Rent Goldstone (2016)

Familiar narrative in a stunning setting. - Goldstone review by TE

The barren orange-coloured outback makes for a great backdrop to this story of honest policing versus big business crime.

It's very much an old style western movie transferred to a different frontier.

Slow-burn would-be thriller - Goldstone review by Alphaville

Slow moving, slow plotted story about an investigation into the trafficking of Asian women in an Australian desert small town. Everything is as pared back as the landscape. It’s s-l-o-w. Even the score, minimal at best, is built around a plaintive piano, as is often the case in films enamoured of their own self-importance. Don’t be fooled by the DVD cover picture of our two cop heroes firing rifles. There’s only some brief out-of-character action at the climax.

The flat desert landscape is lovingly photographed, the two leads are good and there’s the kernel of a good story here, but it’s a long haul to the end credits. Shouldn’t a ‘mystery thriller’, as the writer/director calls it on the DVD extras, be dramatic?

Worth a watch but rather slow moving - Goldstone review by CD

The film falls between different genres and is not really strong enough on plot, characters or action to be really memorable. It is also very slow moving, not helped by the difficulty in actually hearing what the cast is saying! Still, some good characterisation and the outback backdrop is interesting.