Erskineville Kings

The gripping Erskineville Kings is a great film. One brother returns to Sydney after a long absence in the country. He's there for his abusive father's funeral. Big bro is not happy about his prolonged absence, having been left looking after Dad in his final years. The fact their mother fled her unhappy marriage years ago makes the absence even more painful.

The film is set on a hot summer day, and, like typical Australian males, the boys head off with a few mates to the pub. After all, alcohol is needed to make these guys open up. The beer, the sticky heat and the awkward reunion makes for an explosive mix.

The film is as tense as The Boys, but the characters are more rounded than David Wenham's thoroughly evil Brett Sprague.

This is a film about men and their problems, so the film's sole female lead is a little under-developed.

A great effort. Hugh Jackman is incredible.

Erskineville Kings is another great Australian film. It is about the relationship between two brothers: one who escaped the pace of Sydney and an abusive father to work in the rural north and one who stayed with the father until his dying day.

Wace (Hugh Jackman), the one who stayed is extremely bitter and towards his brother for 'running away' from everything and takes it out on him on his return for the funeral. It is scripted like a play (I'm not sure if it was before it became a film) and is set mainly in a dingy inner west pub. Even though it is theatre like in delivery it works brilliantly as a film especially the cinematography which presents the rough side of the inner west almost as though it is a tribute to the area.

Erskineville Kings is gritty, tense and emotionally charged and overall compulsive viewing - 8/10

A year later Hugh Jackman would become Wolverine, and that's that. But I only heard about this movie - a low low budget Australian production - after reading a review for Prisoners (2013) which said "not since Erskineville Kings have I seen such a powerful performance by Jackman," or something like that. So, I dug deep. Shocked it only has 500 ratings, being Jackman's third movie and the one before X-Men. Slow? Check. Low budget? Check. Boring? Nope. The acting is solid all around, and Jackman's character isn't even introduced until 30min in, by which point I felt engaged enough by the other actors to feel connected. Also, a young Joel Edgerton offered an entertaining role. So, the drama was tangible but the humor was clverly injected to keep you from sinking in the melancholy. The emotional "climax" was superbly performed by Jackman and star Marty Denniss. Not my usual kind of movie but it had respectable substance nonetheless.

A mixed bag of comedy and drama. Hugh Jackman shines and you can see his screen presence straight away. The overall tone is inconsistent, but the story never wanders of the track. The film is slow and the support characters are a little lacking.

Australian films seem to be going through a surge of neo-realism suburban style. THE BOYS, HEAD ON, PRAISE and now ERSKINEVILLE KINGS. How wonderful it is to see Australian filmmakers looking into their own backyard souls!

The story premise is a simple one. Barky returns to inner-city home from the bush. His journey is made to attend the funeral of his brutal father. Not only does Barky have the past to deal with but his angry brother, Wace. Together they slug it out, bringing up old demons in hope of organising some sort of stability in life. It is the confrontations that bring you on edge with the surprising powerhouse performance from Hugh Jackman as Wace. Marty Denniss brings sincerity to the character of Barky, a man with a painful past and it's the quietness that draws you to him, waiting for those emotions to explode.

The direction heightens the unfolding of the story by simply telling the tale with strong images on inner-suburb Sydney as the main focal point to the show down.

A strong emotional movie made from the hip pockets of the filmmakers.