The Sapphires shines, but only for local audiences

THE last Australian film to be a box-office hit overseas was Crocodile Dundee, and before that, on a smaller scale, The Man from Snowy River.

The Sapphires, from left, Deborah Mailman, Miranda Tapsell, Jessica Mauboy and Shari Sebbens.

THE last Australian film to make it as a box-office hit overseas was Crocodile Dundee, the Paul Hogan comedy, and before that, on a smaller scale, The Man from Snowy River.

I was hoping The Sapphires (Saturday, 4.55pm, M Premiere), Wayne Blair's delightful film about four indigenous women who form a successful singing group, might end up in the same happy league, especially after the Weinstein company picked up its US distribution rights last year and the film had a rapturous premiere in Cannes.

But US and European audiences stayed away, one French rating agency dubbing it Le Flop. A pity. The women (Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell) perform with infectious energy and charm, and there are joyous scenes when they sing for troops in Vietnam in 1968. But the film is more than a sing-song musical: based on Tony Briggs's 2004 play of the same name, it has warmth, depth and humanity, and no one should miss it.

Django Unchained (Sunday, 8.30pm, M Premiere) is Quentin Tarantino's blood-soaked western epic about the American slave trade -- the story of Django (Jamie Foxx), a freed slave who joins forces with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to track down Django's wife and rescue her from the clutches of Leonardo DiCaprio's sadistic plantation owner. And for all its copious bloodletting and sadism (not to mention its length, coming in at 2 3/4 hours), it makes for disgracefully enjoyable entertainment. Its saving grace is humour, with Tarantino himself making a brief appearance with a booming Aussie accent, accompanied by Australian veteran John Jarratt.

Not everyone is likely to find films about journalism as interesting as I do, but Shattered Glass (Saturday, 10.45pm, M Thriller/Crime) is an engrossing story. Stephen Glass was a senior writer for US magazine The New Republic who kept turning out scoops on the US political and corporate scene that were the envy of his peers. Unfortunately he made them up: names, events, quotes, all fabricated. In May 1998 a rival magazine began checking one his stories and unmasked the fraud. Hayden Christensen plays Glass as naive, disturbed, unscrupulous and self-deluding, but the real hero was Charles Lane, the editor who took the tough, obvious decisions ( Peter Sarsgaard).

And two seriously weird classics from director David Lynch, unfortunately showing at the same time: Blue Velvet (Friday, 8.30pm, World Movies), exploring the seamy side of life behind the white picket fences of small-town America, beginning with the discovery (by Kyle MacLachlan) of a severed ear in a field, and The Elephant Man (Friday, 8.30pm, M Masterpiece), the true story of John Merrick (John Hurt), a man deformed by a rare disease and permanently swathed in bandages, whose self-esteem is briefly restored by a kindly doctor (Anthony Hopkins). A moving and unforgettable film.

CRITIC'S CHOICE

The Sapphires (M)
4 stars
Saturday, 4.55pm, M Premiere

The Elephant Man (M)
4.5 stars
Friday, 8.30pm, M Masterpiece

Shattered Glass (M)
3.5 stars
Saturday, 10.45pm, M Thriller/Crime