KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Kamila Bell
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Celia
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
pugsandroses
The photography and camera work are beautiful, the acting is good, I was really satisfied with it.The only thing that is amiss is the script. It doesn't make you feel for the characters, except for a few moments for the gay kid and later for the father. Because of that it reads as a film about nothing, none of the feelings and events are explored enough so it should have either been a longer film or have less things too focus on and in more depth. The movie starts well enough and the pacing is good but when it gets to the point of the competition it just finishes abruptly without any sort of conclusion or epilogue. It builds up to nothing.Also if you want to watch it for the gay issues you'll find very little (albeit not none, but they only scratch the surface) material here.
melwyn
This was on local telly last night, and as I feel a little "patriotic obligation" with Aussie films, I gave it a go.Within ten minutes I had put nearly every character neatly back in the "central casting" pigeonhole they'd been taken from and was mentally writing the rest of the movie in dot points. In the end, the trendy, tokenistic gay element was the only thing I missed.As far as the characterisations and plot are concerned, there is nothing original in this film. That can be overlooked if it is executed well, but it wasn't. Fairly pedestrian, soapie-level stuff for the most part, with wall-to-wall white Aussies acting out a story seemingly cobbled together from old episodes of "Home and Away".Cast-wise, the youngsters weren't too bad, in fact certainly promising as far as their ability to express a range of emotions. By contrast, Shane Jacobson proved beyond doubt that he is a rubbish actor, possibly one of the most overrated actors of the last few years. Watching him "cry" was one of the funniest things about this film. He's that unconvincing. Shane, stick to "comedies" where you just play yourself, won't you? So why two stars? The younger cast members for one. Two, the surfing sequences are beautifully shot - and no, I'm not a surfie by any means.
KdogHeaven
While I've seen some over-the-top homophobic comments of two 'reviewers'. This is not a "gay-themed" film. There's a small, but bright facet that is gay-themed.Family, sibling rivalry among brothers, loss, teenage high-jinx, and a lot of surfing overshadows the fact that one brother is gay. The few PG moments of sex are between two older teen boys and their girlfriends. If seeing a male butt, (in a non-sexual context), makes you squirm, you better stay away from a ton of "regular" movies and museums too.Anyway, "Newcastle" is the story of how a tragedy enables a family to overcome nagging internal tensions. There are no villains, just victims of their own fear and disappointment. The performances are all topnotch. A minus for US viewer: occasionally the Aussie accents are a little hard to understand.
kinolieber
Call me a gay philistine, but this movie has one of the most gorgeous group of young guys in any movie I've seen, and they spend most of the time bare-chested and often nude. But the film, in an effort, I guess, to get a PG rating, plays a ridiculous game of peek-a-boo with full frontal shots. If the film maker had just been casual about it, as films of the 21st century have been for a while, he might have added a bit of integrity and realism that the film could use. And probably made it even more commercially successful. Marketing people have obviously decided to downplay this aspect of the movie: the near constant focus on the guys' physical beauty, their faces, their bodies (especially their asses) and their surfing ability. And nowhere on the website or trailer is there any mention of the one really original aspect of the film: the integration of a gay teen in a group of straight guys: the way he's taunted, but accepted, and the way he finds his way to his first experience of reciprocated sexual affection.Maybe the filmmaker will release a gay director's cut and test my thesis.
