***2014 RECAP*** MOVIE REVIEW | The Rover (2014)

“You don’t learn to fight, your death’s gonna come real soon”.

To make a movie in Australia, any movie, is a pretty big and rare achievement. There just isn’t a lot of money floating around, or massive studio system to fund them. To make a movie in Australia that gets noticed by a mainstream audience locally, or especially in America, is an even bigger achievement. To be an Australian whose debut movie gets Oscar attention is all but unheard of. Which is why David Michod’s follow up to Animal Kingdom has been one of the movies I’ve looked forward to in 2014. Which is also why I’ve really been wanting The Rover to be awesome

Opening “10 years after the collapse” on the dusty, desert roads of outback Australia, “the collapse” never gets any more explanation, but this is some destruction of civilisation type shit we’re dealing with here. Stopping at a ramshackle bar, Eric (Guy Pearce) is complacent enough to have his car stolen by three dudes obviously on the run from something. Their cryptic, panic fuelled conversation lets us know that their current predicament has something to do with one of the three, Scoot McNairy as Henry, and his absent brother.

MOVIE REVIEW | Animal Kingdom (2010)

“You know what the bush is about? It’s about massive trees that have been standing there for thousands of years… And bugs that’ll be dead before the minute’s out. It’s big trees and pissy little bugs. And everything knows its place in the scheme of things.”

As far as feature film debuts go, you could a lot worse than writer / director David Michod. When I wrote about The Rover, his second movie, I had to set it in context with his freshman effort, Animal Kingdom. I said, “To be an Australian whose debut movie gets Oscar attention is all but unheard of.” While I’d seen Animal Kingdom when it first came out and while I really liked it, I never felt compelled to see it again. But when I was recently on a plane and saw it on the in the in-flight entertainment, and having also just seen and loved The Rover a few weeks prior, I had to revisit Animal Kingdom.

Josh “J” (James Frecheville) is sitting on the couch next to his dead mother, watching Deal or No Deal.   When the paramedics arrive, we learn she’s died of a heroin overdose. Alone, J resorts to calling his estranged grandmother (Jacki Weaver in her Oscar nominated role as Janine ”Smurf” Cody). Soon, J is brought into her fold, along with his several bank robbing uncles. There’s Joel Edgerton as the cool headed Barry, Sullivan Stapleton as the cocaine fuelled loose cannon Craig, Luke Ford as the fresh faced, Darren, and Ben Mendelsohn as the sociopathic Andrew, AKA “Pope”.

MOVIE REVIEW | The Rover (2014)

“You don’t learn to fight, your death’s gonna come real soon”.

To make a movie in Australia, any movie, is a pretty big and rare achievement. There just isn’t a lot of money floating around, or massive studio system to fund them. To make a movie in Australia that gets noticed by a mainstream audience locally, or especially in America, is an even bigger achievement. To be an Australian whose debut movie gets Oscar attention is all but unheard of. Which is why David Michod’s follow up to Animal Kingdom has been one of the movies I’ve looked forward to in 2014. Which is also why I’ve really been wanting The Rover to be awesome

Opening “10 years after the collapse” on the dusty, desert roads of outback Australia, “the collapse” never gets any more explanation, but this is some destruction of civilisation type shit we’re dealing with here. Stopping at a ramshackle bar, Eric (Guy Pearce) is complacent enough to have his car stolen by three dudes obviously on the run from something. Their cryptic, panic fuelled conversation lets us know that their current predicament has something to do with one of the three, Scoot McNairy as Henry, and his absent brother.