Review: Last Ride

by phill

Literally just got

back from seeing this movie and I am stunned at how good it was. Perhaps ‘stunned’ isn’t quite the right word; it would imply that I wasn’t expecting Hugo Weaving to put in a quality performance, or that the photography of Greig Fraser wouldn’t be as majestic as could be imagined. But while I wasn’t surprised at the individual elements shining, I certainly wasn’t expecting the combination of said elements producing such an amazing outcome.

The film is set in outback South Australia, and features the two main characters of Kev (played by Hugo Weaving) and Chook (played by Tom Russell). We gather from the very beginning of the film that this isn’t exactly a weekend away in the bush for fun and adventure–Kev is running from something, and Chook has been dragged along with him whether he likes it or not.

Besides the intense landscapes, the thing that made it most for me was the interplay between father and son. Having come from a similar (though definitely not as extreme) background as the one being played out by Chook and his father, I found it impossible not to look a bit more deeply into the roles played by both characters. Chook, the imaginative, curious kid who is forced to question his unquestioning devotion to his father. And Kev, whose inadequaciesc as a father figure lead him to situations where his hair-trigger temper gets the better of him. While Kev is certainly not a character that ought to be liked, his struggle between the egoism necessary to maintain his alpha-male mentality and the putting aside of one’s self necessary to raise a child is something that could easily be identified with by many Australian males. Similarly, Chook’s internal battle is one of choosing whether to believe that his father is indeed that, a father that cares for him and just loses it every now and again, or if his Dad is really a bad person. It’s a question that we as an audience can certainly answer (He’s violent. He’s selfish. He…well, you’ll see) on a surface level, but to be in that situation and make that decision about your own father? It’s really fucking hard, and I think the actor, Tom Russell, does an amazing job in allowing us to see that far below the surface.

But I may be projecting here. In any case, even if you do walk away with it with only the intense beauty of the Australian landscape in your memory, Last Ride is an important film to go and see. It’ll leave you breathless, one way or another. 4.5/5 Yellow Toranas from me.

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