)

Bruce Beresford adapts Madeleine St John’s book The Women in Black, an account of the goings-on among the female staff of the fictional Goodes department store in 1950s Sydney. Angourie Rice is the ingenue working a holiday job while dreaming of attending university the following year; Alison McGirr is a lonely wife trying to break through to her repressed, working class husband; Rachael Taylor is a woman with a past looking for love; and Julia Ormond is their floor boss, a Slovenian immigrant who brings European flair to the dowdy housewives of mid-20th century Australia. It’s all as warm and delightful as you could want.

Lion (2016)

Garth Davis’ feature directorial debut is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley (Dev Patel), an Indian-born Australian adoptee who tracked down his birth family decades after being separated from them. David Wenham and Nicole Kidman feature as Saroo’s adoptive parents, with Rooney Mara as his girlfriend. But the emotional heart of the film is his yearning for reconnection with his family and culture. It struck a chord with audiences, too, with Lion becoming one of the most acclaimed and successful local productions in recent memory.

The Sapphires (2012)

Watch on Netflix

Inspired by true events, this crowd-pleaser sees four Indigenous singers (Deborah Mailman, Shari Sebbens, Jessica Mauboy and Miranda Tapsell) in the 1960s, sick of the closed doors greeting them in their own country, hie off to Vietnam to entertain American troops, under the questionable guidance of Chris O’Dowd’s boozy manager. The Sapphires contains multitudes: it’s a backstage drama, a winning comedy, a musical and a reminder that, yeah, we’re a pretty racist country when you get right down to it. Make it a double feature with director Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding, also on Netflix.

Sweet Country (2017)

Warwick Thornton’s confronting meat pie western follows Indigenous man Sam (Hamilton Morris) who is on the run from white cop Fletcher (Bryan Brown) in post-WWI Northern Territory. Sam’s killing of the drunken, murderous farmer Harry (Ewen Leslie) is justified, but the odds of an Indigenous man getting justice are, well, nil. A beautifully shot tragedy boasting a stacked cast (Sam Neill, Matt Day and Thomas M. Wright co-star) that demands we grapple with our racist colonial past. Thornton’s Samson and Delilah is also on Stan.