Category Archives: Australian

2015, Acceptable for teenagers, Adultery, Amazon Prime, Antique Cars, Australian, B-movie, Bad Acting, Based on a Book, Bullying, Comedy, Corny, Cross Dressing, Eccentric cast of characters, Haute Couture, Love Story, Marital Infidelity, Mediocre, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Outrageous Behavior, Quirky, Revenge, Sad small town, School Teacher, Senior citizens, Slapstick, Small Town, Sports, Unmarried mother, Unusual

The Dressmaker (2015)

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From IMDB:

A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 2 hour film.

Revenge is the keyword in this Australian comedy-drama. Wikepedia offers you more than you probably want to know about this film. Equally important is the ever present theme of haute couture.   It stars Kate Winslet as a femme fatale in the titular role of the dressmaker, Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage, who returns to a small Australian town to take care of her ailing, mentally unstable mother, played by Judy Davis.  Along the way we encounter a love affair, false accusations of murder, and (did we forget to mention ?) revenge.

Sometimes the acting is over the top if not downright corny. But the visual fun of the film is the outrageous cast of  characters: the policeman is a cross-dresser, Judy Davis is a positive wreck, several women are timid and unattractive until Tilly takes charge. Three quarters through the story we think we see a happy ending … but then suddenly — (you will just have to watch the film!)

Even though I would give the film a B+,  I enjoyed every minute. Visually the oddities and clothing transformations are fun to watch and the story for all its faults is engrossing.

2010, Australian, Car Chase, Crime, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Drugs, Grim, Lawyers, Police Story, Revenge, Slow, Suspense, Violent

Animal Kingdom (2010)

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From NetFlix:

When his mother dies suddenly, a 17-year-old boy (James Frecheville) finds himself drawn into the clutches of a diabolical criminal family, until a good-hearted detective (Guy Pearce) makes a concerted effort to change the boy’s fate. Australian writer-director David Michôd’s first feature-length drama won the World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

How lucky I was to stumble on this gem of a film! Confirming my excited impressions are all the rave reviews in the Wikipedia article.

Instead of Joshua, the boy is called simply ‘J’. For this entire Australian film, the character J is practically mute. We can only assume that some awful battle is taking place inside. When he speaks it is usually some terse (i.e. one word) answer such as ‘yeah’, spoken with a strong Australian accent. Not all the characters are terse, especially if they are hopped up on cocaine.

Suspense is palpable, especially because J is trapped in a herd of unbalanced and unrestrained uncles who are guided, encouraged, and protected by a menacingly evil grandmother Smurf. Understand: this is a very controlled film atmosphere. There are violence, drug use, and insanity in a film that is mostly quiet, SLOW, and threatening.

Expect two surprising plot twists. Do NOT read the Wikipedia summary first because it will spoil these surprises.

Most memorable moment for me: Catch the interchange between Guy Pearce and the grandmother in the supermarket toward the end of the film.

Toward the end be sure to catch Guy Pierce asking J if J has “found his place in the world” and then ask yourself what that really meant when the film reaches its startling conclusion.

I highly recommend this film!