Starring: Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Toby Wallace and Hugo Weaving
Distributor: Transmission Films
Runtime: 91 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2023
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This Australian thriller is about two Canadian women backpackers who are subjected to male harassment at an Outback hotel in Australia.
The film is inspired by the 2016 documentary ‘Hotel Coolgardie’ by Peter Gleeson, and the script is reported as based on true events. Director Green works once more with Julia Garner, who takes the lead role of Hanna in the movie. Both Green and Garner worked together on The Assistant which was one of the most highly rated films of 2019. Though Australian, this is the first movie Green has made in this country.
The Assistant was a powerful film that dealt with the depth of immorality that can exist in workplace environments. Subtly, it explored how easy it is for men in power to put women under their control. The earlier film brilliantly projected the sinister nature of sexual harassment in the entertainment industry, while this film offers a more general exploration of toxic masculinity than executive-predatory behaviour. Both movies target male offenders.
Running out of money on a backpack adventure trip, Liv (Henwick) talks Hanna (Garner) into taking a live-in job in an Outback mining town. They check into a desolate, run-down hotel. The owner Billy (Weaving) is a misogynist drunk. Billy turns a blind eye to unacceptable behaviour whenever, and wherever, it suits him.
A host of locals give the two girls a turbulent introduction to Outback drinking that reminds one instantly of the situations that faced John Grant in Ted Kotcheff’s masterpiece movie Wake In Fright (1971). That movie exposed a travelling teacher to debauched, offensive male behaviour that immorally eroded his dignity in shocking fashion. In this film, events turn nasty when male behaviour, mostly offered in alcoholically-fuelled jest, crosses the moral line, and traps Liv and Hanna in situations that get out of control.
The film is grim and suspenseful in ways that push the viewer to expect horrible things are going to happen. As in Wake in Fright, the film explores the effects of trying to cope with the frenzied alcohol culture of Outback Australia. Hanna is aware of the danger of what lies behind a drunken man’s charm, that can change instantly, and she knows that Liv’s coping strategies are different from hers.
As in The Assistant, Green shows mastery of how a toxic alcohol-driven culture can be menacingly chilling. Garner and Henwick are impressive in the lead roles, as gender-power dynamics unfold around them. Every scene in the movie has a point that is tensely dramatic. Green has proven with this film, as well as with The Assistant, that she is a special talent in world cinema. This film is a psychological thriller of undoubted quality.
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