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- CAA Media Finance
- 1 h 36 m
- CAA Media Finance
- 1 h 36 m
Summary In 1940s Australia, a 9-year-old Aboriginal boy arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun. The boy’s presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Directed By: Warwick Thornton
Written By: Warwick Thornton
- CAA Media Finance
- 1 h 36 m
- CAA Media Finance
- 1 h 36 m
The New Boy
62
User Score
User reviews are not available yet
Summary In 1940s Australia, a 9-year-old Aboriginal boy arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun. The boy’s presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Directed By: Warwick Thornton
Written By: Warwick Thornton
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
62
44% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
56% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
62
44% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
56% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
It’s the kind of culturally specific filmmaking that somehow immediately gains universality in that ambition to connect, to understand the empathy and sensitivity to listen in to these conflicts and this bright spark of a boy who speaks to struggles of faith however you were raised.
What sets it apart is Thornton’s deep spirituality, examined here as the titular ‘The New Boy’ encounters – and explores – Christianity. But it is not a two-way street: Christianity will never accept who he is.
In Warwick Thornton’s thoughtful magical-realist fable The New Boy, spiritual differences aren’t treated with violence, but echo bloody territorial conflict just the same.
A gentle, odd little Australian fable. Warwick Thornton’s film has a lot of thoughts to process, and while they don’t always cohere, the performances from Blanchett and Reid keep it interesting.
There are many provocative images: a winking statue of Jesus crucified, for instance, and occasions in which the “new boy” experiences stigmata. But Thornton revels in ambiguity and has no desire to provide viewers a clear pathway to understanding.
Where Thornton's narrative falters, his camerawork and directorial eye are stronger than ever.
This tale of epiphanies and religious schooling at a tiny monastery in the 1940s has a woozy, episodic lyricism all Thornton’s own. It’s also fuzzy and unfulfilled, groping for its images without ever precisely knowing what it needs them to say.
User Reviews
tbd
Awards
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards
• 4 Wins & 12 Nominations
Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards
• 8 Nominations
Septimius Awards
• 2 Nominations
