Film magic across the ditch
You’re not going anywhere but you can still travel with movies on streaming services – a good film can move you through the ages, across maps and into deeply held emotions. While only a fraction of our trans-Tasman neighbour’s cinematic history is available to stream, there’s still enough of a selection that, whatever your mood, you can have a suitable Australian movie marathon.
Oddball (Netflix): In a Victorian seaside town lives a maremma sheepdog named Oddball, a local nuisance trained to protect the dwindling population of fairy penguins from marauding foxes. Stuart McDonald’s film is sweet, but full of genuine emotional stakes for the dog’s 9-year-old trainer Olivia (Coco Jack Gillies), who has a mother (Sarah Snook) with an American boyfriend (Alan Tudyk) and a reassuring granddad (Shane Jacobson).
Paper Planes (Netflix): Film-maker Robert Connolly brought the skill he’d applied to adult fare such as The Bank and Balibo to this bright, pleasing adventure about an 11-year-old (Ed Oxenbould) whose paper-plane skills take him from the Outback to Tokyo. There’s fun, a focus on creativity, and an acknowledgment of personal duress.
Storm Boy (Amazon): Henri Safran’s muchloved original 1976 adaptation of Colin Thiele’s novel about a boy (Greg Rowe) living in isolation with his father (Peter Cummins), who raises a wounded pelican that won’t leave him, is a comingof-age classic. Shot with a vivid feel for the landscape, and spotlighting a memorable supporting turn from David Gulpilil, it shows how you have to let go of what you love.
Death in Brunswick (Amazon): This black comedy from 1990, set in Melbourne’s innernorthern suburbs, has a terrific Kiwi double act: Sam Neill as in-over-his-head chef Carl and John Clarke as his laconic gravedigger mate Dave. The latter comes to the former’s aid when Carl’s bumbling romantic interest in barmaid Sophie (Zoe Carides) leads to an inadvertent death and a gang war. It’s offbeat, macabre and deceptively funny.
Don’s Party (Amazon): Set on election night in 1969, when Gough Whitlam’s Labor Party would fall short, Bruce Beresford’s 1976 film of David Williamson’s play has a crackling, sardonic wit, still timely social issues, and a cast that lifts the dialogue out of the stage setting.
Muriel’s Wedding (Lightbox): Writer/director P J Hogan turned the romantic comedy inside out with this tale of the titular eccentric loner (Toni