Australian Outlaws = Right Wing Conspiracy Theorists

True History of the Kelly Gang is a pretty-looking violent mess of a film that has absolutely no through-line to it. It's a kind of rambling tale jumping from one unmotivated act of violence to the next. At the film's center is the emptiness and abuse of Ned Kelly's mother, who treats her child terribly, abusing him endlessly until he loves her (as the film itself tells us) for those moments when she isn't abusing him.

Justin Kurzel knows how to make a movie stylish, and this has lots of beautiful shots of the Outback. It also has a superb cast, with Russell Crowe and Charlie Hunnam and Nicholas Hoult. George McKay, who I love, is less effective here – he mostly just acts confused. Worse yet is the film's odd celebration of Australia's version of entitled Trump voters. At the end, when Kelly tells us that he's been wronged since he was young and only wanted to live and get something for himself, it was clear to me that the person who created this man's misery was his mother. I am not sure that this is quite clear to the filmmakers, but the film itself tells this story quite clearly, even if the rest of the film is a jumbled mess.

That Kurzel's most recent film was Macbeth is, I think, no small hint to how he understands Ned Kelly's mum.

I watched this on DVD – not sure where it's available to stream, but you don't want to stream this anyway.

Snowtown a/k/a The Snowtown Murders

This is a grisly Australian serial-killer film. This might actually have been too fucked up even for me. Also, I was troubled by the film's gaze, which was... intrigued by its main character, a bit like Tony Kaye's point of view in American History X, a film with which Snowtown actually has much in common. The film actually agreed with the serial killer at the film's center, at least for much of its length. And I am not sure I understand or appreciate this kind of gaze. I did think the young actor at the film's center (not the serial killer), Lucas Pittaway, was interesting to watch, and I can see why filmmaker Justin Kurzel was interested in him, as well. But the film just doesn't have much to say, after all, shocking and surprising though it is.