Like the rest of the world, Australian cinemagoers were entranced by Barbenheimer and the US tentpoles – so the biggest grossing homemade flick, Talk To Me, barely made the year’s top 30.
Next year’s Mad Max prequel, Furiosa – reportedly the most expensive Aussie film ever made – should change all that, but a lack of box office kachings doesn’t mean this was a disappointing year.
Far from it: As always, a clutch of auteur gems, low-budget horrors and gritty crime dramas wowed at festivals and are well worth tracking down for a small screen viewing.
10. The New Boy
Director: Warwick Thornton
Streaming on: Prime
An effective 1940s monastery noir from Warwick Thornton about an Aboriginal orphan brought up in a sinister institution right out of The Nun. Cate Blanchett stars as a conflicted missionary forced to question her faith when her new charge brings a snake back to life and sets fire to a field.
It premiered to a warm reception at Cannes and is haunting enough to get under your skin, but it’s not as affecting as Thornton’s sublime Samson & Delilah.
For fans of: Rabbit Proof Fence, Flirting, Nanny McPhee
9. Blueback
Director: Robert Connolly
Streaming on: Prime, Apple TV+
Adapted by Tim Winton from his novel, this is a sentimental and ultimately predictable take on the well-trodden child-befriends-threatened-animal trope, saved by strong performances from Mia Wasikowska and Radha Mitchell and some stunning footage of the reefs off Western Australia.
Said animal is a large-lipped blue groper and the danger is posed by pesky illegal fishermen and warming seawater – cue well-intentioned teeth gnashing about coral destruction and endangered ecosystems.
For fans of: Flipper, Free Willy, Breath
8. Bring Him To Me
Director: Luke Sparke
An Aussie-made, US-set gangster potboiler inspired by the scene in Casino in which Joe Pesci’s mob enforcer is driven into a cornfield, beaten with a baseball bat, stripped and buried alive.
The twist here is that when the hoodlum (Barry Pepper) picks up the schmuck (Jamie Costa) about to be whacked, he finds him holding his three-year-old daughter. Much of the suffocating action takes place in the front of a Chevy coupe as the protagonists dance around the unknown fate they both face. Sam Neill has fun as a psychotic money launderer.
For fans of: Goodfellas, Baby Driver, Locke
7. Limbo
Director: Ivan Sen
Streaming on: YouTube, Fetch TV, iTunes
A sun-bleached cold case mystery set in a dusty outback community with Simon Baker as a heroin-addled cop investigating a missing Aboriginal woman. Police indifference and entrenched apathy mean no one else in authority can be bothered to find out what happened, and it soon becomes clear that the grizzled locals harbour nasty secrets that expose the appalling brutality blighting the lives of the Indigenous population.
Baker, channelling Walter White in looks and manner, is mesmerising in a slow-burn, black and white character study of lost souls and hateful cruelty.
For fans of: The Dry, Mystery Road, The Stranger
6. Sweet As
Director: Jub Clerc
Streaming on: Prime, Apple TV+, Google Play
Authentic and life-affirming coming-of-ager about troubled Indigenous teen Murra (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) sent against her will on a photographic safari for wayward kids. Escaping her alcoholic mother for a few days shows her for the first time that there can be more to life than survival and fear.
First time writer-director Jub Clerc uses the girl’s camera as a portal to her new horizons as she experiences unfamiliar feelings of belonging and love. The plot template is nothing new, but strong performances and the stunning Pilbara backdrop combine to make her odyssey a charming one.
For fans of: The Year My Voice Broke, Samson & Delilah, The Fault in our Stars
5. Talk To Me
Directors: Danny and Michael Philippou
Streaming on: Apple TV+, Telstra TV, Fetch TV
The most successful Aussie picture at the domestic box office this year is the latest in a long and impressive line of low(ish)-budget, locally-made gorefests. This time the obligatory rabble of teenagers stumbles across a mummified hand harbouring an ancient evil keen to possess them.
Talk To Me takes a few too many of its 95 minutes to crank into gear, but the splatters, jump-scares and underlying dread deliver in spades. We’ll soon be handed a sequel, possibly involving another satanic body part.
For fans of: The Babadook, The Cabin in the Woods, The Loved Ones
4. OneFour: Against All Odds
Director: Gabriel Gasparinatos
Streaming on: Netflix
A heartfelt and important feature-length doco about the rise, fall and rise of Australia’s first drill rap stars and their struggles to escape poverty, crime and blatant police overreach.
OneFour emerged from the Pacific Islander community of Mount Druitt, NSW, the fury in their lyrics emanating from the entrenched racism and hopelessness faced in of one of Sydney’s most neglected neighbourhoods. Just as OneFour finally gain a foothold in the rap scene, the cynical cops plot their downfall by banning them from performing. Salvation comes from The Kid LAROI, but only through sleight of hand can OneFour actually make it onto stage with him.
A raw, unvarnished look into one of the country’s most talked-about, vilified and courageous music groups.
For fans of: Notorious, Straight Outta Compton, All Eyez On Me
3. Of An Age
Director: Goran Stolevski
Streaming on: Prime, Apple TV+, YouTube
Affecting and beautifully played queer romance with two strangers thrown together on a chaotic car journey to get to a dance competition. Kol (Elias Anton) has to rescue his scatty dance partner to make the contest and enlists her brother Adam (Thom Green) to drive them.
Narratively light and slow-paced enough to be touching and sometimes heartbreaking, this is a hugely rewarding follow up to Stolevski’s equally breathtaking horror fantasy You Won’t Be Alone.
For fans of: God’s Own Country, Bros and Love, Simon
2. The Royal Hotel
Director: Kitty Green
Streaming on: Google Play, Prime
In this dazzling entry into the outback terror genre from Kitty Green, two US backpackers working at a remote hotel gradually realise the danger they’re in when the alcoholic regulars begin to show their true colours.
- READ MORE: Kitty Green makes films that fight back: “Being abducted was terrifying, but it didn’t stop me”
It’s a riveting dissection of feral misogyny framed within the claustrophobia of a vast, inescapable landscape. Green builds up the tension slowly before executing an immaculately plotted, frenzied climax which, in truth, ends a little too abruptly.
For fans of: Wolf Creek, Wake in Fright, Hotel Coolgardie
1. Shayda
Director: Noora Niasari
An immersive and intimate study of an Iranian immigrant raising her daughter in a women’s shelter after her cruel husband attempts to flee the country with her. Based on a true story, it’s Australia’s entry to the Best International Film at the Oscars and deservedly won an audience award at Sundance.
Zar Amir Ebrahimi articulates the despair, loneliness and unbreakable motherly love in a spellbinding performance, ably supported by Delina Zahednia as her traumatised six-year-old.
An ultimately uplifting tale that’s tenderly shot, subtly scripted and all too relevant to every sector of Australian society.
For fans of: Dangerous Intentions, Not Without My Daughter, A Vigilante