The Rover - Film Review

Coated in dirt and nihilism, The Rover sees Animal Kingdom director David Michod explore the State of Nature in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Set in the Australian outback 10 years after a disastrous and unexplained economic collapse, the life of man is indeed solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Selling guns and young boys is the most common way of making a living. Crucifixes bearing dead bodies line fields like terrifying scarecrows. Wide shots imbue the baking-hot open spaces with a sense of never-ending isolation, the sun beating down onto empty, dusty roads.
It’s a terrible world, and one Michod seems happy to leave unexplained, merely asking the audience to inhabit it for a while. Our guide is Eric (Guy Pearce), on an obsessive revenge quest after his car is stolen by criminals. When Eric meets Ray (Robert Pattinson), a gang member’s brother, he takes the simple, childlike man hostage. Over the course of shoot-outs, car chases and injuries, the pair strike up an unlikely connection.
Michod’s film feels so nihilistic. At times, we have no idea what is going on: there is a werird disconnection at the heart of the movie. Pearce is all explosive anger and intensity, the almost-mute Pattison a mumbling, twitching revelation. With a puppy-dog grin and inability to protect himself, the tragedy comes from seeing this innocent caught up in what is a horrific world...

In cinemas August 15.