14-05-2025
The best thriller movies of all time for a suspense-packed film night
This Melbourne-set crime thriller packs all the energy of an early Scorsese picture, while bringing something fresh and distinctively Aussie to the genre. David Michôd's feature debut has its roots in the real-life slaying of two cops in the late '80s, and those incidents' recreation is just one of the bursts of violence in a movie that carefully picks its moments for maximum shock. Caught in the middle is wide-eyed innocent Joshua (James Frecheville), wondering who he can trust in the clan of criminals he's been adopted into. The answer? No one, least of all Jacki Weaver's Smurf, a matriarch of real menace.
The killer moment: The odious but oddly charismatic Pope (Ben Mendelsohn, before he became Hollywood's go-to villain) seethes in his living-room chair plotting evil, while Air Supply's 'All Out of Love' makes an ironic counterpoint.
