Metro

Independent, outspoken and often polemical, Metro features writing by some of the region's foremost academics and critics, providing readers with comprehensive coverage of Australian, New Zealand, Asian, and Pacific screen industries. Combining a wide range of topics and disciplines, Metro offers a unique blend of in-depth scholarship and popular writing, perfectly capturing key trends and developments in screen culture.

Metro

Free Country COLONIAL INCURSIONS IN STEPHEN MAXWELL JOHNSON’S HIGH GROUND • Set a century ago at the tail end of Australia’s frontier wars, Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s feature presents a narrative of massacre, resistance and revenge centred on the relationship between a morally conflicted white bounty hunter and a mission-raised Aboriginal tracker. Drawing heavily on its Arnhem Land locations and filled with striking imagery,

Mending Fences ANIMOSITY AND ADAPTATION IN JEREMY SIMS’ RAMS • A tale of estranged brothers forced to unite when their flocks are threatened by a deadly illness, Jeremy Sims’ thawed-out version of the Icelandic film of the same name exchanges blizzard for bushfire and dourness for moments of levity. If the result is a loss of some of the original’s poetry, the Australian iteration is nonetheless well served by its shift towards audience-friendliness, writes Barnaby Smith.

Hogan’s Heroes STAR IMAGE IN DEAN MURPHY’S THE VERY EXCELLENT MR. DUNDEE • Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan embodies a loosely fictionalised version of himself in Dean Murphy’s Los Angeles–set farce, with the actor’s declining cultural relevance and disconnection from the modern world played for often-slapstick laughs. As Jake Wilson contends, however, the film’s portrayal of this icon of Australian nonchalance is ultimately paradoxical, straining credibility while failing to make up for it with either satirical bite or surreal excess.

Elusive Connections RITUAL AND RECONSTRUCTION IN JAYDEN STEVENS’ A FAMILY • A lonely man seeks to construct a new family with paid actors and scripted interactions in Jayden Stevens’ Ukrainian-shot feature debut. As Gabrielle O’Brien finds, the film not only offers an alien, sitcom-infused representation of human behaviour but also provides insights into the more constructed aspects of genuine familial relationships – particularly in its focus on the mediated images provided by home movies and photographs.

Bathing in Genre HOMAGE AND EXPERIMENTATION IN PARISH MALFITANO’S BLOODSHOT HEART • The influence of giallo filmmaking is evident in Parish Malfitano’s striking, enigmatic indie feature debut about an Italo-Australian driving instructor’s slide into disoriented obsession. But, as Dave Crewe argues, the film’s aesthetic and thematic agendas – the latter taking in such diverse territory as gender identity, sexual fantasy and the Australian migrant experience – are far more complicated than any one genre label might suggest.

Reflections on a Shared History MONICA ZANETTI ON ELLIE & ABBIE (& ELLIE’S DEAD AUNT) • Teen love and ghostly mentorship make for a sweet combination in Monica Zanetti’s romantic comedy. Speaking with the director, Stephen A Russell finds that the film is about much more than just coming out and coming to terms with one’s identity; it’s also a project born from a deep desire to rectify historical underrepresentation of queer women on screen, and one that seeks to tap into a long and rich Australian history of lesbian activism.

Mum Not the ’s Word IDENTITY AND AUTONOMY IN CURTIS VOWELL’S BABY DONE • Impending motherhood provokes an existential crisis for a self-described ‘wild person’ with an externally successful life and relationship in this New Zealand romantic comedy. Among its depiction (and subversion) of familiar prenatal anxieties about lost freedom and contemporary ‘kidulthood’ tropes, the film – directed and scripted...