Last Ride

Editorial

Glendyn Ivin’s debut feature after his 2003 Golden Palm-winning short Cracker Bag proves he was no flash in the Cannes. Lyrical but tough-minded, it’s an emotive mix of vivid colour and deep darkness, feeling at once like a modern fable and something you might read on page 13 of the daily newspaper.

In another sterling and apparently effortless performance, Hugo Weaving embodies in Kev the contradictions inherent in the anti-hero image some Australian men have moulded for themselves since first stepping off British hulks in 1788.

Resourceful in small matters — like car-stealing and making cigarettes out of discarded tobacco — Kev’s life has been held hostage to his inability to successfully tackle bigger things — parenthood, employment, non-violence — that society takes for granted.

His limitations were passed down by his abusive dad, and now Kev, despite some good intentions, is inflicting the same scars on Chook (Russell, heartbreakingly clinging to the trivial diversions of the small child) as they ricochet ever more desperately deeper into the Outback.

It’s a tense trajectory. Moments of father-son tenderness are bittersweet, because another eruption of Kev’s violent temper is always imminent. And at times it’s almost unbearably grim. But rest assured, Last Ride is beating a path to redemption that promises to break the cycle, and succeeds as a double coming-of-age story because both Kev and Chook have to arrive at a new understanding of themselves and each other in order to choose a destiny.

The tragedy lies in the fact that when they do, it might be the only thing they’ve ever truly agreed on.

Michael Adams