I love this Australian drama series.

Ian David's Blue Murder is an Aussie television drama, made in the mid-90s, before the Sopranos (I point that out because I see parallels in the quality of the writing, and also in the writers' ability to interpret and recreate an underworld with its own internal logic and ethics).  It's about organised crime and dirty cops, based on true events in Sydney.

Blue Murder is a masterpiece. The script is tight and cool and sophisticated. Keep your eyes out if you're trawling the DVD bins (or the online equivalent), I found it for under ten bucks at Mount Druitt Target. It's worth owning this series, you'll watch it more than once.

I love this Australian movie.

Lots of people the world over are loving a recent Australian movie about a crime family in Melbourne with a highly influential matriarch. I'm not gonna say much about the film since I'm trying to focus this blog on "praise"... let's just say that I feel the same way about the film as I do about The Boys and that behind my reaction there are, as always, feelings about class. About who in this country gets to make films about whom.

What I will say is this:

Indigenous writer/director Ivan Sen is the real deal.

Beneath Clouds is the best film to come out of this country since Mad Max.

It's probably more leisurely and poetic than hardcore genre fans would like, given your well-established appetites for lean and quick and brutal, but please track this one down and give it your hundred minutes.

There is nothing unnecessary in this movie, not one word, not one shot. And it is brutal. And yet it sings.