Raped, beaten, and mistakenly left for dead after witnessing the slaughter of both her husband and newborn child, a young Irish ex-con (Aisling Franciosi) enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker (Baykali Ganambarr) to help hunt down the responsible parties. First, commix a Death Wish tale of revenge with a Driving Miss Daisy directive on racial reconciliation. Stretch it over 135 minutes, set it in the distant past, and shoot in the Academy ratio: how can it miss drawing voter attention come awards season? If repetition is the key to learning, this could be the most educational movie ever made. How many graphic sexual assaults must it take, how many noisy children need be silenced by a bullet or thrown headlong into a wall, and how many persons of color shall be maligned or worse before it dawns on viewers that writer-director Jennifer Kent is more interested in hammering together a soapbox on contemporary societal horrors than she is in mounting a challenging dramatic framework? For people unaware of the rape culture rooted in our patriarchal society, or those who have trouble grasping the inhumanness inherent in infanticide and racism, I heartily recommend this movie. All others stay far the hell away. (2018) — Scott Marks