The New Boy

It's 1940's in the Australian outback. An Aboriginal boy is captured by the police and sent to an orphanage run by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). Everybody is hiding the fact that the priest who is supposed to be running the place, is in fact dead.

The movie is definitely trying to do something interesting. I applaud the attempt. I don't know if it's actually a good movie. It starts with a bang and then it becomes a murky flight of spirituality and identity. I like the kid and one can't do much better than Cate Blanchett. It's worth a try to see this once if you can stay with it all the way to the end. I won't be seeing it again.

Warwick Thornton's new film is a moving meditation on what it means to be caught between two cultures and the challenges of trying to bridge incommensurable spiritualities. Aswan Reid is the unnamed 'new boy' a nine-year old new arrival at a remote mission in 1940s South Australia, led by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett).

The new boy is a 'clever man' with the spiritual powers of his own Indigenous culture and a fascination for the Catholic spirituality he encounters at the Mission. This interest is interpreted by Sister Eileen as a conversion (with the miraculous overtones of bearing the stigmata) but the new boy's baptism leads to a disruption in the emerging 'two-ways' connections between Indigenous and Catholic spirituality.

The film is shot beautifully by Thornton who also writes and directs this semi-autobiographical film (though relocated to an earlier time period than his own). There is a scene where the new boy is running a foot race, goes beyond the finish line, and just keeps running. Sister Eileen calls out 'Come back!' while Aboriginal work-hand George (Wayne Blair) calls 'Keep going!' This litany continues for some time and serves as an interesting metaphor for the situation of so many caught between Blackfella and Whitefella worlds.

Deborah Mailman offers good support as 'Sister Mum' and all the boys offer good naturalistic performances. It's refreshing to see a film about dispossession and colonisation where genuine kindness and compassion is on display rather than straightforward cruelty and abuse. While it doesn't quite have the power of Thornton's other films, such as Samson and Delilah (2009) or Sweet Country (2017) it confirms his reputation as one of Australia's best film makers.

Set against a backdrop of a strongly colonial and white Australia, we are rather violently introduced to a young, blonde, Aboriginal lad (Aswan Reid) who is conked out by a boomerang and awakens to find himself in the care of "Sister Eileen" (Cate Blanchett) and "Sister Mum" (Deborah Mailman) at a remote orphanage. She is pretty devout and he is very much in tune with nature - both people of faith, but not the same kind. The arrival of a large wooden crucifix to top their altar seems to focus both of them on what now becomes a rather dry and simplistic tale of spirituality. Reid does come across well. There is a spontaneity and naturalness to his performance, but Blanchett over-eggs just about all of the rest of it. She does this type of role well - shorn hair, manic eyes, slightly eccentric characterisation - but here there's just not enough story for her (or us) to get the teeth into. I got the sense that there was something almost "Oliver Twist" about the lad. Blonde? Sent away? Did he have a secret identity? That's not the story, though - and when he suffers his own rather personal misfortune at the end, I felt a rather overwhelming dislike of "Eileen" and her superstition-ridden church. Too be fair, this isn't a film that doesn't provoke a response - but with sparse dialogue and little character development, it's not really much more than a beautifully photographed vehicle for Blanchett to indulge herself and for Reid to be a boy facing a confusing future.

Australian director Warwick Thornton is known for his works on Sweet Country and Samson and Delilah as Thornton has proven himself on being a good filmmaker on Australian cinema. I'm going to be honest, I really love the first hour of this movie but unfortunately, despite good intentions and gorgeous camerawork, the film weakens with it's convoluted themes and weak narrative.

Throughout, the camerawork is absolutely gorgeous alongside with the soundtrack from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis which provided a good atmosphere of the Australian landscapes. Every single shot and sound design felt real and added a great atmopshere for the movies tone and setting. The performances from the cast members are pretty good especially Aswan Reid as his performance was strong and held up throughout the film.

Narrative wise, the narrative explores interesting themes and concepts and while it's clear what intentions the narrative is going for, it unfortunately does hold strong. Mainly because the narrative explores themes that don't feel fully developed and it felt the concepts were sometimes going all over the place. The dialogue from the characters were okay and the characters, while offer some interesting aspects about them, they weren't able to feel fully connectable. I understand what the characters intentions and what Thornton is trying to explore but the issue is that it feels undeveloped. The production designs is beautiful. The pacing could use some improvements.

As mentioned, the first hour was really strong with some interesting themes and ideas explored within the character and setting. But the rest half begins to feel lost and at times tedious with it's uneven pacing and style. Overall, despite these flaws, I still found the film to be ambitious for the most part. Good intentions that just needs some more work.

My Review- The New Boy My rating 9/10

This film reminds me so much of the 1947 classic movie Black Narcissus which is also about an isolated community of nuns written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

The New Boy is a totally different story written by Warwick Thornton set in a totally different location but in my opinion there are some striking similarities.

Black Narcissus like The New Boy also deals with conflicts of faith and extreme culture clashes .

The New Boy produced by Cate Blanchett's production company Dirty Films also like Black Narcissus has an ethereal quality some sets almost look artificial but this adds to the drama.

I also noticed in one pivotal scene the label of a bottle of wine reads Blue Narcissus.

What's The New Boy about ?

This is open to interpretation all I'll say is it's a movie you have to think about .

My interpretation of this fine film is that it's about clash of cultures and a crisis of faith when two spiritual beliefs one Christian and the other indigenous First Nation spirituality collide by an accident of fate.

Mixing realism with the magical aspects of a fable, The New Boy is set in 1940s Australia and centres around an Aboriginal child (played by 11-year-old newcomer Aswan Reid) with mysterious 'powers'.

Eleven year old Aswan Reid gives the finest debut performance of an indigenous boy since David Gulpilil in the original Storm Boy he only has two words of dialogue in the movie but his emotive and spiritual performance doesn't need dialogue.

Cate Blanchett is brilliant as a kind but troubled Head nun Sister Eileen who runs a school for boys that have no mothers themselves - even though we know this to be a lie, as they have been taken from their families and their fate is governed by the Protector of Aborigines.

The New Boy is brought to the monastery after being captured by a Native Policeman.

Sister Eileen who welcomes the new boy as she farewells an older aboriginal boy is desperately trying to maintain her outback community after the priest in charge died she seeks guidance praying to his spirit .

She is fiery and often unconventional but kind as she prays and try's to hide the fact that there is no longer a man in charge from authorities who wouldn't allow a woman in charge of the monastery.

The other nun is Sister Mum so beautifully and sensitively played by Deborah Mailman who assists in the property's farm running while also cooking and caring for the small group of "orphaned boys." Sister Mum's story would make a fine film on its own as we see her tearfully look at a photo of her own children we wonder how she became a nun and can only guess what happened to her two children?

Wayne Blair is also impressive as the Aboriginal overseer who supervises the boys farm work . He becomes suspicious and fearful of the spiritual power of the new boy.

Cate Blanchett helped to develop the story with Warwick Thornton and both decided to make the character a nun instead of a monk who was the original character.

Thornton had originally imagined a priest running the monastery and had given his film the working title Father and the Son but both thought this could add a dark connotation to the story.

Production of The New Boy began in October 2022 and wrapped in December that year. The outdoor scenes were shot on location near Burra in South Australia The wonderful music score of The New Boy was written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis .

Warwick Thornton the writer of The New Boy is also director and cinematographer and I think this movie is as impressive as his 2009 movie Samson and Delilah.