Tuesday, October 13, 2020

COVID-Cinema 2020 - Dirt Music

 Australian movies are some of the only films getting a steady release throughout the COVID-Cinema 2020 period. The Guardian did a great piece over the weekend on the future of cinemas. With 007 and Wonder Woman now pushed back, again, it's not an easy business to be in with the lack of new content.

Tenet was an experiment, it seemed to fail and now as a movie fan I don't know how much longer the cinemas can keep it up.

Dirt Music however with its rough WA scenery is a film that puts the case forward for the big screen. With sweeping shots of the WA coastline and stunning landscape of the West. 

Dirt Music is not a great film, but it has great moments.


Julia Stone gets an acting part in this Tim Winton novel turned big screen effort.

The leads however in this Australian film are US actor Garrett Hedlund and Scottish star Kelly Macdonald. David Wenham is also a major player whilst Aaron Pedersen plays an unfortunately named character Beaver.

The landscape and the sheer beauty of the film is its strengths. I didn't love Kelly Macdonald whilst some scenes of survival were tough to look at (you'll know what I mean if you see the film) and like my last film Antebellum, I got a private screening. Yes I was the only paying person in the entire film.

So if overcrowded cinemas are a concern for you, don't let it be, my experience of actually going to a range of cinemas is, they are mostly empty!

I will pass Dirt Music but the film does have it's problems. Apparently it took a while for the project to get off the ground. This is not surprising with internationals cast in main roles and the filming locations would not have been easy.

2.5 Stars.

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