Directed by:
Justin KurzelScreenplay:
Shaun GrantCinematography:
Adam ArkapawComposer:
Jed KurzelCast:
Lucas Pittaway, Bob Adriaens, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris, Frank Cwiertniak, Anthony Groves, Richard Green, Brendan RockPlots(1)
When 16 year-old Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) is introduced to a charismatic man, a friendship begins. As the relationship grows so do Jamie’s suspicions, until he finds his world threatened by both his loyalty for, and fear of his newfound father figure, John Bunting (Daniel Henshall): Australia’s most notorious serial killer. (101 Films)
(more)Reviews (3)
A sad ballad from an Australian redneck town and a maximum physical experience. Kurzel refuses any empathy and gets under your skin with the vigor of an unsharpened axe. In a long, hard, and painful way. The impossibility to find a piece of humanity in this panopticon is literally palpable, and so it burns in your throat with the same force as a mash of kangaroo guts on the couch. 4 ½.
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I expected an atmospheric movie with a story I probably won’t forget anytime soon. I got an idiotic demagogue, whom I would have sent to hell right away without even as much as looking at him. But the boy couldn’t do that and he made an ass of himself.
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Disciplined exercises in pauses, ellipses and hidden brutality, which Kurzel pours on the confused viewer, with everything that it encompasses, after about an hour and a quarter. An extremely uncomfortable and demanding spectator experience, and a psychological thriller without the possibility of empathy. This is the only way to authentically capture the world of a Bunting-caliber psychopath.
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