Following on the heels of international hit “The Dry,” veteran Australian director Robert Connelly has tackled another local literary adaptation in “Blueback,” based on his celebrated compatriot Tim Winton’s 1997 novella. That slender tome (subtitled “A Contemporary Fable”) was aimed primarily at younger readers. The film adopts a somewhat more grownup, realistic, less parabolic tenor, though its ecology-minded narrative remains a bit sketchy for feature treatment — resulting in a pleasant, very handsome-looking movie rather short on dramatic impact.
Nonetheless, it’s got more than enough significant plusses to offer, from an appealing cast led by Mia Wasikowska and Radha Mitchell to much spectacularly inviting underwater photography. Having already played a few other fests in advance of its Sundance showcase (and opened commercially in a few territories), it is slated for U.S. theatrical release by Quiver Distribution on Feb. 24, with VOD following April 21.
Abby Jackson (Wasikowska) is a marine biologist working on a seafaring lab,...
Nonetheless, it’s got more than enough significant plusses to offer, from an appealing cast led by Mia Wasikowska and Radha Mitchell to much spectacularly inviting underwater photography. Having already played a few other fests in advance of its Sundance showcase (and opened commercially in a few territories), it is slated for U.S. theatrical release by Quiver Distribution on Feb. 24, with VOD following April 21.
Abby Jackson (Wasikowska) is a marine biologist working on a seafaring lab,...
- 1/21/2023
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Australia’s answer to the 2022 Oscar Best Picture winner Coda is here. I’m only half-joking. Blueback is a bit better than the movie that most recently won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but it employs a similar sort of lightweight treatment of banner issues. Blueback has two major characteristics in its favor: the aquatic cinematography by Andrew Commis and Rick Rifici and that it’s satisfied with being a message movie for kids. It would be perfect to show in a middle school or elementary school classroom during substitute teacher day, like Free Willy, a choice selection when I was a kid. It’s completely inoffensive but also lacking emotional heft, a result of sloppy story structure and flashback-heavy plotting that may have worked well in the source novel by Tim Winton (who also wrote the screenplay), but drains the tension in this adaptation.
Abby and Dora (Radha Mitchell...
Abby and Dora (Radha Mitchell...
- 9/18/2022
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
“Take a good close look at what we’re fighting for,” says Mia Wasikowska’s oceanographer in “Blueback,” as she scans the Australian bay where she grew up. She’s talking to a colleague, even as writer-director Robert Connolly (“Paper Planes”) is really saying the same thing to us.
Connolly has turned Tim Winton’s 1997 novella into his own environmental cri de coeur — premiering at the Toronto Film Festival — and while the specifics can get a bit clunky, his passion drives our interest all the way to the end.
The end is where we begin, actually, with Wasikowska’s Abby getting a call while she’s working. Her aging mother, Dora (Liz Alexander), has had a stroke, and Abby has to rush back to remote Longboat Bay (Western Australia’s Bremer Bay stands in for the fictional coast) to care for her.
Also Read:
‘Judy & Punch’ Film Review: Provocative...
Connolly has turned Tim Winton’s 1997 novella into his own environmental cri de coeur — premiering at the Toronto Film Festival — and while the specifics can get a bit clunky, his passion drives our interest all the way to the end.
The end is where we begin, actually, with Wasikowska’s Abby getting a call while she’s working. Her aging mother, Dora (Liz Alexander), has had a stroke, and Abby has to rush back to remote Longboat Bay (Western Australia’s Bremer Bay stands in for the fictional coast) to care for her.
Also Read:
‘Judy & Punch’ Film Review: Provocative...
- 9/16/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
Netflix and Germany’s Zdfe have co-commissioned a 10-episode teen surfing drama from Werner Film Productions, set to get underway in Victoria later this month.
Titled Surviving Summer, the series has been created by Joanna Werner and Josh Mapleston.
Sky Katz (Raven’s Home) stars as the titular character of Summer, a fierce Brooklyn teen who is sent Down Under to live with family friends in a tiny coastal town on the Great Ocean Road.
Starring alongside are Brazilian rising star João Gabriel Marinho (Malhação), Kai Lewins, Savannah La Rain and in her first foray into acting, five-time Queensland Junior State Surf Champion Lilliana Bowrey.
Surviving Summer is Werner Film Productions first young adult drama since Dance Academy, which screened in 165 countries, after producing a range of adult dramas including upcoming series The Newsreader and Riot.
Werner, who will both produce and EP with Stuart Menzies, said: “Surviving Summer has been...
Titled Surviving Summer, the series has been created by Joanna Werner and Josh Mapleston.
Sky Katz (Raven’s Home) stars as the titular character of Summer, a fierce Brooklyn teen who is sent Down Under to live with family friends in a tiny coastal town on the Great Ocean Road.
Starring alongside are Brazilian rising star João Gabriel Marinho (Malhação), Kai Lewins, Savannah La Rain and in her first foray into acting, five-time Queensland Junior State Surf Champion Lilliana Bowrey.
Surviving Summer is Werner Film Productions first young adult drama since Dance Academy, which screened in 165 countries, after producing a range of adult dramas including upcoming series The Newsreader and Riot.
Werner, who will both produce and EP with Stuart Menzies, said: “Surviving Summer has been...
- 2/16/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
Production begins this month on “Surviving Summer,” a teen-surfing drama series for Netflix and Zdf Enterprises. The show is produced by Werner Film Production, a three-time Emmy-nominated Australian firm headed by Joanna Werner.
Sky Katz (previously known as Skylar Katz) (Disney Channel’s “Raven’s Home”) stars as the titular character Summer, a fierce Brooklyn teen who is sent ‘Down Under’ to live with family friends in a coastal town on the Great Ocean Road. She stars alongside Brazilian rising star Joao Gabriel Marinho (“Malhacao”), Australia’s Kai Lewins (“Wild Boys”) and Savannah La Rain (“Content”). It also stars Lilliana Bowrey, a five-time Queensland junior state surf champion, making her first foray into acting.
The ten-part show will be shot at some of Australia’s most iconic surf beaches in Victoria.
It was created by Werner and Josh Mapleston (“Ready For This,” “Beat Bugs,” “Dance Academy”), and was written by Mapleston,...
Sky Katz (previously known as Skylar Katz) (Disney Channel’s “Raven’s Home”) stars as the titular character Summer, a fierce Brooklyn teen who is sent ‘Down Under’ to live with family friends in a coastal town on the Great Ocean Road. She stars alongside Brazilian rising star Joao Gabriel Marinho (“Malhacao”), Australia’s Kai Lewins (“Wild Boys”) and Savannah La Rain (“Content”). It also stars Lilliana Bowrey, a five-time Queensland junior state surf champion, making her first foray into acting.
The ten-part show will be shot at some of Australia’s most iconic surf beaches in Victoria.
It was created by Werner and Josh Mapleston (“Ready For This,” “Beat Bugs,” “Dance Academy”), and was written by Mapleston,...
- 2/16/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Nicole Kidman and Joel Edgerton on the set of ‘Boy Erased.’
Joel Edgerton and Simon Baker have scored nominations in the feature film direction and acting categories for Boy Erased and Breath, the first time that’s happened in the same year in AFI | Aacta history.
Edgerton and Baker will compete for four prizes at this year’s awards which will be handed out at an industry luncheon on December 3 and at the ceremony on December 5. Both titles have been nominated for best film and Edgerton and Baker are also in the running for best supporting actor and adapted screenplay.
In total 19 features received nominations, with five vying for best film: Boy Erased, Breath, Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s Cargo, Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country.
The five titles competing for the new category of best indie film budgeted under $2 million are the Jacobson brothers’ Sibling Rivalry,...
Joel Edgerton and Simon Baker have scored nominations in the feature film direction and acting categories for Boy Erased and Breath, the first time that’s happened in the same year in AFI | Aacta history.
Edgerton and Baker will compete for four prizes at this year’s awards which will be handed out at an industry luncheon on December 3 and at the ceremony on December 5. Both titles have been nominated for best film and Edgerton and Baker are also in the running for best supporting actor and adapted screenplay.
In total 19 features received nominations, with five vying for best film: Boy Erased, Breath, Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s Cargo, Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country.
The five titles competing for the new category of best indie film budgeted under $2 million are the Jacobson brothers’ Sibling Rivalry,...
- 10/29/2018
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
You don't have to be a genius to glean that actor Simon Baker has the makings of a solid director. Having skillfully called the shots on several episodes of The Mentalist, the CBS crime drama he starred in from 2008 to 2015, the Aussie actor is primed to show what he can do in his big-screen directing debut. Turns out he has the chops.
Baker also stars as Sando, a surfing mentor to two teens who've become obsessed with the sport. Samson Coulter excels as Bruce, known as Pikelet, a 13-year-old who...
Baker also stars as Sando, a surfing mentor to two teens who've become obsessed with the sport. Samson Coulter excels as Bruce, known as Pikelet, a 13-year-old who...
- 6/1/2018
- Rollingstone.com
“Breath” is a wistful and wounded coming-of-age story about surfing, surrender, and the sordid experience of losing your virginity to a married older woman who’s got a thing for erotic asphyxiation. The movie is able to ride a line right through so many of its genre’s worst clichés because it never stops negotiating between fear and desire, risk and reward. It’s an assured directorial debut from “The Mentalist” actor Simon Baker, who — after 12 long years — has finally done something more impressive than getting Anne Hathaway those “Harry Potter” manuscripts in “The Devil Wears Prada.”
“Breath” doesn’t spend that much time on the water, but it reckons with each wave — from ankle-busters to groundswells — and every single one of them dares these young protagonists to prove something to themselves. Without belaboring the point, or betraying the soft touch of the Tom Winton novel on which his film is based,...
“Breath” doesn’t spend that much time on the water, but it reckons with each wave — from ankle-busters to groundswells — and every single one of them dares these young protagonists to prove something to themselves. Without belaboring the point, or betraying the soft touch of the Tom Winton novel on which his film is based,...
- 5/30/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Simon Baker’s directorial debut is poetic without being pretentious, capturing the natural beauty of the Wa coast and the complexity of coming of age
Breath, the feature film directorial debut of the actor Simon Baker, begins with a shot of white light flooding the frame. An image of a body under water gradually comes into focus.
From that opening moment the film’s colour grading has a misty and melancholic quality, as if emulating seafoam or mist from the crest of a wave. The cinematography is as concerned with distribution of light as it is colour and movement, presenting big, airy, oxygen-filled compositions.
Breath, the feature film directorial debut of the actor Simon Baker, begins with a shot of white light flooding the frame. An image of a body under water gradually comes into focus.
From that opening moment the film’s colour grading has a misty and melancholic quality, as if emulating seafoam or mist from the crest of a wave. The cinematography is as concerned with distribution of light as it is colour and movement, presenting big, airy, oxygen-filled compositions.
- 5/3/2018
- by Luke Buckmaster
- The Guardian - Film News
The Great Gatsby dominated. Aacta.s technical and short films awards today, collecting gongs in all six craft categories for which it was nominated, plus the Aacta award for outstanding achievement in visual effects.
The co-production Top of the Lake bagged two TV trophies while Matchbox Pictures. Nowhere Boys, created by Tony Ayres, was named best children.s TV series.
The TV documentary prize went to Redesign My Brain, which explores the revolutionary new science of brain plasticity, written and directed by Paul Scott and produced by Isabel Perez and Scott for ABC TV.
Writer-director Nick Verso's The Last Time I Saw Richard, produced by John Molloy, was honoured as best short fiction film. Developed and funded through Screen Australia.s Springboard program, the short is a prequel to the upcoming feature film Boys In The Trees, tracing the friendship between two teenagers in a mental health clinic in...
The co-production Top of the Lake bagged two TV trophies while Matchbox Pictures. Nowhere Boys, created by Tony Ayres, was named best children.s TV series.
The TV documentary prize went to Redesign My Brain, which explores the revolutionary new science of brain plasticity, written and directed by Paul Scott and produced by Isabel Perez and Scott for ABC TV.
Writer-director Nick Verso's The Last Time I Saw Richard, produced by John Molloy, was honoured as best short fiction film. Developed and funded through Screen Australia.s Springboard program, the short is a prequel to the upcoming feature film Boys In The Trees, tracing the friendship between two teenagers in a mental health clinic in...
- 1/28/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
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