A Constant Visual Feast

Since the thesis of this review is the sort of commentary I strive to provide in these share-posts, I feel at a loss for what to write here, other than: please clap, I successfully avoided a reference to Wake in Fright, knowing full well that everyone who covered this thing via South by Southwest made that reference already. No points for echoing the festival going clique. 

I do think it benefits a viewer to be at least partially familiar with Australian New Wave cinema, even if only through reviews and retrospectives and interviews covering films from that movement or reporting on it from an historical perspective. There’s a certain level of homogeneity across these movies speaking to their aesthetic style and their focus on national identity; The Surfer isn’t exactly a “political” movie, per se, but I do think it spotlights a certain type of Australian attitude and identity via Julian McMahon’s new-age macho tough guy antagonist. So, there’s that.

Anyways: full piece is up at The A.V. Club.