Bran Nue Dae started life as a small scale stage musical back in the early 90s. It has been performed many times since then, and is a cult favourite, so eventually there was going to be a screen version. And here it is.

Willie (McKenzie) grew up in Broome, but currently goes to a religious boarding school in Perth. It’s 1967, and attitudes towards Aborigines were even more backward than today! After one too many condescending comments from the school head (played with relish by Rush), Rocky runs away from school and, with his Uncle Tadpole (Ernie Dingo) and a couple of hippies (Missy Higgins, Tom Budge) as company, heads back to Broome to be with the country and the girl (Mauboy) he loves. On the way, he and his uncle have to fight off the advances of a couple of amorous women (Magda Szubanski and Deborah Mailman).

This isn’t a movie to be taken seriously. The acting is pantomime, the writing is amateurish, and there are a few forced scenes (when they suddenly break out into the Zorba dance internet sensation from a couple of years ago, you can almost see the crowbar marks where they jammed it in!). But it has quite a few funny parts, and a few good songs as well, so come along and just go with all the silliness; you should have a good time.

The Blind Side is about a poor, black, under-educated teenager who is taken on by a Christian school in the hopes that his size will translate to being a football star for the school. As he is undertaking the scholarship, he is taken in by the Tuohys, a well-off middle-class family led by the formidable Leigh Anne (Bullock).

At the end of last year, nobody in Australia had really heard of this. There were some whispers going around, but it was very low profile. Then Sandra Bullock won the Golden Globe, and suddenly an Oscar race that seemed to be Meryl Streep’s to lose (for Julie and Julia) became a two horse race. Now, by the time we are screening this, the Oscar will have been awarded, but just the hint of a first nomination for Bullock shows that this is the best piece of dramatic work yet from her (an actor who usually excels in lighter fare like While You Were Sleeping, Miss Congeniality and The Proposal).

This is a very American film (all NFL and religious references) but the story works and it is worth seeing for the Bullock performance alone. Of course, if Bullock has won the Oscar by now, you won’t really need much convincing to come along and check it out, but even if she doesn’t win, come along anyway.