Oz

After a not so romantic Saturday night I treated myself to a date with someone I know is a constant in my life - me. Australia was the film of choice and I built myself up to the idea of the 3hrs plus it would take.. Armed with coffee and water (my daytime movie staples) I settled in.. 3 rows from the front - dead centre.

For the record I don't believe a film can 'save the Australian film industry'.. I'll leave that kind of thinking to the boring columnists working on trash urban newspapers.. There is a whole system of change needed from the tax breaks to Australians not being so squeamish about seeing home grown flicks. Plus the industry needs bravery and to stop relying solely on quirky or dark little art house flicks. While some of them are brilliant, we don't need to keep tying to prove ourselves with these genres alone.. Don't even get me started on the TV industry in this country - except to say To Fuck with hospital/ police/ school/ farm dramas..

So Australia... reviews have it pinned as melodramatic, artificial, cliched, piggy backpacking American epic films. It is all of those things and I loved every 165 minutes of it. I even tolerated Nicole and forgot that she is the main reason I don't see films that she is in. It is stunning - visually. It should be approached as a fairy tale.. well one based on fact - even if the facts are a little superficially approached.. It's not Baz's place to educate the world on the full intricacies of parts of our shameful history. His place is obviously that of an excellent and unique auteur. Expect it to be cheesy but go with the flow. The one guarantee is that everyone will fall in love with Nullah.