by Annette Basile
Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Riley Nottingham, Johnny Carr, Lyn Pierse, Declan Clifford, Sophie Ross, Francesca Waters, Lucy Barrett
Intro:
... perfectly paced, which keeps you hooked – the narrative keeps moving and the road trip is a genuine journey.
Kintsugi – the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with seams of gold – is symbolic of embracing life’s imperfections, and making something beautiful out of something that is, apparently, destroyed. It’s also the underlying theme in this Australian film about two brothers with a ruptured relationship.
Dope-smoking, reggae-loving Ged (Johnny Carr) is volatile and rough around the edges. Younger brother Nate (Riley Nottingham) is clean-cut, pansexual and has a funeral director boyfriend, Blake (Declan Clifford).
The story starts with their mother’s birthday. And it will soon prove to be her last. Mum Trish (Lyn Pierse) has summoned Ged from Western Australia to Melbourne, where he will face his brother for the first time in four years.
When Ged and Nate were kids, they were known as the “cuddle brothers”, but something happened in the past that broke the brotherly bond. Now they face a long road trip together – travelling from Melbourne to Narrabri in northern NSW, in Blake’s hearse, to fulfil their mother’s dying wish to have her ashes scattered on the old family property. The reason for the brothers’ falling out unfolds in flashbacks during the journey.
Written and directed by Henry Boffin (web turned TV series Metro Sexual, starring and co-created with Riley Nottingham), Strange Creatures is a dramady with a couple of fine and unexpected comic moments, but it leans more towards drama – one that handles the heavy subject matter of loss and fractured families with a sense of lightness (aided by the unusual choice of a reggae soundtrack, which nevertheless works).
Boffin has delivered a film that’s perfectly paced, which keeps you hooked – the narrative keeps moving and the road trip is a genuine journey. There are also impressive little details – like Ged arriving at his mother’s home wearing an ill-fitting suit, or the sound of a clock that ticks in the background, somehow underlying the awkwardness of the family reunion.
The performances are excellent, it’s well made and, most importantly, Strange Creatures leaves you satisfied.
