Bring Her Back

Official Australian release date: 29/5/25. Viewed: 31/5/25.
Directors: Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou
Actors: Billy Barrat, Sora Wong, Sally Hawkins, Jonah Wren Phillips
Genre: Horror / Drama
Rating: MA

‘Bring Her Back’ is a slow-reveal horror, directors the Philippou brothers once again finding the darkness in the Adelaide hills, following their first film ‘Talk To Me’. We follow teenagers Piper (Wong), who’s mostly blind, and her brother Andy (Barrat) as they’re placed in foster care with Laura (Hawkins from ‘The Shape of Water’), and her other adopted son, Oliver (Phillips). Somethings not quite right from the outset, but it is a bit hidden to start with and is only unsettling for the first 40min or so.

The backstory is slowly given to us in glimpses, and Hawkins does well to make Laura not an evil mastermind, but rather just a terribly-misguided grieving mother. All the actors are superb, with Andy and Piper being making you really care about them and Oliver having one of the best blank stares you’ll ever see. That said, there’s a few really gruesome scenes that the camera doesn’t shy away from and make you squirm – they’ll definitely stick with me!

It's a pretty tight 1 hour 40min, and while the body count isn’t too high, the tension and shocks/grossness of most of the final 40min are very well done and make this a pretty unique Aussie horror film. The ending is mostly satisfying – looking forward to seeing what the brothers do next.

Overall: Memorable horror mystery

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars  

 

The Surfer

Official Australian release date: 15/5/25. Viewed: 25/5/25.
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
Actors: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Finn Little, Nic Cassim
Genre: Thriller / Drama
Rating: MA

‘The Surfer’ is an Australian film (albeit with an Irish director and American star), set in southern Western Australia, so we get plenty of great scenery, beach vistas, Aussie soundscapes and gratuitous animal shots – I think they had everything but a koala! Cage plays the nameless “surfer” (funny when he says near the end: “I have a name”, and then you realise the audience doesn’t know what it is!), who’s been in the USA and wants to move home and take his son (Little) surfing. He runs into Scally (McMahon), a self-styled surfing guru/cult leader, who makes this more difficult than it should be.

At first you don’t like any of the locals (I swear most Aussies aren’t like this!), as what starts off as local protectionism slowly turns more sinister. There’s also a homeless man (Cassim), which sets up a nice plot twist as Cage does Cage and spends lots of time doing the wide-eyed/mouth open Cage stare, presumably due to heat stroke. There’s a fair bit of “what’s real and what’s not”, which is pretty well stitched together at the end. Basically, Cage is gaslight by Scally, his acolytes and local cop (Rosniak). Good to see Tapsell as one of the few regular people here.

It has some almost-funny moments, but mostly it’s all a bit wry. There’s definitely some gross bits, and while the tension does build, it’s not really fully as weird, violent, or chaotic as other recent Cage films (i.e. ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massie Talent’, ‘Colour Out of Space’, ‘Dream Scenario’). Score is ok, with soundtrack almost non-existent. Great to see more Australian locations on screen. Good, without being great.

Overall: Surfing is suffering (in this case)

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars  

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Official Australian release date: 17/5/25. Viewed: 17/5/25.
Director: Chris McQuarrie
Actors: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales
Genre: Action / Adventure
Rating: M

‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ is the 8^th and possibly final film in the franchise. Pretty impressive that Tom Cruise has been steadily making these for 30 years, without over-saturating the market. This is a direct sequel to ‘Dead Reckoning’, with Ethan (Cruise) in possession of the key to stop the malevolent AI called “The Entity”. This means he comes out of the shadows a bit, and interacts with the US President (Bassett) and General Sidney (Offerman).

The plot means Ethan has to retrieve something from a sunken submarine, which is arguably the tensest scene in the film, as well as possibly the most unbelievable, but is expertly done. We also get to see the team from the previous film back – long-timers Luther (Rhames), Benji (Pegg), Kittridge (Czerny), plus returnees Grace (Atwell), Paris (Klementieff) and antagonist Gabriel (Morales). The best call-back though is Donloe (Saxon) and how he’s important to the story. As much as it’s all about Ethan, it's always good to see the IMF team in action.

Similar to the last film, it’s shot around the world – London, Norway, South Africa. The stunts in the bi-planes flying over the South African coast are particularly stunning, and amazing to know that Cruise is literally hanging on those planes himself. While perhaps not as cohesive as ‘Fallout’ or ‘Dead Reckoning’, at 2 hours 45min there’s plenty of action to get through. Less espionage, and more “convince the armed forces not to blow each other up”, making sure the stakes are high. Less trademark-Tom-running than usual, but plenty of fight scenes, bomb diffusions and stunts galore.

Overall: Solid ending if it is, more great action set pieces

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars  

The Correspondent

Official Australian release date: 17/4/25. Viewed: 5/5/25.
Director: Kriv Stenders
Actors: Richard Roxburgh, Rahel Romahn, Julian Maroun, Yael Stone
Genre: Drama
Rating: M

‘The Correspondent’ is from the director of ‘Red Dog’ and ‘Danger Close’, and is based on the true story of Peter Greste (Roxburgh), the Australian journalist working for Al Jeezera in Cairo in 2013, during the Arab Spring uprising, when he & colleagues Fahmy (Maroun) and Mohamed (Romahn) get arrested. The film starts well, setting up some of the protests and why Greste is there, but not really delving much into the wider politics of what’s happening in Egypt.

It’s all filmed in Australia, as we don’t see much of Egypt, due to mostly being inside prison blocks. The film only follows Greste, often consciously claustrophobically so, as he tries to comprehend what’s happening to him and how to navigate his way out, without compromising his journalistic integrity. Having Fahmy and Mohamed in the same predicament, albeit not foreign nationals, helps him share his burden at times, but also adds complications.

Part courtroom drama, part psychological horror, it’s a slow-burn at 2 hours, with a mostly-happy ending – even if it’s mostly inexplicable as with the initial arrests – that’s sobered by the on-screen statistics that close the film. All the actors are good, with Roxburgh carrying the weight of the situation on his face and shoulders, and Kate (Stone) fleshing out some of his past guilt in flashbacks of his time with her in Mogadishu.

Overall: By no means fun, but well-made true story

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars