Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Strangerland
Collapse
-
- Published: 10-02-2015, 08:50 AM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
-
Strangerland
Released By: Alchemy
Released On: August 18, 2015
Director: Kim Farrant
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes, Hugo Weaving
Year: 2015
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
When they find out that their 15 year-old daughter Lily is having a sexual relationship with one of her teachers, Catharine (Nicole Kidman) and Matthew (Joseph Fiennes) Parker have little other option but to relocate, especially after Matthew earns a restraining order for pummeling Lily's unwise educator. With the entire town wagging their chins about the Parker family business, the couple move Lily and their son Tommy to the small town of Nathgari, Australia, hoping to start anew.
Of course, things aren't as simple as a location change. Tommy, suffering from insomnia, goes on nightly walks to places unknown, much to the displeasure of her mother. Lily has clearly not learned her lesson from her previous escapades, Lolitaing about while severely under-dressed, and picking up older boys down at the local skate park. Catherine finds herself alone with a lot of time to think while the kids are away and Matt buries himself in his work as a pharmacist, and even when he's home, has a severe intimacy issue that finds the two sleeping in separate beds.
When Tom goes walking one night with Lily in tow, they aren't missed the next morning when Matthew leaves for work early and Catherine sleeps in. But when Catherine finds out that the two children aren't in school...and haven't been for quite some time...she begins to seriously question what they've been up to. And when the debris from a massive dust storm settles, Lilly and Tommy are still missing, potentially a kind of publicity that Matthew doesn't want to deal with. Turning to local police detective David Rae (Hugo Weaving) may be a start in the right direction, but there are very few answers, and a whole lot of suspects. Was it Steve and Slug, Lily's pickups from the skate park? Was it Burtie, the mentally damaged man-child who works around the Parker house? Has Lily fled back to Neil, her old teacher? Or is the answer a little closer to home? As time slips by, the chances of finding the children grow slimmer, and Catherine finds her relationship with her husband growing more and more estranged, and she slowly loses her grasp on reality.
Strangerland, Director Kim Farrant's first feature film, is an odd beast. Employing the skills of Kidman, Fiennes, the child actors, and the setting of the harsh Australian climate, she builds the film slowly and broodingly at first, creating a sense of tension and unease. There's not too much shown, and that's a good thing; from the viewer's seat, we can only wonder at what has happened in the past and what's going on in the present. Kidman and Fiennes have real anti-chemistry here, adding fuel to the fire, and Maddison Brown is downright creepy as the under-aged seductress. Potential suspects are slowly revealed, with equal time and mystery presented to each, setting the stage for what could have been a corker of an ending. Unfortunately, Strangerland never delivers. As the search for the children becomes more hopeless, so does hope for a decent finish; by the time the film hits the 80-minute mark, things begin unraveling that seem downright stupid. By the time Strangerland drags to a close, we're forced to wonder what in the hell the point was.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Strangerland comes to Blu-ray from Alchemy in a 2.35:1 transfer that looks fantastic, with the ruggedness of the scenery coming to life in a variety of colours, and maintaining good detail in the murkiness of the night scenes. No issues to be found here, it's a great transfer.
The Dolby True HD 5.1 audio track is also well done, with dialogue remaining clear throughout, and tasteful distribution to the surrounds and LFE channel. No hisses, pops, etc, are present to distract from the viewing.
A Cast Featurette (8:23) is first up in the supplements, as multiple cast and crew talk about working on the film and with each other. There are several clips from the film used as well.
A Story Featurette (5:36) is pretty much the Cast Featurette, but with focus on the story of the film...this probably could've been joined with the first extra.
5 Previews for other Alchemy titles are also included.
The Final Word:
A fantastic start, Farrant proves that she can create atmosphere and fully utilize good actors, but not follow through and deliver the goods before the credits roll.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4140)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -