Mature Audiences, violence and coarse language
Australia 2009
Director: Glendyn Ivin
Featuring: Hugo Weaving, Tom Russell, John Brumpton, Sonya Suares, Adam Morgan, Anita Hegh
Running time: 101 minutes
Kev and Chook are a couple of outlaws scamming their way through outback Australia, hitching rides, scrounging food, sleeping rough, stealing cars. ’We’re Butch and Sundance,’ Kev says to Chook. ‘Who?’ says Chook. But then he’s only ten, and he wouldn’t have seen the movie.
They steal flowers from a smalltown cemetery before dropping in on Maryanne for breakfast. She’s Kev’s ex-partner, and she’s not too pleased to see him. But she loves Chook, and she’s worried about him. Why has Kev taken him out of school? How long will they be on the road? She still has a soft spot for Kev, too. And he for her. But that doesn’t stop him pissing off with Maryanne’s car, the next morning, when Maryanne starts asking too many questions.
Kev is a complex character, an ex-con, smart, self-educated, a bit of a brooder, a loving father. Chook is loyal to his dad. He obeys him, he plays along with the scams. But there are times when his dad can be frightening. What are they running from?
Last Ride is adapted from the novel by Denise Young. It’s both a road movie and a dark, unsettling drama.
It’s an impressive feature debut. The storytelling is taut, with some minimal flashbacks. Only slowly, as the pair become more isolated in some of the most magnificent outback locations in Australia, do we begin to discover, with Chook, what his dad is running from.
Last Ride is a surprise. It’s one of the handsomest Australian films this year, with cinematography by Greig Fraser, who worked with Ivin way back when on Crackerbag.
We’ll see his work next on Jane Campion’s much anticipated Bright Star. Meanwhile, don’t miss Last Ride. It will take you places we haven’t been for some time in Australian cinema.
Source: Julie Rigg ABC Radio National – Compiled by Peter Gillard