Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Helio This movie was a pleasant surprise providing insights and realism of aborigines life and treatment. The musical numbers were quirky and entertaining. The two minute dance scene near the beginning, starting at 04:00 minutes to 06:00 minutes, is amazingly fantastic. I have watched it dozens of times. The camera work, the editing, the characters all combine to make a mesmerizing sequence. The characters seem like you could find them there today if you went to Broome, Western Australia, right down to the white folk sitting around in the periphery. And it looks like Jimmy Chi himself (author of the musical) is right up on stage playing with the band the Kuckles.

Robyn Daly Sadly, this film needs much tighter editing and better musical direction, also the dubbing and Foley are amateurish. There are some OK performances: Geoffrey Rush and Magda Szubanski are good (no surprise there), Ernie Dingo is charming (again, no surprise) and the scenery is terrific - this is a part of Australia that's not well-known yet is very photogenic. The songs are just OK, not fabulous but they serve the story, however the backing music is often jarring and like a 70's sitcom in its lack of subtlety. I think the musical has all kinds of potential as a film, but this version misses out. It's a shame, more attention to detail could have made this a real winner.

Likes_Ninjas90 This musical is set during the 1960s with an Aboriginal boy named Willie (Rocky McKenzie) living modestly with his mother in Broome. Willie's mother wants him to become a priest so that he will have a better life but he is more interested in pursuing a beautiful girl named Rosie (Jessica Mauboy). The day before Willie is sent to boarding school, he asks Rosie if he can see her at a movie but he fails to reach her in time and she is left with an aggressive white thug. Willie arrives at the boarding school in the city. It is run by Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush), who is inviting to Willie as he sees his potential for a greater future with the Church and names him as a prefect. Yet when Willie later admits to stealing he escapes from the boarding school and flees back to Broome to find Rosie. He enlists the help of Uncle Tadpole (Ernie Dingo), a hobo who says he is Wilile's uncle and they start a road trip together. Along the way they meet a number of wacky characters, including a German hippy and his girlfriend Annie (Missy Higgins)One of the most celebrated Australian films last year was Samson and Delilah. It was a gruelling and powerful representation of the living standards faced by Aboriginals in a desolate community in the Northern Territory. For some, the grittiness portrayed in Australian films like this has deterred them away from local films. Bran Nue Dae, directed by Rachel Perkins, is very much Samson and Delilah's antithesis, as this is a joyous and upbeat film, light on story and depth but soaring in its energy and its exuberance. The film is based on a stage play written by Jimmy Chi and regardless of setting the play or film in the 1960s, the messages are timeless. This is not just a musical but a coming of age story about a boy who must decide for himself what he is going to do with his life and embrace who he is, not what other people want him to be. A line from one of the films main songs reflects this: "There's nothing I would rather be, than to be an Aborigine". The narrative, from the love story, to the road trip, is certainly formulaic but there is no doubting that it is highly spirited and sometimes very sweet, played with humour and optimism for much of its duration. As a musical it succeeds because of a number of enjoyable toe-tapping songs, with some occasionally cheeky lyrics, and also more soulful ballads, which are surprisingly touching. This is a film that just about everyone can enjoy and there are few excuses now for anyone suggesting that Australian films are overly grim.One of the real assets to the film is the likability of the cast and the range of talent on display. Newcomer Rocky McKenzie is competent without being brilliant. The delivery of some of his lines might be a bit wooden, but at least he looks like a schoolboy and is a sympathetic lead. It is a promising debut for him. Geoffrey Rush has so much fun with his loopy character and so too does Missy Higgins, with her long overdue debut in film. Her efforts as a singer and thoroughly welcome here. Jessica Mauboy from Australian Idol is a really beautiful inclusion and a great singer as well. The biggest surprise though is the transformation of Ernie Dingo who not only looks and sounds different but is completely believable as Uncle Tadpole. He is funny, tender and most surprisingly, he even sings. Some critics have felt that the minor characters and cameos, like the two loose women in Magda Szubanski as a sex starved shop owner and Deborah Mailman as Roxanne who Willy meets under a condom tree, are included just for their own celebrity, rather than for any significance in the narrative. To an extent they are indeed caricatures, but the way that these characters mirror each other and relate in a more literal sense by the end, is a reflection of the film's most significant message of how everyone is connected and related, regardless of nationality, religion or skin colour. This notion comes out most prominently in the film's climax which is slightly bizarre but still hilarious.Bran Nue Dae might not be the most memorable or thought provocative Australian film this year, but it unlikely that there will be as many that are so bright, funny and uplifting. This is a real celebration of local talent and culture, with a cast that has as just as greater a time as the audience. Even if the narrative seems lightweight and formulaic, the film is still worth seeing for its messages, as well as its quirky characters and jovial musical numbers. This is a promising start to the year for Australian cinema.

blackfirepro The past decade has seen the revival of the American musical. We've had Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, and of course Sweeney Todd. Now here we are in a new decade, and musicals are still going strong. I loved this movie. Bran Nue Dae is an absolutely pointless film with an over-the-top plot and useless characters. But it's just so much fun. How could anybody not like this film? Rocky McKenzie is Willie, an aborigine boy in the late 1960s who is made to leave his home town of Broome to go to boarding school in Perth. The school is a Catholic School that trains its students to be priests. Willie is highly favoured by the school's headmaster, Father Benedictus (an eccentric "villain" played wonderfully by Geoffrey Rush), until he is caught stealing Coca-Cola from the school's kitchen. When Father Benedictus tries to punish Willie, he runs away on a journey back home to Broome. But Father Benedictus is hot on his heels, and Willie must then team up with some want-to-be hippies and an alcoholic old man to reach his goal.This is a film much in the style of 1976's Bugsy Malone, a film that I absolutely adored. The story is pretty week and the plot has no point whatsoever. But it's just a wild, fun roller-coaster of a movie. The songs and comedic and catchy (especially a number called "Nothing I Would Rather Be" which takes place in the school's chapel), and the film moves along at a swift but pleasurable pace. It's a pretty corny movie, but then again, why shouldn't it be? It's a musical, and a pretty good one at that. Every scene is filled with an exciting dance number, a tender romance, or some loopy and hilarious joke of some sort. Of course, the story can't hold up to much scrutiny, but it's not supposed to. This film isn't interested in deep spiritual ideas or commentary on the human condition. It exists for no other reason but to entertain you, which I'm sure it will.While I was watching this, I wasn't thinking about the convenience that almost everybody in this movie is heading to Broome, or that most of the characters (except maybe for the old man) are pretty shallow, or that for some reason when one person starts singing and dancing, everyone else somehow knows exactly what to do and organizes themselves into neat little dancing lines. I was just taken along for the ride, and I was loving every minute of it. I loved watching numerous Aborigines dancing on Church pews and somersaulting over the altar. I loved watching Geoffrey Rush attempt to do dance steps while disciplining people in a rather ridiculous German accent. I loved watching all these corny and ridiculous stereotypes interact before my eyes. And by the way, this film is filled with stereotypes. Stereotypes of Germans, Aborigines, old men, prostitutes, Priests, preachers, and hippies. Even so, this is far form a stereotypical film. It's one of the most original I've seen in a long time. There isn't one scene here that you would find in another film in the same context. It's goofy and weird and illogical, but who cares? We're having a great time.Now, this isn't one of those musicals where the singing and dancing flow seamlessly together with the dialogue. In fact, sometimes when the characters suddenly start singing it's laugh-out-loud ridiculous. The musical numbers are in no way subtle. They stick out like a sore thumb. But does it really matter. Did we come to see this for an opera of some sort? No! We came to see Aborigines dance and Geoffrey Rush try to fake a German accent. And if we came expecting just that, you'll be more than impressed. However, if for some reason you want this film to explore some deep meanings, search elsewhere. This is not for you. At no point in this rather short movie was I bored. I was always waiting to see what happens next and what crazy misadventure young Willie will encounter. This movie entertains. That's what it does. It entertained me like I haven't been entertained in a while. Now I'm not saying I don't like serious films. I probably even prefer them to this sort of thing. But every once in a while, I just want to be entertained. That's what I got from Bran Nue Dae.From a technical standpoint, the film is also pretty impressive. I am extremely fond of the photography in this film. Every shot has a meaning to it. There is one particular scene in which two lovers are swimming with each other under water. It's so perfect and simple. There isn't a flaw in that scene. The colours in the movie are rich and the shots memorable. Andrew Lesney (The Lord of the Rings, King Kong) has outdone himself this time. The overall colour scheme of the film seems to be yellow orange and blue, and it works exceptionally well. It's a shame that this film won't get much notice up here in America. I find it extremely unfortunate that we must search clear over to Australia to find descent entertainment these days. American films form Hollywood are becoming more dumb and generic every year, while the independent and foreign films make a come-back. Unfortunately, the general public will hardly see any of these alternatives, but instead will continue to go to these mind-numbing, Hollywood CGI fests. Last year's Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker, only received a fraction of the recognition it deserved. Well, enough of these sentiments.In a decade full of new and exciting musicals, Bran Nue Dae is one of the most original and creative. The songs are catchy and the characters witty and the photography striking. I liked this movie a lot, and I wish it the best of luck when the awards season comes around later this year.www.colewebbharter.com