The Best (And Most Underseen) Australian Films of 2014
Forget the kitchen-sink drama stereotype; 2014 was Australia’s year of genre films. Here's some you might have missed.
The Rover, dir. David Michôd
I’ll be frank – this film hasn’t stood the test of time in the six months since it opened the Sydney Film Festival. David Michôd’s second feature burned up a lot of the hype and goodwill that followed his frighteningly accomplished debut Animal Kingdom. By contrast, The Rover is a slight movie – an overextended version of the short films that members of the Blue-Tongue Films collective have excelled at in the past.
But The Rover mesmerised me, and Guy Pearce’s performance killed me. Michôd gets bleakness. I watched this in Los Angeles, where the dead midday pollution and endless highways made the film seem more realistic than apocalyptic. It rang true, and enthralled me for all its hundred and three minutes. And that’s why I go to the cinema.
It helped me understand Animal Kingdom better, too – in The Rover’s wake, Michôd’s debut showed itself as a stealthily dystopian film about the tragic realities of present-day, pre-collapse late capitalism.
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Or try: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981)