Throwing multiple genres together into a filmmaking blender can often yield a delicious cinematic smoothie, while on the occasions it goes wrong we can end up with a foul concoction that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Fortunately, David Michod’s The Rover fell firmly into the latter camp.
Is the unassuming independent film a dystopian thriller? A post-apocalyptic social parable? An unlikely buddy adventure? A road trip movie? A violent crime story? A near-future neo Western? The answer is yes to all, but the shifts are subtle, and often happen within the space of a same scene.
Set a decade after an economic collapse in an Australia that’s one step away from Mad Max territory, Guy Pearce’s Eric travels the desolate highways foraging an existence and searching for any worthwhile signs of life that aren’t people trying to kill him.
However, when thieves steal his car, he vows to reclaim his most prized possession whatever the cost, and he just so happens to have an unwilling inside man that comes in the form of Robert Pattinson’s Rey, the brother of one of the carjackers who was ditched and left for dead.
The Rover isn’t a sprawling or splashy tale, but it’s a highly effective one nonetheless, something Netflix subscribers are discovering firsthand. As per FlixPatrol, the unsung melting pot of disparate elements has hitched a ride on the platform’s global most-watched charts, eight years after sinking without a trace by virtue of a mere $3.2 million box office haul.
It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the performances of Pearce and Pattinson are enough to stick around for.
Published: Jul 4, 2022 12:01 pm