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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 25 March 2025

I wasn’t old enough to experience the phenomenon of Crocodile Dundee when first released in 1986 but now, as a wily movie veteran, I can appreciate its place in movie history. Its social impact was huge, but the most staggering statistic related to dollars. It’s been almost 40 years since it premiered in cinemas and yet, despite the impacts of inflation, no Australian film has surpassed its take at the local box office (it took in $47.7 million AUD).

Love of an Icon: The Legend of Crocodile Dundee is an 87-minute documentary which serves as an epilogue to the original film’s success. It’s clearly targeted at existing fans but, if taking along younger friends, it may also generate first-time views of the Aussie classic and provide a worthy history lesson (not sure it’s taught in schools).  A recent 4K restoration, scheduled for a May 2025 cinema release, will help fuel that interest.

This film could be described as three distinct acts.  It opens with the background to the key players, is followed by the making/shooting of Crocodile Dundee, and closes with an exploration of its success and cultural legacy.  Many interviews are used, some current day and some archival, but the two key people featured are star Paul Hogan and his longtime collaborator, John Cornell.  Their inspiring friendship is at its heart, loving assembled by Cornell’s wife, Delvene Delaney, who serves as the documentary’s co-director.

There are wonderful titbits of information to leave you smiling – from the famous “this is a knife scene” and how they picked the right take… through to the way the movie was sold to Paramount for distribution in the United States.  It also serves as a homage to the craftspeople involved.  Hogan and Cornell had never made a movie before and so they hired an experienced crew to make up for their shortcomings.  In addition to obvious matters like casting, the film offers insight into the costumes, cinematography, and music score.

Above all else, Love of an Icon tells a bloody good rags-to-riches story.  Two little known actors from Australia with limited experience created, arguably, this country’s most successful movie.  Hogan won a Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy, they both earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay, mum-and-dad investors made bucketloads of cash, and it was the second highest grossing movie of 1986 in the United States (behind Top Gun).

Astutely edited by the experienced Paula Grusovin (the footage weaves together seamlessly), Love of an Icon: The Legend of Crocodile Dundee is a great watch.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 04 March 2025

It’s been over 20 years, but I still have very fond memories of Gettin’ Square.  Written by an experienced lawyer who’d seen all sorts of things on the Gold Coast, it was a riotous caper about drugs, crime and corruption in his home city.  The film opened the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2003 and earned 14 Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award nominations.  The cast included Sam Worthington and Timothy Spall, but it was David Wenham who provided the memorable performance as drug addict Johnny Spitieri and won the AFI Award for best actor.

Director Jonathan Teplitzky and screenwriter Chris Nyst have teamed up again for this 2025 sequel.  It opens with Johnny Spitieri flying back into Australia on a false passport, being arrested by immigration officials, and locked up in a detention facility.  He’s no longer a drug user but he’s just as dopey.  Well, that’s at least how he comes across.  It’s up to audiences to decide how much is deliberate naivety as opposed to a lack of functioning brain cells.

Spit is a different film and sadly, not a better one.  While Gettin’ Square was a wild, amusing tale centred on a bunch of dodgy criminals, this is a more mellow outing that struggles because of its focus on a single character.  Johnny Spitieri is funny in small doses, like his famous courtroom scene in the 2003 original, but when he’s front and centre for the whole movie, his silliness becomes tiring.  The script doesn’t give him enough interesting things to do.

Worthington and Spall are absent from this sequel and so the responsibility falls on other returning players to create appealing subplots.  That too is underwhelming.  Gary Sweet does very little as criminal mastermind Chicka Martin (he hardly leaves his house) while Helen Thomson is in a similar boat as the now owner of a funeral home.  It feels like they’ve only been included because they were in the first movie… not because they have storylines worth pursuing.

The film is somewhat saved by its new characters who do the heavy lifting.  Arlo Green is decent as an immigrant, taken under Johnny’s wing, who wants to make a better life for himself in Australia.  Sofya Gollan gives the film an emotional kick with her performance as Johnny’s long-lost sister.  Pallavi Sharda purposefully overplays the role and makes the most of her limited screentime (wish she had more) as Johnny’s clueless lawyer (she’s like an energetic version of The Castle’s Dennis Denuto).

There’s likely to be interest from fans of Gettin’ Square (it’ll help if you’ve seen it) but, even if you’re part of that demographic, I’d keep expectations in check.  Spit is not a terrible film, but it needed more narrative, more grit and more laughs to warrant a strong endorsement.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 March 2025

I was chatting to a friend recently about Oscar statistics and of the 25 films to win best picture this century, 19 also won a screenplay award (original or adapted).  It’s a reminder that when making a terrific movie, it helps if you start with a terrific script.  It could be wildly original like Everything Everywhere All at Once, an eye-opening true story like Spotlight, or an emotional drama like 12 Years a Slave.  Greatness comes in many forms.

Never has that been more evident when looking at the success of Flow.  It’s a Latvian animated feature, with zero dialogue, made using open-source 3D computer graphics available to the public (a far cry from Pixar and Walt Disney).  30-year-old director Gints Zilbalodis cobbled together €3.5 million to painstakingly made the 85-minute movie over more than 5 years.  After premiering at Cannes last May, it has since become the highest grossing Latvian film in history, won a Golden Globe, and then won the Academy Award for best animated feature (beating out much more fancied competitors).

While it doesn’t feature a single spoken word, a major factor in the film’s success is the beauty and simplicity of its script.  It’s the tale of a black cat trying to find their way to higher ground when a devastating flood sweeps through its forested home.  Cats tend to be independent with a hatred of water, but this one will have to break out of its comfort zone if it wants to stay alive. 

It jumps on board a deserted ship and teams up with an active dog, a kind-hearted bird, a cheeky lemur, and a placid capybara.  They don’t always get along but, given the dangerous surroundings, is the best of a bad situation.  You’ll already have a strong sense… but the narrative taps into the broader societal themes of meeting new people, visiting new places, and trying new experiences.

While the characters don’t talk, as they usually might in an animated feature, we have an appreciation for their feelings through facial expressions and other noises.  Zilbalodis uses actual animal sounds, some of which were recorded at the zoo, to make it as authentic as possible.  The hitch-pitched yowling of a scared cat tells us as much as any words could.  The background noises, which include wind rustling through trees and fast flowing water, make the movie a very “sensory” experience (particularly if seeing in a cinema with surround sound).

The film’s visuals are also stunning.  There are long, unbroken takes (rare for an animated film) and the constantly moving “camera” hovers over the characters as if it’s a drone.  It’s different from the more static style we see in other animated features.  To be enjoyed by audiences of any age, Flow provides a memorable experience.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 March 2025

I’ve been a long-time fan of Palme-d’Or winning filmmaker Mike Leigh who, in addition to his directing talents, has racked up 5 nominations in the best original screenplay category at the Academy Awards.  Only two people in history have more nods in that category – Woody Allen (16) and Federico Fellini (6).  The films to earn Leigh a nomination have been Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Vera Drake (2004), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), and Another Year (2010).

If there’s one of the abovementioned movies you need to see before Hard Truths, it’s the dark comedy Happy-Go-Lucky.  It starred Sally Hawkins, in a Golden Globe winning role, as a 30-year-old schoolteacher who is constantly happy.  She may sound like the perfect person to hang out with but unfortunately, her positive outlook rubs others up the wrong way.  Many friends and acquaintances are jealous of her joyful attitude, and it only makes them more miserable.

It’s a nice companion piece because Hard Truths has a central figure who is the complete opposite.  Pansy Deacon (Jean-Baptiste) is a middle-aged woman who is one of the most miserable, negative people you could imagine.  She disagrees with every decision made by her husband (Webber) and son (Barrett), she random chastises customers in supermarkets and department stores, and she complains constantly to her sister (Austin), the only person still willing to engage with her on a meaningful level.

The film works beautifully as both a comedy and a drama.  On a shallower level, it’s hard not to be amused by Pansy’s antics and insults.  From slagging a check-out attendant who isn’t smiling, to criticising a baby for wearing an outfit with pockets, there’s laughs to be had.  On a deeper level, you can analyse the hurtful impact Pansy has on others with an emphasis on her immediate family.  Her kind-hearted husband has become a quasi-mute.  He’s too afraid to say anything because he knows Pansy will retort with a vitriolic assault of words.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste earned an Oscar nomination almost 30 years ago for her wonderful, subtle supporting performance in Leigh’s Secrets & Lies.  It’s a shame she didn’t earn a nod this year.  Jean-Baptiste is exceptional in creating an individual who is inherently unlikeable but also someone you want to know more about.  Is there anyone who can break through her rock-hard exterior and find a softer side underneath?

Mike Leigh has a knack for creating interesting characters and placing them in ordinary day-to-day situations.  He’s done it again in Hard Truths and it’s another must-see movie to be admired and debated.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 March 2025

Universal recently announced the next film of Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan (Inception, Oppenheimer), arguably the most recognised filmmaker today, will be a $250 million epic retelling of The Odyssey, a famous work attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer.  Filming is now underway with a “who’s who of Hollywood” cast including Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, and Anne Hathaway.  It’s an ambitious project even by Nolan’s standards and it’s scheduled for July 2026 release.

That news wouldn’t have been too exciting for the producers of The Return, a lower budget drama also based on Homer’s poem.  It makes their film a tougher sell.  Why see this when you wait for a flashier version next year?  Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche take the two leading roles, and it marks their first time together on screen since 1996’s The English Patient.  Fiennes plays Odysseus, the heroic king of Ithaca who went missing in battle many years ago, and Binoche plays Penelope, his grieving queen who is urged to remarry by her many suitors.

Directed by Italian Uberto Pasolini (Still Life), The Return has a Shakespearean-like quality.  It’s like watching a stage show where actors pause after each line – as if they’re trying to “sell themselves” to the audience and make the material easy to understand.  I don’t think it works in this case.  Yeah, I realise it’s a story of Greek myth, but I’d have preferred a more relaxed, spontaneous approach with character interactions.  That creates realism which in turn generates emotion.

Pasolini, working with screenwriters John Collee and Edward Bond, also struggle with the adaptation from page to screen.  The central premise is that Odysseus, following the Trojan War, has returned to Ithaca for the first time in two decades and yet no one, including his wife, is able to recognise film.  Really?  We understand why Odysseus initially keeps a low profile (he’s torn after losing so many men in battle) but the rebuild of his own self-confidence is another messy element that doesn’t fully make sense.  The one-dimensional suitors, who serve as the film’s “villains”, are the weakest element and there’s almost nothing to differentiate them in terms of personality and mindset.

Fans of Fiennes and Binoche may wish to give it a look but my advice for the moment – hold out until 2026 and see what Christopher Nolan serves up.