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 RockVOD (3)
Plots(1)
Hoping for much-needed stability and security in their lives, embattled mother Elizabeth (Louise Harris) and her three sons take up with John, the self-appointed moral compass of a vigilante neighborhood watch group. John's charismatic nature causes 16-year-old Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) to view the older man as a role model, and the two quickly strike up a bond. But when John introduces Jamie to his disturbing ideas of administering justice, the impressionable youth is confronted with a father figure who may be the most vicious predator he's encountered yet. (official distributor synopsis)
(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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