Just a bunch of cracker Australian films on streaming services right now, from ballistic crime capers to sumptuous outback romances.
Storm Boy (1976) dir. Henri Safran
Streaming now on SBS on Demand
Who could forget Dear Mr. Percival. Sometimes the films that move us most profoundly as adults are childhood classics. Henri Safran’s coming-of-age story of a boy and his pet pelican is timeless. The film is worth revisiting for the exquisite outfits alone. I can’t wait until we free ourselves from the hold of the ironic mullet and start donning the chic 70s’ blunt scissor shag.
Babe: Pig in the City (1998) dir. George Miller
Streaming now on Stan
The second greatest sequel of all time (ousted by only the untouchable Paddington 2.) Get this… It’s a pig… but he’s in the city.
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The Piano (1993) dir. Jane Campion
Watch on Stan
This list will feature three Jane Campion films. If you think that it’s excessive just know that you’re incorrect and it’s actually a display of radical self-control. Campion is a god amongst mortals. Her films touch some unknown, melancholy place. A weird, brooding, feminine darkness. UGHHHHHHH. So glorious.
The Piano is the best place to start on your Campion journey, it’s her most accessible (and most heartwrenching.) Campion became the first female director to win the Cannes’ Palme d’Or for her delicate drama about a love triangle and a piano player, set on the misty sumptuous shores of Aotearoa.
An Angel At My Table (1990) dir. Jane Campion
Watch on Netflix
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again) (and again), no one brings poetry to the screen better than Campion. There’s no hokey beatnik cosplay here. You won’t be seeing a floppy-haired heartthrob donning Bailey Nelson-style specs. An Angel At My Table is Campion’s first poet biopic.
Based on the autobiography of the same name, retells the life of Janet Frame, New Zealand’s most celebrated author, through three different stages in her miraculous life. From her impoverished, tragedy-laden childhood, to her teenage years and schizophrenia misdiagnosis and finally, to her literary reverence. It’s sublime.
Bright Star (2009) dir. Jane Campion
Watch on Youtube
The last of the Campion triple bill, bear with me. Bright Star is a paen of the doomed love affair of poet John Keats’s and Fanny Brawne. Fucking hell it is pure romance. I seriously deserve to lay slovenly in a field of wildflowers, draped in layers-upon layers of linen whilst donning a whimple or whatever they wore back then. Cottagecore heaven.
Shine (1996) dir. Scott Hicks
Watch on Netflix
Is Geoffrey Rush cancelled? I can’t remember. This isn’t a lesson on moral posturing, this is a list of movie recommendations. Also, Noah Taylor blew the pants off him performance-wise. Scott Hicks’ biopic on prodigious Australian pianist David Helfgott is quite simply, extraordinary. Perhaps one of the best films to feature a scene where an adult shits in the bathtub.
Two Hands (1999) dir. Gregor Jordan
Watch on Netflix
Everything about Two Hands is cool. The film that made me fall in love with Australian cinema. Led by gorgeous, warm performances from young Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne and a litany of other oddball characters. God, I love this movie so much. The greatest. Also soundtracking the film’s climax with ‘These Days’ by Powderfinger… transcendental. Give em’ ya fucking keys!
Evil Angels (1998) dir. Fred Schepisi
Watch on Netflix
The dingo’s got my baby! Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton’s high-profile murder case still haunts. Chamberlain served three years in prison following the disappearance of her nine-month-old daughter Azaria from a camping ground near Uluru. Schepisi’s dramatisation is a magnificent feat.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) dir. Fred Schepisi
Watch on Netflix
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a staple in the Australian New Wave. Set against the sprawling, raw Australian outback in the 1900s, the film is based on the Indigenous Australian outlaw Jimmie Governor. Who, in the film, goes on a murder spree against whites.
Samson and Delilah (2009) dir. Warwick Burton
Watch on Stan
Warwick Thornton’s masterpiece will have you feeling it all. A delicate balance of humour, drama, and deep affection for an Australia unknown to most of us. Samson and Delilah is a love story between two people who live off the map in an Indigenous community near Alice Springs.
Somersault (2004) dir. Cate Shortland
Watch on Youtube
Led by baby-faced performances from Abby Cornish and Sam Worthington, Somersault is a beautiful, lonely story of a 16-year-old runaway who flees to Jindabyne. It’s light and special, perfectly soundtracked by Melbourne’s The Decoder Ring.
The Jammed (2007) dir. Dee McLachlan
Watch on Stan
Dee McLachlan’s 2007 thriller is a bleak story of Melbourne sex slaves at risk of government deportation is an Australian indie essential. A low-budget, grimy exploration of the Australian underworld that continues to grip out our psyche.
Proof (1991) dir. Jocelyn Moorhouse
Watch on Stan
I’m waiting for all the haters and losers to realise that Russell Crowe actually rocks. I’m not condoning his violent run-ins or A Beautiful Mind, but ol’ Rusty has charisma. The Proof is in the pudding. Hugo Weaving is absolutely fucking excellent as a blind, jaded and distrustful photographer.
