There’s a bit of a buzz about Aussie cinema at the moment, a sense that we may be in the early stages of a resurgence after years in the wilderness. This may or may not be the case. A lot of the optimism is doubtless attributable to influential At The Movies duo David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz, who have bestowed rave reviews on several 2009 Australian releases – Samson and Delilah, My Year Without Sex and Last Ride – and smiled benevolently upon others such as the Perth-based production Two Fists, One Heart (which I also reviewed favourably – see here).
I await with interest The Duo’s appraisal of new South Australian release Lucky Country. Not that I take much notice of dear old David and Margaret – on the contrary. My interest here is in whether they join the gaggle of online critics gushing with praise for this antipodean Western, which in my view is a barker through and through. I suspect there’s an optimism virus infecting those aboard the Aussie-cinema-resurgence bandwagon. I’m curious as to whether the two senior drivers of the wagon exhibit the shit-detector-failure symptoms of their passengers. Continue reading Lucky Country – Movie Review