Blueback (2023) - Movie Review

I haven't had the best luck with Tim Winton. I’ll admit that I haven’t read any of his books (far as I can remember, at any rate), and while I do like to highlight local talent in these reviews, the last two films I’ve looked at based on his work were differing kinds of “really not my thing”. With Breath, it was the jarring and rather unsettling exploration of sexuality, specifically between an underaged boy and a grown-ass woman, which just left a bad taste in my mouth. And with Dirt Music, I didn’t even get that much taste, despite it looking rather nice. Thankfully, this doesn’t feel as gross to watch as Breath… but unfortunately, that means it leans more into the Dirt Music side of things.

Girl At The Window (2022) - Movie Review

 

Studying a thing and being able to do that thing aren’t the same. As much as the phrase “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” genuinely annoys me for how condescending it is, and admittedly some of that may be insecurity about my own lot in life commenting on the work of others for fun and profit, there is some degree of truth to it. And that seems to be the case for Aussie director Mark Hartley here. The man has put a lot of effort into documenting the history of exploitation cinema, both here and abroad, to the point where his film Not Quite Hollywood is what originally coined the term ‘Ozploitation’. Between that and his documentary on the history of Cannon Films, Electric Boogaloo, the man seems to know his stuff. But looking at his own attempt to add to the tradition of Ozploitation cinema, he doesn’t seem able to apply much of it.