101 great and very good Australian films

[Bored of Canada]

I don't particularly rate Romper Stomper, unfortunately. Despite the Melbourne connection and the really intriguing subject matter. I think Russell Crowe gives a commanding performance in the film and it starts in a fairly good way, but it really has not aged well whatsoever. It feels very 80's, but in the worst way. It's just a disappointing film for me. If I'd seen it when it first came out, I'd probably feel differently, but I wouldn't recommend it to people who've not seen it. It's just not very good, really. I've not seen it in a year or so, and since I didn't rate it, I've forgotten a lot of my complaints so I'm not really able to elaborate and defend this position as much as I could.
I just didn't like the film, unfortunately. 

[Small Man Big Horse]

Hey, we all have busy lives so no worries.

I just downloaded a quite horribly low-res copy of that a few weeks ago. It has Noah Taylor in it, who I think has wonderful screen presence. Why do you like it?

I haven't seen it in about twenty years (which is quite frankly terrifying to think about), but I remember it to be a very touching and thoughtful take on the crazy old times that are your teenage years. Taylor is especially fantastic in it, and it's always frustrated me a little that he's not had more leading roles - especially after Max, in which he plays a young Adolf Hitler to startling effect.

The sequel (to TYMVB), Flirting, is great too, and on youtube in full: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBjpJGSsSIc

[SteveDave]

The Magician

Bluddy brilliant mock documentary about an Australian hit man. Written, directed & starring Scott Ryan (or Ryan Scott) it's a masterpiece. Very Kevin Smith like in the dialogue. Take that as you will.

[Glebe]

Look at these magnificent shots from, what is essential, a killer pig film:

Indeed, director Russell Mulcahy was a music video supremo before moving to the big screen, and of course hit the big time with Highlander.

[Nobody Soup]

there is a really obvious one that is one of my favourite films ever but I'll wait.

so yeah, if razor back is in The Loved Ones, this film outlasted the godfather, back to the future, old boy and elf on our virgin box. It was with a heavy heart we switched to a new contract and box thus losing it. It is an utterly bat shit horror film. it's the texas chain saw massacre but combined with a ridiculous teen movie, it's horrible but doesn't take itself too seriously either. I'm not big on horror but I laughed and went "fucking hell" several times throughout it. I'm not suggesting it because it's such an odd ball weird film, I think most people would really enjoy it.

[Bored of Canada]

there is a really obvious one that is one of my favourite films ever but I'll wait.

so yeah, if razor back is in The Loved Ones, this film outlasted the godfather, back to the future, old boy and elf on our virgin box. It was with a heavy heart we switched to a new contract and box thus losing it. It is an utterly bat shit horror film. it's the texas chain saw massacre but combined with a ridiculous teen movie, it's horrible but doesn't take itself too seriously either. I'm not big on horror but I laughed and went "fucking hell" several times throughout it. I'm not suggesting it because it's such an odd ball weird film, I think most people would really enjoy it.

Great suggestion! Loved Ones is absolutely brilliant. It's self-aware and above all else, hugely fun and enjoyable. Horrifying, tense but also hugely laugh out loud funny. It knows exactly what it is and just runs with it. Absolutely refreshing horror film.

there is a really obvious one that is one of my favourite films ever but I'll wait.

[Moribunderast]

Yeah, Loved Ones is a beaut. A couple of years ago I was with my family on Christmas night and we all sat around the telly watching it - lovely times. Though my mother retreated to do some cleaning once it got properly violent.

Samson and Delilah - an absolutely hypnotic film about aboriginal life in the less-populated, oft-forgotten areas of Australia. The two leads are absolutely brilliant, their performances relying mostly on subtle physicality and nuanced portrayals of emotion. Dialogue is very sparse. The atmosphere, setting and characters are so honest and confronting - it's a film that documents a segment of Australian society for which there are a multitude of problems and no easy solutions. On top of that, it's a sweet love story. I'm someone who has a hard time with a lot of modern Australian cinema (given that it seems every 2nd film is about star-crossed junkie lovers and the heroin is just a metaphor for how love is a harmful addiction, maaan.) but this film took my breath away when I saw it. Truly beautiful.

Meredith Music Festival: A Weekend In The Country - this a lovely little documentary about one of Australia's best music festivals. From it's humble beginnings as a party on a farm to it's status twenty years later as 3-day camping and alternative music extravaganza. As someone whose been to the festival many times, I found it really interesting and fun just to see the evolution of the event. It's a qunitessentially Australian event, particularly in it's early stages - just pub-and-rock-loving people getting together to party. This is a short snippet from the film, featuring a buddy of mine threatening a rat and the security of the festival discussing their unique way of keeping the money safe.

[Johnny Townmouse]

there is a really obvious one that is one of my favourite films ever but I'll wait.

I have about four other biggy faves that I am holding off on nominating in case someone else wants to. I guess including New Zealand would also uncover half a dozen or so other greats.

so yeah, if razor back is in The Loved Ones, this film outlasted the godfather, back to the future, old boy and elf on our virgin box. It was with a heavy heart we switched to a new contract and box thus losing it. It is an utterly bat shit horror film. it's the texas chain saw massacre but combined with a ridiculous teen movie, it's horrible but doesn't take itself too seriously either. I'm not big on horror but I laughed and went "fucking hell" several times throughout it. I'm not suggesting it because it's such an odd ball weird film, I think most people would really enjoy it.

Yes, very enjoyable indeed, and a film in which the explicitness of the gore kind of sneaks up on you.

[leighhart]

BMX bandits is the best Australian film ever made

[Bored of Canada]

Once Were Warriors is the best Australian film ever made.

[Small Man Big Horse]

BMX bandits is the best Australian film ever made

I saw that at the cinema! I remember quite enjoying it, but then I was only seven or eight at the time and wasn't the most critical of film viewers back then...

[Johnny Townmouse]

83?

83. Harvie Krumpet (2003)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382734/?ref_=nm_knf_i2



I think you either really like Adam Elliott's style, or it just doesn't click, and I know plenty who do not take to his stop-frame, claymation style of animation, or his rather sombre and weird view of the world. I suppose what connects his films are outsider characters, often with conditions such as asperger's or tourettes. I think he does this with a great deal of sensitivity, humour and unpatronising attention to detail about the minutiae of how conditions can make us act. Oscar winning Harvie Krumpet (short animated film, 2004) deals with tourettes in a very interesting way, as we spend time with an eccentric, odd and deeply lovable character as he makes his way through the world. What marks this, and indeed all of his films, is that they manage to be both unsentimental and moving in equal measure - any sense of romanticisation of his condition is tempered with a really dour tone, a monosyllabic voice-over, and some really unpleasant events that befall him. Harvie keeps a book of 'Fakts' around his neck that provide some of the best moments in the film.


82. Mary and Max (2009)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1



So, after winning the Oscar for his short, a larger budget feature was the obvious outcome for Elliott, and Mary and Max is, thankfully, a huge triumph and distillation of all his themes into one magnificent film. There is a lot to love here - the washed out, almost black-and-white texture with spots of colour, mainly red, that burst out at you. The animation is smoother than his previous shorts, the sets are larger and more sumptuous, and the breadth of the storytelling is expanded.

If you haven't seen it, and you really should have, the story concerns a young, lonely girl Mary (voiced by Toni Collette) who strikes up a random pen pal relationship with much older Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an obese New Yorker with a variety of issues, including asperger's syndrome. Their 20-year pen-pal relationship offers the film the opportunity to show how their lives are lived, and also how they ironically diverge from the reality of what we see. Mary has an unpleasant homelife, and lives through fantasy and then as she gets older, she tries to have a relationship, whilst Max attempts to control his weight and stay out of mental homes.

It's hard to communicate how adorable and moving this film manages to be, but also how evocative Elliott's style is - giving the film a quirky quality that never spills into zany or annoyingly surreal. The real star of this film to my mind is Hoffman who pulls off I would regard as one of his top three performances in anything - it is a brilliant owning of a character, with his thick NY accent and his monotone way of talking. If I say "Mary Daisy Dinkle" like Hoffman does it is very satisfying, and I do - often.

As my posts attest, there are very few films that I think are suitable for a whole family that I like (E.T., Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Where the Wild Things Are), but this is the sort of film I want to sit down with on Boxing Day with my family to enjoy and have a sniffle over.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ooh, good call on Mary and Max, it truly is a quite beautiful film.

[zomgmouse]

I don't particularly rate Romper Stomper, unfortunately. Despite the Melbourne connection and the really intriguing subject matter. I think Russell Crowe gives a commanding performance in the film and it starts in a fairly good way, but it really has not aged well whatsoever. It feels very 80's, but in the worst way. It's just a disappointing film for me. If I'd seen it when it first came out, I'd probably feel differently, but I wouldn't recommend it to people who've not seen it. It's just not very good, really. I've not seen it in a year or so, and since I didn't rate it, I've forgotten a lot of my complaints so I'm not really able to elaborate and defend this position as much as I could.
I just didn't like the film, unfortunately.

I'd be interested to know why - I also saw it about a year ago, and it really hit me.

[Small Man Big Horse]

there is a really obvious one that is one of my favourite films ever but I'll wait.

so yeah, if razor back is in The Loved Ones, this film outlasted the godfather, back to the future, old boy and elf on our virgin box. It was with a heavy heart we switched to a new contract and box thus losing it. It is an utterly bat shit horror film. it's the texas chain saw massacre but combined with a ridiculous teen movie, it's horrible but doesn't take itself too seriously either. I'm not big on horror but I laughed and went "fucking hell" several times throughout it. I'm not suggesting it because it's such an odd ball weird film, I think most people would really enjoy it.

Thanks for the recommendation, I watched this last night and loved it, it's rare for a horror film to get to me but there were a few occasions where I had my fist in my mouth, and was cringing at how horrific it all was. My only complaint is that at the end

Spoiler alert

of the film you didn't see them run her over twenty or so times, just to make sure she was really dead / satisfy my revenge fantasies!

[close]

[Bored of Canada]

Thanks for the recommendation, I watched this last night and loved it, it's rare for a horror film to get to me but there were a few occasions where I had my fist in my mouth, and was cringing at how horrific it all was. My only complaint is that at the end

Spoiler alert

of the film you didn't see them run her over twenty or so times, just to make sure she was really dead / satisfy my revenge fantasies!

[close]

I have a lot of love for it just on the basis that it did the same thing to Kasey Chambers that Silence of the Lambs did for Goodbye Horses.
I just remembered how it has that inexplicable Superbad-esque subplot running through the entire film, cut alongside the absolutely fucked up, but still somehow really funny, tense and compelling horror plot.

Not a criticism. It worked for me as a whole package, but it's definitely a pretty unique kind of film. Really enjoyed it.

[mothman]

I'm a big fan of Aussie New Wave films, so I hope Picnic At Hanging Rock and Walkabout (though being Roeg's, I don't know if this latter qualifies) feature; however I'd like to nominate Breaker Morant as my personal favourite. A rather bleak subject matter, distinct anti-Imperial (if not anti-British) slant, but beautifully filmed. And to me Edward "can't act for toffee" Woodward's best performance.

[checkoutgirl]

For my favourite Australian films I'd nominate

Strictly Ballroom (1992)

Okay it's about dancing and it's directed by Baz Lurhmann but there's plenty of decent quality humour in it and it was made before Lurhmann disappeared up his own arse when he still had a sense of humour. Has plenty of what the Americans call 'heart' but what I would call charm. Great ending.

Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988)

Unusual and kind of bleak film about an experimental prison in the middle of nowhere. Interesting little film with a turn by Nick Cave as a particularly anti social inmate. Definitely worth a look.

Idiot Box (1996)

Funny little crime caper comedy about 2 lads on the dole who are planning on robbing a bank instead of getting a job. Love interest, heist, fairly standard plot but with enough ozzy charm to make it worth a look.

Chopper (2000)

Excellent biopic of a right ruffian. Committed method performance from the twinkly and never better Bana.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

Well now, cracking stuff from Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving as 3 drag queens on a classic introspective and outrospective road trip. My favourite scene is the drinking competition. Excellent stuff.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

A classic dystopian masterpiece. Great fun all round and an appearance by Tina Turner "Well, ain't we a pair, raggedy man". It's got charm, suspense, thrills and spills. Highly recommended and way better that the other Mad Max films which I found a little bleak and lifeless.

[checkoutgirl]

I watched Romper Stomper in the late 1990s and couldn't see what all the fuss was about because it was recommended to me.

[Nobody Soup]

Chopper (2000)

Excellent biopic of a right ruffian. Committed method performance from the twinkly and never better Bana.

This was what I held off mentioning earlier. I love chopper, I will probably get laughed at for this but I honestly think Eric Bana's performance in it is probably among the best in modern cinema. Keithy seems to have done himself a mischief.

[checkoutgirl]

This was what I held off mentioning earlier. I love chopper, I will probably get laughed at for this but I honestly think Eric Bana's performance in it is probably among the best in modern cinema. Keithy seems to have done himself a mischief.

"Are you having a whinge Nev. Why should I call him an ambulance? It defeats the purpose of shooting him in the first place"

Chopper: "Look, you're not still angry at me about the leg, are you?"
Neville:    "Nah, forget about it".
Chopper: "Because I don't know if you remember, Neville, but I had that bloody shotgun pointed at your head. I reconsidered and dropped it down to your kneecap. Remember?"


A great film with some excellent dialogue, half of which was probably said in real life situations. They should give the film an award. And Eric Bana is proper fantastic in it.

[checkoutgirl]

Chopper - "Who have you been screwin' "

Tanya -    "Everyone Chopper I work in a brothel"

[checkoutgirl]

Chopper - "Jimmy, if you keep stabbing me, you're going to kill me".

[NoSleep]

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

A classic dystopian masterpiece. Great fun all round and an appearance by Tina Turner "Well, ain't we a pair, raggedy man". It's got charm, suspense, thrills and spills. Highly recommended and way better that the other Mad Max films which I found a little bleak and lifeless.

Not having that. Mad Max II: The Road Warrior is the one; mythic mayhem. Hell, the oil tanker chase managed to outdo the vehicle chase in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, released the same year.

"Just walk away."

[Feralkid]

Predictably, given that my name here references one of his movies, I think I'll have to just go to bat for Mad Max director George Miller in general. He is perhaps the most under-rated director in cinema.

I love the Mad Max films and have always admired how each is very much its own thing. The original is a bleak dystopian revenge movie with hints of JG Ballard and an ending which leaves the hero utterly broken and dehumanised. Revenge movies normally suggest that gaining vengeance is a glorious act which restores the soul and corrects an upended universe. Not this one though.

Mad Max 2 ups the ante in terms of vehicular carnage and cannily repositions Max as a wandering samurai type in a mythically over the top post-apocalypse. There's more wit than the original and structurally it's a much tighter and more satisfying narrative. In terms of film-making there's so much to admire. The nutso-cuckoo design work, the extraordinary stunts and Miller's gleefully inventive use of film grammar. That opening montage is brilliantly edited, the deliberate shift of aspect ratios as the story proper begins is a great tactic and there all manner of odd little touches. I've always liked that single subliminal frame of white he slips into the moment where Vernon Wells headbutts someone into the next world.

Thunderdome is as different from MM2 as it was from the original. It gets a lot of criticism from fans of part 2 who'd have preferred a tonal reprise of that movie but I've always admired the way it opts for a different approach. The fact that it's first order of business is to make the Road Warrior a pedestrian with mismatched footwear is a pretty droll notion. The action scenes are great, the Thunderdome of the title is a fantastic idea, Bartertown is marvellous to behold and there are some great performances and lots of very quotable dialogue. I also like the fact that it provides a sense of closure to Max as a character. In the original he becomes dehumanised. In the first sequel he's tricked into making a sacrifice for others and a glimmer of that lost humanity emerges. Here the conclusion finds him restored. He knowingly chooses what looks like certain death so that others might survive.

There's   

[Jawaka]

You wouldn't think it from the poster but Muriels Wedding is pretty good. More a drama than a comedy, Muriel attempts to make her dreams come true with the help of a blank cheque and her friend Rhonda.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I have a lot of time for Muriel's Wedding. It is definitely a really smart and enjoyable flick that pisses over films usually 'made for women'. It yas a dark underbelly and managed to move me a lot. The back break scene is quite brilliant.

Mad Max is mentioned at last! The first and second films are great for different reasons. The first is very bleak, but suffers from possibly the worst music score I've ever heard (although Gravity is a close second). Both films have baddies that are waaaay too broad, but there is no doubt they are very entertaining. The sort of films that come on tv and you just want to watch a couple of minutes, and then watch the whole thing.

[Buelligan]

Lots of great films already recommended.  Can I suggest The Hard Word?  A caper movie with Guy Pearce, it's not perfect but it is good.  And how about Rabbit Proof Fence?  Both worth a watch in my opinion.

[stunted]

Just watched Wake in Fright off the back of this thread and really enjoyed it. Tense throughout and some of the scenes completely wrong-foot you. Interesting seeing how vulnerable we all are to complete loss of control.

Spoiler alert

Found it strange that I was urging John Grant not to get more drunk in an unfamiliar environment with complete strangers yet me and thousands of other people will have been in similar states due to alcohol and substances with casual acquaintances and complete strangers in the past and will be again in the future.

[close]

Looking forward to watching The Castle and Razorback in the near future.

[Feralkid]

I've mentioned George Miller already and I'm sure his Mad Max films will be getting lots of attention in 18 months when his long gestating reboot/sequel Mad Max: Fury Road finally hits the multiplexes. His talking pig movies Babe and Babe: Pig In The City seem to have fallen down the memory hole, which is a shame indeed.

The original is lovely, a charming family film with wit and invention bursting from every frame. I'm particularly fond of how it uses voice-over. That opening scene of the Pigs in the factory farm is a text book example of smart exposition. The voice over tells us that the porcine critters believe that they need to grow fat quickly so they'll be spirited away to "Pig Paradise, a place so perfect no pig had ever thought to return from it." The images we see undercut that belief but the film lets us assemble the pieces ourselves. We learn from the two sources of information what the pigs believe and see that their belief is erroneous. 

Anyhow Babe is splendid but it's its sequel which really merits discussion. An insanely expensive flop in its day which appalled audiences expecting a reprise of the original it now feels strangely ahead of the curve. The tone is dark, with Babe and his animal friends in peril throughout but with that darkness comes a genuine sense of jeopardy and a real feeling of triumph when the pig finally comes through. It's rather Roahl Dahl to be honest.
And visually it's jaw-dropping, the city of the title combining bits of all the planet's most famous burghs. It's an achievement on a par with Blade Runner or Brazil.

I also recommend Road Games - a nifty Hitchcockian thriller which is essentially Rear Window as a road movie. Annoyingly the current DVD of it fecks up the aspect ratio by cropping the image severely but is a marvellous film. Director Richard Franklin actually studied under Hitchcock when the Master of Suspense did some teaching at USC, an experience which also informed his next gig, the surprisingly good Psycho II.