Bran Nue Dae (2009)
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 26
It's original and high-spirited, but Bran Nue Dae is also uneven and sometimes overly kitschy.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 9
It's original and high-spirited, but Bran Nue Dae is also uneven and sometimes overly kitschy.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 4,546
My Rating
Movie Info
In this lively musical comedy drama set in the late '60s, Willie (Rocky McKenzie) is a 16-year-old living in Broome, an Aboriginal community on the western coast of Australia. Willie is an easygoing kid who doesn't ask for much from life beyond enjoying time with his friends and getting a date with Rosie (Jessica Mauboy), a pretty girl who attends the same church. But Willie's mother thinks he should be following a more responsible path, and convinces him to transfer to a Catholic boarding
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Cast
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Rocky McKenzie
Willie -
Jessica Mauboy
Rosie -
Ernie Dingo
Uncle Tadpole -
'Missy' Higgins
Annie -
Geoffrey Rush
Father Benedictus -
Deborah Mailman
Roxanne -
Tom Budge
Slippery -
Magda Szubanski
Roadhouse Betty -
Ningali Lawford-Wolf
Theresa -
Stephen Baamba Albert
Pastor Flakkon -
Dan Sultan
Lester
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All Critics (61) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (26)
The film is uneven but in a kind of sweet, earnest way.
Top CriticYou have to wonder about the film's almost complete portrayal of Aborigines as dim-witted dunderers, dancing fools, thieves and drunks. Whites fare no better. Does the film explode stereotypes, or reinforce them?
The bright colors and vibrant backgrounds ... go a long way in distracting from shortcomings in the story and style of this offhand hybrid.
Bran Nue Dae is an infectiously joyful Australian Aboriginal musical.
Soon, whenever someone launches into a song, you roll your eyes and hope the tune is a short one.
Geoffrey Rush chews so much scenery that he looks ready to burst.
Cute and deliciously off-kilter.
The quirkiest musical I've ever seen, and despite its flaws I enjoyed it.
It's a Bran Nue Dae for Australian comedy. Enjoyable and satirical; a pleasant surprise.
Bran Nue Dae is so spectacularly cheerful and effervescent it has successfully wrestled my practical criticisms and deemed them irrelevant.
Out of left field and Down Under comes Rachel Perkins' musical to surprise viewers, as if a stranger burst into a well-orchestrated song in conversation.
Comes off as "Moulin Rouge" at half speed, which is more of a compliment than you might imagine.
Instead of being a fount of melody, this film is more of a song desert with exactly one memorable song...
Reportedly a popular musical in Australia, though it's difficult to imagine why, Bran Nue Dae is a film adaptation that barely qualifies as either a film or a musical.
It's not everyday you see an 'all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing'Aboriginal musical that also boasts Geoffrey Rush as a scenery-chewing priest with a dodgy German accent.
Bran Nue Dae is a kooky, deliriously happy mix of happenstance and broadly-drawn characters who are apt to break into song at any given moment. It's not quite enough for me to recommend, but I'm not unhappy to have seen it.
A difficult sit for anyone unable to tune into the film's dedication to bootleg turns of plot and characterization, with the whole endeavor starting to feel like a dental drill after the first act.
It's a bit corny and reminiscent of Baz Luhrmann or Julie Taymor's pop fantasies, but we can forgive her.
Doesn't hit on all cylinders but features some great original ideas and a bunch of catchy song and dance numbers sure to delight audiences of all ages.
Delightful musical trip of a teenage Aborigine through 1960's Australian outback with wonderful rocking mix of song genres, let alone hippies, to feel like Hair.
Audience Reviews for Bran Nue Dae
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Willie: How did you find me?
- Uncle Tadpole: All young boys end up at the condom tree.
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Director Rachel Perkins was old on the idea upon seeing the play in the early '90s, and more than a decade later has worked with Jimmy Chi to bring it to the big screen. And what a fine job she's done.
As an Aborigine, Perkin's affinity with the material is clear, and her heritage provides her with more creative leeway than a non-indigenous director may have enjoyed. For while issues such as death in custody are subtly addressed, so too are stereotypes such as binge drinking in indigenous communities, but in a far more playful fashion than we're used to.
Ostensibly, though, such issues play second fiddle to what is essentially a coming-of-age road movie, as teenager Willie attempts to make his way home to Broome from Perth after fleeing his Catholic school. At first glance, a homegrown musical featuring an Australian idol (Jessica Mauboy), a Triple J darling (Missy Higgins) and an unknown (Rocky McKenzie) may not appeal, but all acquit themselves well. Geoffrey Rush has fun as the frightfully Teutonic Father Benedictus, lending the film both credibility and quality, while Ernie Dingo's reprisal of his stage role as Uncle Tadpole is the work of a man both very familiar with, and fond of, the source material. Cameos from Deborah Mailman and Magda Szubanski are fun, frivolous and, therefore, in keeping with the overall feel of the film.