Upstream: 5 best Aussie success stories to stream right now

WITH the excellent new Australian production Breath wafting into cinemas this week, here are five more homegrown dramas worthy of your streaming time.

WITH the excellent new Australian production Breath wafting into cinemas this week, here are five more homegrown dramas worthy of your streaming time.

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A scene from Tim Winton’s film ‘The Turning’.

THE TURNING (2013) ***1/2

Stan

This imposing collection of 17 stories by author Tim Winton is the ultimate companion piece to the new Winton movie adaptation Breath. Some instalments breeze by with little impact. Others stun with short, sharp stabs of great emotional power. Go with the erratic, elliptical flow of it all, and the rewards are there for the taking. Stars Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Rose Byrne, Miranda Otto.

Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman in Australian horror The Babadook.

THE BABADOOK (2014) ****

Netflix

A classily controlled exercise in psychological horror. Essie Davis leaves a lasting impression as a widowed young mother feeling the strain of raising a “problem child” alone. An inventive and incrementally compelling experience which is best seen with no advance knowledge of what is to come. All the better to be truly chilled by what is, at its dark core, a bedtime story gone irreversibly rogue.

Actor Deborra-lee Furness in scene from film ‘Jindabyne’.

JINDABYNE (2006) ****1/2

Stan

Based on a classic short story by Raymond Carver, this quietly devastating drama subtly links the mysterious murder of a young Aboriginal woman with a seemingly innocuous fishing trip in the Snowy Mountains. Flawless acting, scripting and cinematography are to the fore throughout. A modern classic. Stars Gabriel Byrne, Laura Linney. Directed by Raw Lawrence (Lantana).

Actor Brendan Cowell a sa policeman in ‘Noise’.

NOISE (2007) ****

SBS On Demand

This abruptly challenging local drama looks, feels and sounds like no other Australian production before or since. While Melbourne reels from a shooting rampage on a suburban train, a police constable (Brendan Cowell hitting a high career peak) experiences a debilitating loss of hearing. Tough going at times, but the atmosphere is totally immersive, and the performances are tremendously focused.

Scene from ‘These Final Hours’. Picture: Roadshow Films

THESE FINAL HOURS (2014) ****

Stan

A brave, brash apocalyptic drama that achieves an instant impact, and leaves a lasting mark. Australia is awaiting a nuclear holocaust in a matter of hours. Like everybody else, James (Nathan Phillips) is looking for one last vestige of peace, closure, pleasure, or all of the above. However, with time rapidly running out, James faces choices that must be lived with, and indeed died with. Gripping stuff.

Originally published as Upstream: 5 best Aussie success stories to stream right now