The 25 Best Australian Films Of The Noughties

By Erin Free

It’s Australia Day tomorrow, so we’re republishing this epic list outlining the 25 best local films to hit screens between 2000 and 2009. There may be a contentious choice or two in there, but let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

1. CHOPPER (2000)

“I’m just a bloody normal bloke…a normal bloke who likes a bit of torture.” Chopper is a quintessential Australian film, riding shotgun with the rough-as-guts likes of Mad Max, Sunday Too Far Away and Stone in terms of its iconography, sense of mythology, and lip-smacking understanding of local vernacular. Written and directed with admirable subtlety by debut feature filmmaker Andrew Dominik, the film takes the real life character of career criminal, hardened convict and notorious stand-over man Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read, and turns him inside out. Dominik scratches at this thug’s hard outer shell and finds something truly strange and unsettling underneath. The director is helped immeasurably by the brilliant Eric Bana in the title role – the former comedian embodies the character in such a fierce, highly committed way as to prompt legitimate comparisons with Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. It’s a bravura turn, and the film is a hard-jolting masterpiece: eminently quotable, both hilarious and horrifying, and utterly unforgettable. “It obviously went beyond my wildest dreams,” Eric Bana told FilmInk of the movie that made him a superstar. “At the back of my head, I knew that if the film was great, then it was obviously going to do great things for me. I wasn’t so naïve as to think that wasn’t the case, but it even went beyond what I’d envisioned.”

2. LANTANA (2001)

While its rich sense of style (courtesy of director Ray Lawrence, who helmed the 1985 classic Bliss) and downbeat, artistic leanings marked Lantana as a strictly arthouse proposition, its accessible story and familiar faces (Geoffrey Rush, Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey, Vince Colosimo) saw it break out and become a commercial hit of rarely glimpsed proportions. Boasting a rich script from Andrew Bovell, densely layered cinematography from Mandy Walker, and evocative music from Paul Kelly, Lantana is a slick, stylish drama seething with dark and passionate undertones. It gets right inside the concepts of love and marriage, and skilfully paints a picture that bristles not just with paranoia and betrayal, but also with hope and compassion. Lantana is an engrossing drama that broils with emotions distinctly real and recognisable, and stands as a true original. “A good film is a balance between entertainment and intelligence,” director Ray Lawrence told FilmInk. “That’s a difficult balance, but I think that I managed it with this one. If I hadn’t made it, I’d like to see it. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I actually love the film.”

3. AUSTRALIA (2009)

It’s by now been well documented that Australia was the kind of film that drew a metaphorical line in the sand. For the cynical, it was pure poison. For those who prefer movies that hit the screen with a stylistic flourish, and that unapologetically wear their hearts on their sleeve, Australia was a cinematic tonic. Rich, ambitious and often brave, the film reached, with desperately clawing outstretched hands, for greatness. Within the scope of its intent – namely to be a classic, melodramatic epic like Gone With The Wind and Giant – it succeeds. Australia is unashamed in its full-throttle emotion and grandiosity, and director Baz Luhrmann’s famous chocolate-box visuals immediately set the film in a wholly different world. With its vivid colours, purple prose and archetypal characters, Australia exists on a plane of nostalgic joy. It remains a stunning experience, unless, of course, you’re too cynical to enjoy candy-coloured sunsets and long, passionate kisses in the rain. “A film like this only comes along once in a blue moon,” Hugh Jackman accurately told FilmInk.

4. THE PROPOSITION (2005)

From Mad Dog Morgan through to Ned Kelly, the iconic figure of the bushranger has provided thick, meaty grist for Australian filmmakers. The best movie on the subject, however, is John Hillcoat’s arid, bloodstained masterpiece The Proposition. Driven by hallucinatory cinematography from Benoit Delhomme and a tersely poetic script by musician/author Nick Cave (who also teams with Warren Ellis for the stirring, unconventional soundtrack), the film pits brother against brother in the brutal, unforgiving outback, as hard bitten outlaw Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) attempts to haul in his demonic elder sibling, Arthur (Danny Huston), in order to save his younger brother, the simple-minded Mike (Richard Wilson), who is shaking – alone and desperate – in the gaol of the highly compromised Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). “I’m a big fan of the westerns of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone, and I could see that Australia had its own history for that,” John Hillcoat told FilmInk of his inspirations for the film. “The landscape is certainly perfect for the setting.”

5. RABBIT PROOF FENCE (2002)

Using his prodigious gifts as a creator of highly accomplished commercial successes, director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, The Bone Collector) made the explosive Rabbit-Proof Fence as exciting and accessible as it was timely. Following the extraordinary journey undertaken by three young Aboriginal girls caught up in the horrors of The Stolen Generation, the film is about innocence subsumed by outside forces, and essentially children in danger, making it a visceral, instantly engrossing film that works from an emotional, rather than polemic, base. Noyce puts you right inside the plight of his central protagonists, taking the audience on an adrenalised ride that totally skirts the potential preaching that a subject like this could have inspired. Tightly made and richly rewarding, Rabbit-Proof Fence speaks in universal terms about an important issue, while also going straight for the heart. “It was great to be free of the star system, and having to negotiate every scene based on the whims of the star,” Noyce told FilmInk of working in Australia for the first time in many years.

6. NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD (2009)

It might not have set the box office alight in the way that it ideally should have, but director Mark Hartley’s rollicking, beautifully crafted documentary Not Quite Hollywood remains a truly vital Australian film of great importance. It’s rare that we re-evaluate our cinematic history on screen, and Hartley’s film not only does that, but also explores a chapter in Australian film – namely the exploitation boom of the seventies and eighties – that most people had forgotten. “I don’t think we’re ashamed of these films…we don’t bother to talk about them at all,” Mark Hartley told FilmInk. “These films are totally dismissed. There was a whole hidden history of stories that had never been documented. They were pretty much just dismissed.” As entertaining as it is culturally relevant, Not Quite Hollywood is a stellar work that should be compulsory viewing for anyone with an interest in Australian film or, damn it, an interest in Australia in general. “We all hoped that the film would be entertaining,” Hartley said, “but then it dawned on us that it might possibly be a bit more important than that.”

7. KENNY (2006)

The extraordinary success of the low budget comedy mockumentary Kenny started with its titular character, and the film’s early marketing strategy, which had actor/co-writer Shane Jacobson hitting the promotional trail (including interviews, screenings, radio appearances and so on) “in character” as port-a-loo cleaner and installer Kenny Smyth. This conceit worked an absolute treat. Why? Because Kenny is a truly great character: a big, bearish, loveable man who espouses the best kind of principles. He’s hilariously funny, with a quip for every occasion (“There’s a smell in here that will outlive religion,” he says when scrubbing down a particularly messy dunny); he’s a hard worker who never complains; he’s non-judgemental; he’s a devoted father; and, in short, an all around top bloke. Australians fell in love with Kenny – and the wonderfully witty and warm film that carries his name – and turned him into an instant national icon. “I remembered when I was cleaning toilets in a factory and how people just saw right through me,” director Clayton Jacobson told FilmInk. “I thought, ‘There’s really something in this…’”

8. LOOK BOTH WAYS (2005)

For her debut effort, short filmmaker and acclaimed animator Sarah Watt delivered a film of startling immediacy and maturity with Look Both Ways. Something of a rarity, the film actually has something to say, and a strong, convincing way of saying it. The underlying drive of Look Both Ways is all about death, and the different ways of handling it; it’s deep, dangerous territory that has crippled many accomplished filmmakers, but Watt proved herself a surprisingly assured hand: her script is powerful, yet plays out with an admirable light touch, as the comfortable life of newspaper photographer Nick (William McInnes) starts to crumble when he’s diagnosed with testicular cancer, but soon gets back on track as he finds a new sense of affirmation with struggling artist Meryl (Justine Clarke). “I like to be entertained, and I like a film to be funny,” Sarah Watt told FilmInk. “Humour doesn’t go away even in your darkest moments. I still think that the film is a romantic comedy. It’s a romantic comedy about testicular cancer!”

9. LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI (2000)

Based upon Melina Marchetta’s beloved novel, and beautifully brought to the screen by debut director Kate Woods, Looking For Alibrandi is right at the forefront of the Australian pantheon of teen films, safely sitting beside classics such as The Year My Voice Broke, Puberty Blues and The FJ Holden. Though sunny in tone, the film effectively tackles weighty subject matter such as cultural identity and self belief, and introduced a swathe of exciting young performers, including Pia Miranda (as the plucky Josie), Matthew Newton (as her upper crust crush, John) and Kick Gurry (as working class hero, Jacob). “It’s my first feature, it’s Pia’s first feature, it’s Kick’s first feature, and it’s Kate’s first feature,” Matthew Newton told FilmInk. “There were a lot of virgins on the set, but it all came together really well. I knew that it was a great script, and once I got on set and saw how things were running, I knew that it was going to be pretty special. I could see that everyone was doing incredible work.”

10. WOLF CREEK (2005)

With one ruthless knife-swipe, writer/director Greg McLean cleaved the Australian cinematic landscape in half. His low budget horror film Wolf Creek dragged audiences into cinemas in massive numbers and changed opinions as to what kind of movies can be made in Australia. More Michael Haneke and Gaspar Noe than Friday The 13th, the film is a brutal exercise in grimly realistic terror. “Whether you look at Wolf Creek as a crappy horror movie or as a thriller, it does focus you on an extremely uncomfortable moment,” Greg McLean told FilmInk. “It allows you to dwell on the darkest kind of human transaction that you can imagine.” That transaction – namely murder – is horrifyingly meted out in the film by outback killer Mick Taylor, played with unforgettable vigour by John Jarratt. “John is such a strong actor that he just destroys any perception that you may have had of him,” the director said of his seemingly odd casting choice. “When he comes out as Mick, I just can’t see anything else but a burning psychopath.”

11. BOXING DAY (2007)

Filmmaker Kriv Stenders likes to live on the edge. His debut feature The Illustrated Family Doctor upset audiences with its images of disease and physical breakdown. Stenders’ second film, Blacktown, was a rigorous about-face, substituting his first film’s stylised schemata with the kind of gritty, grungy, kitchen-sink realism peddled by the likes of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. His finest film, however, would come next. A literal jawbreaker of a film, Boxing Day was shot on fumes, and deals with tough, in-your-face subject matter, as Richard Green’s conflicted ex-con and recovering alcoholic crashes into a family catastrophe on what is supposed to be the best day of the year. “It’s the stuff of real drama, and it makes for compelling viewing,” Stenders told FilmInk of the confrontational nature of his film. “I tried to make a film based on a real world and real characters that I know exist, rather than something imagined and contrived.” The results are nothing less than stunning, and this no-budget wonder has more heart than most films ten times its size.

12. ROMULUS, MY FATHER (2007)

After a highly successful career on the stage and screen, Australian actor Richard Roxburgh turned director with seeming ease on his highly impressive debut feature film Romulus, My Father, a bruising and unforgettable account of the ugly childhood experienced by author and philosopher Raimond Gaita. Though gaining expectedly brilliant performances from Eric Bana, Franka Potente and Marton Csokas, Roxburgh’s work with extraordinary young actor Kodi Smit-McPhee proved the film’s masterstroke, as he grounds the visually poetic and utterly heart rending film with his quietly affecting and engaging turn. “It’s a journey into darkness,” Richard Roxburgh told FilmInk of his artistically and commercially successful debut. “I’ve never thought of this story as depressing though. I’ve always thought of it as an uplifting story that is really a journey through darkness, and it’s been really heartening to see that so many people have gotten on the train with us.”

13. WALKING ON WATER (2002)

Australian filmmaker Tony Ayres’ debut feature Walking On Water was like a cinematic slap to the face: a bold, uncompromising masterwork that dealt with tough subjects like euthanasia, sexuality, family fractures, AIDS and emotional suffering. Starring the often underrated Vince Colosimo (in a career-best performance, and playing against type as a conflicted gay man) and the excellent Maria Theodorakis as two friends who help their dying buddy end his life, Walking On Water announced director Tony Ayres and screenwriter Roger Monk as major talents (Ayres would follow it with the excellent The Home Song Stories) unafraid of risky, potentially divisive subject matter. “It was always going to be hard finding the right mix of humour and darkness,” Tony Ayres told FilmInk of his daring film. “The film is ultimately about friendship. This is an ensemble piece, and ensembles are like jigsaw puzzles – everything has to click together. These people make sense in their own terms, no matter what they do, and they don’t always behave well.”

14. DIRTY DEEDS (2002)

In this blazing, sixties-set crime drama, Bryan Brown is Barry Ryan, a crime boss who rules Sydney’s shady poker machine trade. In between giving his fresh-from-Vietnam nephew (Sam Worthington) a start in the business, and hiding his young mistress (Kestie Morassi) from his tough-talking wife (Toni Collette), Ryan hosts a visiting American Mafia soldier (John Goodman), who has been dispatched to cut into the cash mainline that runs through Sydney’s underworld. Although usually a more naturalistic director, David Caesar (Idiot Box, Mullet) really let himself off the leash with this vibrant, stylised crime caper. Though not quite the major hit that many had hoped it would be (it did solid but not spectacular business locally), Dirty Deeds is a wonderfully energetic, imaginatively designed, bold-as-brass crime flick. “If you think a little bit about cultural imperialism and Australia’s place in the world, that’s great,” Caesar told FilmInk of his approach to the film, “but if you just like it for the characters and the shootouts, then that’s great too.”

15. SUBURBAN MAYHEM (2006)

“I can’t recall a character like her,” director Paul Goldman told FilmInk “When I first read the script, I was shocked at how far the character would go. If Katrina was going to take a step back, it would only be to wind up even harder and kick your block off.” In Goldman’s stylised, richly aggressive black comedy Suburban Mayhem, Katrina Skinner – as essayed with full force vigour by young actress Emily Barclay – is a walking nightmare. She’s a nineteen-year-old single mother who wants the good life, and she’s prepared to manipulate, betray and even murder those around her to do it. While Suburban Mayhem sadly failed to light up the box office, it remains one of the wildest and most shocking films of the decade. “We generally expect women to be better behaved,” screenwriter Alice Bell told FilmInk. “When that all goes wrong and a girl goes against all expectation – killing her dad with her baby in the next room – it’s even more interesting, isn’t it?”

16. SOMERSAULT (2004)

The lone gem in what was perhaps Australian cinema’s lowest point (with a cacophony of lame local comedies crowding screens), Somersault came on like a sweet, invigorating shower of rain. The stunning debut feature from acclaimed short filmmaker Cate Shortland justifiably received garlands of praise and was also rewarded with decent box office results. Evocatively shot and sensitively written, Somersault follows the fractured journey of sixteen-year-old Heidi (a heartbreaking, star-making performance from Abbie Cornish), who runs from a flare-up with her mother and ends up in the bleak, snow-slicked town of Lake Jindabyne, where she falls into the arms of a deeply troubled young farmer (Sam Worthington). Equal parts tragic and beautiful, Somersault is a quietly wrought masterpiece that stays with you for days. “I’m very choosy,” Abbie Cornish told FilmInk, giving an instant indication of the film’s quality. “Seriously, if there’s not a good film put in front of me to audition for – even if it takes two years – then I won’t act for two years.”

17. BALIBO (2009)

Films about major political events or important moments in our history (as espoused in the past by the likes of Gallipoli, Breaker Morant, Newsfront and many others) rarely get made any more, and we’re slightly poorer for it. Robert Connolly’s powerful drama Balibo – about the murder of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975 – happily set that right. Cogently directed by Connolly, and cannily co-scripted by David Williamson, Balibo positively seethes and pulses with anger. Though virtually right on our doorstep, what happened in East Timor was barely reported in Australia, and this deeply moving, utterly compelling film finally redressed that imbalance, and is admirable for both its political kick and skilful filmmaking. “I’ve always loved the way that fiction films can apply the blowtorch to history,” Connolly told FilmInk. “We had a real conviction about Balibo. It didn’t matter what the outcome was. This was a story that deserved to be told. It’s a part of Australian history that was slowly starting to fade away.”

18. TOM WHITE (2004)

Alkinos Tsilimidos is one of this country’s true unsung auteurs, a brave and consistently fascinating filmmaker who grinds away working on projects that come straight from the heart. With gritty wonders like Everynight…Everynight, Silent Partner, Blind Company and Em 4 Jay, Tsilimidos has proven himself a master at wringing maximum honesty and style out of minimal, almost crippling, budgets. His most towering work, however, is the brutally uncompromising Tom White, which tracks the sharp, unstoppable downward slide of a white collar salary man (a career defining turn from Colin Friels) who winds up hitting the skids and roaming the streets as a homeless drifter, where he cuts across the paths of a number of bizarre characters. “You often see homeless people and sometimes they’re a pain in the arse,” Alkinos Tsilimidos told FilmInk. “Sometimes you want to avoid eye contact or sometimes they might sting you for a buck. But there’s a person there who has a story. I just wanted to take this bunch of characters and give them a sense of dignity and humanity.”

19. THE BLACK BALLOON (2008)

After introducing herself as a short filmmaker to watch by winning the top prize at Tropfest, writer/director Elissa Down proved that she could go the distance with her debut feature film The Black Balloon. Pulling details out of her own life, Down mixed a rich visual palette with a keen sense of storytelling in this moving, honest and often wryly amusing story about a teenager (the excellent Rhys Wakefield) dealing with his autistic brother (Luke Ford) while also trying to fan the flames of romance with a beautiful classmate (model Gemma Ward makes an auspicious acting debut). With its recognisable setting and hard-fought warmth, The Black Balloon clicked with audiences, and rated as a minor hit. “They say that you should either do your autobiographical film first or last,” Elissa Down told FilmInk. “This just felt like a first film; I knew it innately. The script just happened. I decided that if I was going to tell the story, I should go for broke. This is me getting this story out of my system. It’s therapy disguised as entertainment.”

20. ALEXANDRA’S PROJECT (2003)

With films such as Ten Canoes, The Tracker, The Quiet Room and the astonishing Bad Boy Bubby, Rolf De Heer has firmly proven himself to be one of this country’s most uncompromising and headstrong creative artists. His most emotionally destabilising and haunting film, however, is Alexandra’s Project, which stars the underrated Gary Sweet (in one of his finest performances) as a suburban husband devastated by the quick exit of his wife (the astonishing Helen Buday), who has left behind a damning videotape that crushingly details all of the cracks in their seemingly happy marriage. “People respond to it very differently according to who they are and what their experiences are,” De Heer told FilmInk of his highly divisive film. “Two people sitting in an audience – either two men, two women or one of each – can come out of the film feeling very differently about it. That’s just the way that it is. A couple of people I know just refuse to talk about it with each other, and I think, ‘Whoa! What’s gone on there?’”

21. MAKING VENUS (2002)

For film buffs, there’s nothing more fascinating than a documentary tracking a troubled film shoot, as exemplified by the likes of Burden Of Dreams and Lost In La Mancha. Australia got its own brilliant example with Gary Doust’s utterly absorbing Making Venus, which documented the making of the shambolic low budget sex comedy The Venus Factory, which would twist and morph into a number of different films (Starring Duncan Wiley, The Money Shot) over a period of years. Cousins Jason Gooden and Julian Saggers had produced a few successful short films when they decided to try and crack the big time. With $100,000 raised from friends and family, they began production on a comedy about a porn star wanting to crack into mainstream film. Their lives would never be the same again. “I took a shot,” Gary Doust told FilmInk. “I knew that either way, there was going to be an outcome. If the film worked, the doco would be about how these guys made it. But the film I ended up making was, ‘Where did it all go wrong?’”

22. MOLLY & MOBARAK (2003)

“They were a bit surprised when they saw the title – Molly & Mobarak. They were like, ‘Oh no, he’s gone and made a love story!’” That is, indeed, what this brilliant film from revered Australian documentary filmmaker Tom Zubrycki is: a love story. It’s not, however, all hearts and flowers. This extraordinarily intimate, fly-on-the-wall feature gets right into the grooves of the burgeoning relationship between two very different people. Molly Rule is a smart, sweet natured young woman living in the small NSW town of Young. Mobarek Tahiri is one of a group of refugees from Afghanistan who have been brought to town to work in Young’s thriving abattoir. The two have a troubled, fraught but incredibly engaging relationship that Zubrycki captures with incredible sensitivity, truly weaving the personal with the political, telling both their story and also delivering a quiet protest against the then Howard government’s handling of the refugee situation. “People were quite surprised at the intimacy of it,” Zubrycki told FilmInk.

23. THE HARD WORD (2002)

Crime capers don’t come much more perverse than The Hard Word, a scorching piece of chronically violent, deliciously sleazy and often absolutely hilarious nastiness from debut director Scott Roberts. The Twentyman brothers – Dale (Guy Pearce), Shane (Joel Edgerton) and Mal (Damien Richardson) – are bank robbers with a simple credo: nobody gets hurt. Their mettle is tested, however, when they’re shouldered into pulling the biggest stickup of their career: a daring daylight robbery during The Melbourne Cup. Boasting brilliant, to-the-back-rows performances; an “Am I really seeing that?” moment about every ten minutes; inventively profane dialogue; and lashings of blood and guts, The Hard Word is a truly kinky delight, and something of a rarity: a 100% original Australian crime thriller that couldn’t have been made anywhere else in the world. “The only point of doing something in a cliched genre is to try and subvert it, within the paradigms of your own culture,” director Scott Roberts told FilmInk upon the film’s release. “Hopefully, it’s done that.”

24. NED KELLY (2003)

With a big budget, much touted backing from UK company Working Title, and big name international cast (Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom), Gregor Jordan’s wide scale cinematic telling of the story of Australia’s greatest outlaw and most iconic folk hero was expected to be a massive hit. The crippling weight of expectation, combined with lukewarm reviews, sent Ned Kelly most unfairly into the bin. When viewed today on DVD – free from heightened anticipation – this finely burnished and beautifully shot Australian western shapes up very beautifully. It’s elegantly paced, strongly written, and scored with great subtlety by composer Klaus Badelt. Towering above the film, however, is Heath Ledger, who breathes passionate life into this truly legendary man. He delivers an interestingly full-bodied take on Ned Kelly in a film of equal daring. “I was a bit naive in my anticipation of the reaction,” Gregor Jordan told FilmInk. “I didn’t realise that it would be such an impassioned reaction. Australian’s are pretty divided about they think of Ned Kelly.”

25. NED (2003)

Gregor Jordan may have delivered the more high profile film on Australia’s most famous outlaw with his impressive epic Ned Kelly, but it was young debut filmmaker Abe Forsythe who really applied the chargers to a story that nestles fairly close to just about everyone’s heart in this country. “It’s the true untold story of the Ned Kelly legend,” Forsythe told FilmInk on the release of his film. “Ned is raised by an oppressive rubber farmer and leaves home to become a stage magician. Along the way, he accidentally becomes our country’s greatest outlaw. It’s an action, comedy, spoof, coming-of-age, period, western…with fart jokes.” Though shot for nothing, Ned is literally a raging whirlwind of laughs, with most being of the scatological and offensive variety. “I saw all the Ned Kelly’s running around at the Olympics, and that Peter Carey book had just come out,” Forsythe said of the inspiration behind his criminally little-seen comedy gem. “It pissed me off! We have a warped view of Ned Kelly, and I wanted to take the piss out of it and make him look like an idiot!”