Not a Carrie Underwood vehicle, but rather, a taut western drama set in Australia’s remote Northern Territory frontier during the 1920’s. An easygoing Aboriginal man, Sam’s (Hamilton Morris) boss (Sam Neill) asks that he and his wife help a new neighbor work the land. Things quickly sour, leaving the good black man no other choice but to murder a despicable white slob in self-defense. Director Warwick Thornton opens on a tight shot of a stewpot — the contents of which bubble ferociously — as the sound of fists being exchanged plays in the background. That’s about as close as Thornton allows his camera to get to an object. (One can count the number of closeups on less than ten fingers.) As if that weren’t divine enough, check out the imaginative dialogue scene situated in the town saloon, with a makeshift outdoor movie theatre acting as a surreal backdrop. The one sour note in this otherwise sweet corner of cinema country: with nowhere left to go, the filmmakers ring down the curtain by putting race on trial. (2017) — Scott Marks
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