Heroes & myth
Two opposing styles deliver heroes and antiheroes, myth and legend, one drawn from our own outlaw history, the other from an imagined elf-world lined with the Pixar team’s own memories.
Despite its title, and Australian as director Justin Kurzel and screenwriter Shaun Grant may be, ‘True History Of The Kelly Gang’ warns early on that “nothing you are about to see is true”, setting the agenda for a forthright shake-up of historical tradition. Kruzel pins himself to that promise with punk-literate purpose in his fierce fractured take on Australian outlaw legend. Rediscovering the psychopathological clout of ‘Snowtown’ and ‘Macbeth’ after ‘Assassin’s Creed’, Kurzel tackles the Kelly story with the energy of a director confident to punch his weight, pummelling an oft-told tale into new shapes.
Previous treatments were not so bold. While ‘Story Of The Kelly Gang’ (1906) made cinema history, a 1970 star vehicle muffled Mick Jagger’s charisma. In 2003’s retelling, Heath Ledger’s punk-clown potential quickly vanished amid blandly romanticised myth-making.
But working from Grant’s savvy riff on Peter Carey’s 2000 novel, Kurzel vigorously deconstructs such clichés. Played by Orlando Schwerdt as an achingly innocent kid and a ripped ferrety George MacKay as an Iggy Pop-circa-1973 adult, this Kelly is neither antihero nor villain, but a reactive blank slate, scrawled on by chafing forces. Family, class, history, environment and toxic father figures mount against him, forging Kelly as a cracked composite of guilt, anger, frustration: divisive as a myth, splintered as a man.
Crucially, Kurzel brings his themes of dismantled masculinity/ myth to sizzling life in action. The period vernacular mirrors the scorched-earth landscapes Kelly crosses, knotty and gnarled. Likewise, the cast tackle twisted roles brazenly. Nicholas Hoult makes louche work of a sadistic constable; Russell Crowe rediscovers his outsized form as a foul-mouthed outlaw with loose ideas about the morals of under-age drinking; and Essie Davis oozes feral intensity as the mother who sets and warps — Oedipal issues simmer — Ned’s tragic trajectory. Fine work also comes from Earl Cave as Ned’s younger brother, Dan (the son of Nick Cave, he’s no stranger to stormy Australian-outlaw drama).
Jed Kurzel’s brooding score emphasises the sense of a pressurised period portrait, strings straining like the landscape’s wind-whipped trees. Meanwhile, DoP Ari Wegner’s images draw elemental expressive force from those settings, before unleashing hell for the strobe-lashed climax. The hallucinatory pitch is diluted by a speech and an exchange with a teacher; both perhaps overstress the problems involved in recounting tussled-over history. ‘True History Of The Kelly Gang’ has already landed that point, sometimes with the wallop of unvarnished truth, sometimes with historical liberties that dive for deeper psychological truths. Either way, Kurzel is back in volatile contention here. That much is true.
Elf discovery
It’s no surprise to find that Pixar’s idea of epic fantasy is different to everyone else’s. Magic, a smorgasbord of mythical creatures and a quest to recover a mystical MacGuffin are — inevitably — all on the menu here. But by setting them against a contemporary American backdrop, ‘Onward’ puts a fresh spin on hackneyed old tropes.
In a fantasy world where modern technology has consigned magic to history, elf brothers Ian and Barley (voiced by MCU regulars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) set off on a road trip to recover a gem that can temporarily resurrect their late dad. Along the way they cross paths with a gang of angry biker sprites and a manticore who’s regretting her life choices, all while using a Dungeons & Dragons-type board game to guide them — nobody could claim ‘Onward’ isn’t proud to show off its influences.
But for all the invention, humour and strength of the closing, this isn’t vintage Pixar. The brothers never quite gel as one of the studio’s great double acts, while their journey of self-discovery feels like Coming-of-Age Movie 101. Luckily, that exciting, emotional last act rides to the rescue with some unexpected twists to prove that the old Pixar magic isn’t a thing of the past.
This leapt unexpectedly onto many screens thanks to its early appearance on the Disney+ streaming channel, a service which bundles in extras just like nearly all its rivals don’t. While the DVD just has a commentary from director and producer, the streaming service and Blu-ray release offer plenty more, with six deleted scenes and six featurettes delivering 65 minutes of additional material, the highlight perhaps being ‘Quest For Story’ (nine minutes), in which Scanlon discusses the story’s origins and how the father resurrection motif evolved from the story of Dan Scalon’s own father’s passing when he was one-year-old.