Stunning: Great cinematography is but one of the virtues in ‘Wolfram’.

WOLFRAM ****1/2 (102 minutes) M
The largely lawless outback of 1932, where mining thrives on the backs of exploited indigenous children, provides the setting for Warwick Thornton’s riveting, raw, confronting frontier film about our dark colonial past.

In broad strokes, the narrative (written by Steven McGregor & David Tranter) weaves together the story of two young mine workers Max (Hazel May Jackson) Kid (Eli Hart) who become entangled with amoral ruffians Casey (Erroll Shand) Frank (Joe Bird), who have ridden into the dusty hamlet of Henry to get into the mining boom.

They come together on a remote property run by loner Kennedy (Thomas M. Wright, also a noted director) and his indigenous servant Philomac (Pedrea Jackson).

Thornton established himself as an accomplished director of nuance-rich style and subtle exposition in 2009 with the neo-classic Samson and Delilah.

He went on to make the excellent Sweet Country (2017, which Wolfram is a loose sequel to) and The New Boy (2023), a justly acclaimed film starring and produced by Cate Blanchett that got lots of AACTA love but barely registered with the public.

Here his mastery of subdued yet potent storytelling is in full flourish.

Thornton has a deep love of engaging the audience by giving them just enough dramatic information without needing to spell things out entirely.

Whether it’s deliberate or not, the style honours Alfred Hitchcock’s belief that investing in the intelligence of the audience in this manner allows a director to suggest things more potently than if they were portrayed explicitly.

To wit, there are moments of extreme racial violence in Wolfram, their graphic nature planted in your head by some exceptional editing. It’s the old maxim of what you don’t see having more impact than what you do.

One of Thornton’s most immersive stylistic flexes is to introduce a visual question mark, then work backwards so that the meaning of the unexplained thing becomes clear later on. Think the ringing telephone in Samson and Delilah.

Production details are so authentic it’s time-travel quality, looking as though the cast and crew stepped into Stewie’s booth and went back to the 1930s to shoot the film. Same with 2005’s The Proposition. Outstanding.

The cinematography, shot by Thornton, is stunning, showing the beauty and brutality of the landscape, with special attention to lighting and the buzzing of flies, which circle the actors incessantly without them flinching.

We saw the same thing in The Proposition. Still don’t know how they pull this off without the actors choking on the damned things.

All up, Wolfram is splendidly made and performed, with Deborah Mailman especially good in a mostly mute role as a mother searching for her stolen offspring.

All up, Wolfram is a stirring, moving, evocative work, accomplished in every aspect, including its exceptional sound design. A quietly powerful masterpiece.

Sadly, and with a distressing sense of inevitability, Wolfram is likely to quickly fade from view though the solid release across the arthouse circuit will hopefully connect to an appreciative audience.

Opening the same week as mega-sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2, Wolfram’s presence has simply been overwhelmed by the tsunami of coverage typical of Disney offerings.

With a new “big” film opening almost every week, it’s difficult for smaller films to get much marketing traction when they come out.

But therein lies the challenge, which has still yet to be met.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 ***1/2 (119 minutes) M
Given how the prospect of a sequel arriving 20 years after the original film can consume one with morbid trepidation, it’s heartening to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 rising well above the belated cash-in we feared it might turn out to be.

Less a film about the fashion business and more about today’s precarious publishing firmament that values clicks over quality, we find Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) returning into the orbit of snarky Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) at Runway magazine.

Now a respected, award-winning journalist, poor Andy is summarily trashed, along with her tight circle of colleagues, by The New York Vanguard, a victim of the cutbacks endemic to modern media.

Without Priestley’s knowledge, Andy is put in charge of Runway’s features section where she is inevitably confronted by the digital flash-vs-substance culture that is killing journalism.

Much of this exposition is provided by Nigel Kipling, with the delightful, durable Stanley Tucci reprising his role with a few added wrinkles and the same level of charm. Love this guy.

Emily Blunt’s Emily also returns, though now she is a big shot at Dior, one of the key advertisers Priestly must retain after a scandal in which she was tricked into seemingly supporting a sweatshop fashion supplier.

Breezily directed again by David Frankel and tapped by Aline Brosh McKenna (who adapted the hit 2003 Lauren Weisberger novel), the film clocks in as a surprisingly story-strong dramedy with some poignant and timely things to say about short-attention spans, corporate maneuvering and the precarious state of journalism.

The only real irritant in the film is a long-standing one in that we have a highly beautiful central character with no real relationship history. 

Andy makes fleeting mention of meaningless flings with colleagues but it’s not until she meets a successful Australian property renovator (Patrick Brammall bringing lovely energy to a nicely-etched supporting part) that she develops a believable personal life. Why are beautiful women so often portrayed as loners? 

Also, mention must be made that while most of the film’s outfits are gorgeous, there are a few horror shows. These include a tassel coat monstrosity worn by Streep and, for some odd reason, almost everything worn by Emily Blunt, with the get-up she wears in her first scene being a certifiable eyesore. 

A telling, and somewhat amusing, life-imitating-art “controversy” has accompanied the film’s release that serves to illustrate the type of moronic media skewered in the film.

When Andy arrives in the Runway office she gets a cheery, enthusiastic assistant called Jin Chao, played by Helen J Shen. 

Now, when the trailer was released some online Einsteins in China decided that “Jin Chao” sounded like “Ching Chong”, an infamous term referring to Chinese people. The matter was compounded by misreporting that the character’s name was “Chin Chou”.

This apparently offended all Chinese people – 1.4 billion in the homeland, another 50 million or so in the diaspora – though, if you dig into the articles referenced on Wikipedia, this watery grievance stems from a few no-profile keyboard warriors. 

It’s complete BS and the film’s launch in China – which, by the way, loved the first film – remained unmarred.

Even stupider was the claim that Jin’s clothing was not as chic as the rest of the film’s outfits and that Jin rattling off her qualifications to Andy when they first meet deepened a stereotype about Chinese people.

Firstly, Jin wears some snappy and stylish ensembles in the film.

Secondly, since when does being educated and intelligent count as a liability? Other characters in the film also mention their academic credentials. It’s a friggin’ gag.

These imbecilic accusations only came to the attention of your humble reviewer after seeing the film and, after spending way too much time researching them, realised they were baseless and idiotic, a reflection of the modern media culture The Devil Wears Prada 2 jabs at. 

Oh, and to labour the point, Helen J Shen is Chinese-American and Lucy Liu, as we all know, has Chinese heritage. Don’t ya think they would have arced up if something was amiss?

HOKUM *** (108 minutes) M
In this terrific slice of schlock horror, Adam Scott (Parks & Recreation) plays a snarky American author whose stay in a quaint Irish hotel is beleaguered by evil spirits, corpses and a dumb waiter. While it’s an unashamedly lowbrow affair with some lovely jump scares, there are quite a number of surprises that keep the gears of the soiree nicely oiled.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 ** (119 minutes) M
More of the same only with better hair and nicer frocks.