It’s been a decidedly uneven six months for Australian movies, with big(ish) budget disappointments, from Blueback to Transfusion, and the familiar handful of indie gems that deserved audiences, but didn’t get them.
Homegrown TV, meanwhile, is revelling in a vintage year, with streamers and free-to-air unleashing a raft of quality, original shows. It means the likes of Taskmaster Australia, Dawn of the Dolphins, Koala Man, Alone Australia and Safe Home were cruelly jettisoned from this list.
What remains, however, is yet more proof that we seriously overperform in both mediums, and local writers, directors and actors deserves a far bigger slice of the global production pie.
Time to tuck in…
– Paul Merrill
The best Aussie movies of 2023 so far
Of An Age
Cinemas, March 23
A heartbreakingly raw exposition of forbidden romance and loneliness in 1990s Melbourne, this is the second feature from Macedonian Australian director Goran Stolevski, and is very nearly as good as last year’s exquisite, list-topping horror film You Won’t Be Alone.
Serbian teen Kol (Elias Anton) falls for his dance partner’s brother Adam (Thom Green) during an awkward dash to get to a contest, but cultural prejudice and societal scorn conspire to complicate matters. It has undeniable Call Me By Your Name vibes, but strikes a moodier, more wistful tone that gives the actors scope to eke out very powerful performances.
The Portable Door
Cinemas March 23, Stan April 7
This magic-based, Harry Potter-esque fantasy romp is based on the first of seven books about bizarre London firm J.W. Wells & Co – sinister corporate sorcerers who wouldn’t have been out of place in Diagon Alley.
Christoph Waltz and Sam Neill crank up the wackiness to 11 as the nefarious CEO and his sidekick, while Patrick Gibson and Sophie Wilde are bemused interns, gradually uncovering the skullduggery being plotted.
Directed by former Aussie child star Jeffrey Walker, it’s a frenzied and eccentric big-bucks adventure that’s a bit too ponderous to achieve Hogwarts levels of excitement, but has enough pizzazz to merit a sequel.
Sweet As
Cinemas, June 1
A beautifully shot and genuinely moving true story of a troubled Indigenous 16-year-old (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) with an alcoholic mum who begrudgingly agrees to go on a photography safari for vulnerable teens.
As the group journeys through remote Pilbara country, they learn that, just as every photograph helps tell a story, so every person must find a way to tell theirs. A refreshingly authentic and tenderly scripted coming-of-ager from Nyul Nyul and Yawuru writer/director Jub Clerc that wowed festival audiences and should rank highly in any list of the best films of the year.
True Spirit
Cinemas January 26, Netflix February 3
This is the true story of 16-year-old Gold Coast sailor Jessica Watson’s record-breaking round the world yacht trip in 2009, with Teagan Croft as the plucky youngster determined to shatter patronising expectations of what a ‘little girl’ could achieve.
The story is unashamedly pitched to a US family audience, but the narrative avoids too much cheesiness by switching back and forth between her adventurous upbringing, apocalyptic storms, her concerned family back home and the long, lonely days of isolation as she circumnavigates her way around the globe. There were probably easier ways to have proved a point.
The best Aussie TV shows of 2023 so far
Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café
ABC, April 12
Australia’s favourite surrealist sketch comedians finally landed a network series after their short-lived 2020 Netflix adventure, Big Ol’ House of Fun, and will have delighted their fans, while probably not winning over the entire ABC-watching audience.
Infused with the likeable zaniness and scattergun side-tracking that gave them a cult YouTube and live following, these six episodes have the trio attempting to run a Melbourne eatery where few customers do much in the way of eating. The exercise would have benefitted from some tighter script editing, but has enough energy and ridiculousness to warrant a second series.
Black Snow
Stan, January 1
An affecting and haunting series that switches between the 1990s and present day to unlock the secrets of the slaying of an Indigenous teenager, whose voice recording for her school’s time capsule provides a clue to the identity of her murderer.
Set among the South Sea Islander communities in Queensland descended from labourers who were ‘blackbirded’ – effectively kidnapped as slaves – in the 19th century, Black Snow exposes the colonial stain still impacting modern lives.
Raised by Wolves star Travis Fimmel enters a trance-like state as the weary detective tasked with picking apart each unexpected revelation, but holds proceedings together just enough to sustain the whodunit guessing game through six episodes.
Deadloch
Prime Video, June 2
With a corpse’s pubic hair on fire and a dog disturbing a police chief’s romp with her wife both occurring within about 30 seconds, this gripping slice of Tassie comedy noir from seasoned writing duo ‘The Two Kates’ – McLennan and McCartney – sets its stall out early.
Said chief, played by a third Kate (Box), finds her efforts to investigate a mounting body count hampered by the arrival of a feral NT detective (Kiwi comic Madeleine Sami).
It’s darker, deeper and more nuanced than the creators’ inspired cooking parody The Katering Show, and is twisty-turny enough to keep you guessing who the serial killer might be.
Queerstralia
ABC, February 28
Comedian Zoë Coombs Marr fronts a funny, heartbreaking and uplifting history of LGBTQI+ people in Australia that takes into its scope lesbian prison gangs, Indigenous gay pioneers, queer army vets and cross-dressing bush rangers, as well as chats with the likes of Magda Szubanski, Hannah Gadsby and Rhys Nicholson.
The optimistic tone belies our seriously shameful history of institutional homophobia, casual transphobic hate and police brutality, none of which have been eradicated. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Tasmania in 1997 and cross-dressing in the state was still illegal until 2001, so the events described by the campaigners and advocates are frighteningly recent. A genuinely impressive and ultimately joyous doco.
Utopia
ABC, June 7
A very welcome return for arguably the best local comedy of the last decade, with Rob Sitch and Celia Pacquola back for a fifth season as the only sane executives at the fabled Nation Building Authority.
When the new Australian version of The Office hits screens next year it’ll do well to match this subtle and painfully real pastiche of office culture and corporate ineptitude. The first four series snagged a recent run on Netflix that’ll hopefully have recruited new fans to a criminally under-viewed show.
Wellmania
Netflix, March 29
Actor and sketch comedy performer Celeste Barber has spent nearly a decade spoofing Instagram’s self-serving, stick-like wellness divas, and became an online superstar and body positivity advocate in the process.
This is her mostly successful attempt at an Aussie Fleabag, playing an exaggerated version of herself and showcasing her signature self-deprecating humour.
As a food writer based in New York, she talks her way into being judge on a tentpole US TV cookery show only to find herself stranded in Australia and denied a green card renewal because she’s so unhealthy. Cue desperate, unseemly and highly entertaining attempts to shape up in time.