Animal Kingdom is one of the greatest films made in this millennium without doubt. The trailers have just hit the spot for me, it looks like a bleak yet beautifully emotional thrilling drama. With great cinematography and performances.
Robert Pattinson has really been shaping himself up as an actor
Why are you wearing that stupid human suit?
Agreed, it looks incredible. The only problem is a lot of films like this end up having way better trailers than the actual movie.
shareTrue, a lot of trailers can be misleading. I don't think this is one of them, not with Michod at the helm.
Someone who's already seen it loved it:
"" Thomas Anderson Make Fists With Your Toes • 8 hours ago. share
I work at Village Roadshow and I was fortunate enough to be invited to a preview screening of this. I think it's a far more ambitious and overall far better film than Animal Kingdom (which I thought was good not great). The film is sort of an existential action thriller. It reminded me a lot of the 1977 William Friedkin movie "Sorcerer".
Overall, great action sequences (one hell of a car chase), great performances (Guy Pearce is a standout)... Could've used some moments of levity. Solid 8/10."
Got a link to that?
sharehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChM2icbWo9w&feature=youtu.be
Link to the full trailer.
I meant to the review.
shareBox office aside, many critics loved The Rover.
Review from Paste Magazine 8.8/10 rating
Finding human interest in an impeccably made film wouldn’t be possible without performances as deeply felt and genuinely surprising as what Pearce and Pattinson deliver. They turn out to be the sort of startlingly awesome pairing that makes you immediately want to add their names to the #TrueDetectiveSeason2 meme. (All HBO would need is to add a top-notch actress to the mix, and they’d have the trio they’re looking for.)
The real shocker for most will be Pattinson, best known for the Twilight films but recently making a concerted effort to broaden his creative respectability by teaming with the likes of David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog and Olivier Assayas. Cronenberg showcased some of Pattinson’s potential as the cold-blooded money man in Cosmopolis, but Michod allows him to go to another level here. It’s a showy performance but one with enough nuance and vulnerability to demand attention for the right reasons.
More importantly, Pearce and Pattinson work magic together. Their characters couldn’t be more opposite—one a man of few words and another who talks just to talk … the grizzled veteran and the youthful innocent. Watching them slowly find common ground is a genuine delight in a film that otherwise remains purposefully punishing...
Michod, Pearce and Pattinson talk to Film4 about The Rover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxPmv97o4ig
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Playlist has The Rover as their #1 Anticipated Summer Film and Empire Magazine has The Rover on their "10 Most Exciting Films at Cannes this year" list, so it's getting a whole lot of buzz.
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More positive reviews today:
http://geekchicelite.com/film---tv-reviews/the-rover-review/
This was a challenging movie to watch, with so many people in horrible circumstances testing the limits of how bad we as human beings can sink. Director David Michod sets a great mood and tempo for this film, albeit surrounded be a lot of darkness and despair.
Guy Pierce and Robert Pattinson are great on their own but are even better when they are spending screen time together. Pattinson especially impresses here, giving a great performance that is very far removed from his Twilight days. The slow minded, brown toothed Rey will not have a legion of girls as fans but will win Pattinson some much deserved praise.
http://saltypopcorn.com.au/reviews/the-rover/
4.5/5 stars
Pearce and Pattinson are simply superb. Pearce as Eric plays his character almost internally. Pattinson on the other hand is a true revelation. With a series of facial ticks and a slow dim-witted drawl he gives life to a man whose whole world has turned upside down now that his brother has seemingly abandoned him.
Pattinson, through Rey, conveys not only desperation but also a surprising gentleness, a man who may not know a lot but knows that he can’t make it in this world on his own.
Michôd allows their performances to breathe (this is easily Pattinson’s best screen turn on camera) but it is not all about performance. The imagery is simply superb. The initial image of a truck flipping over viewed through the windows of the bar is exhilarating. The harsh countryside as the two make their way on their quasi-hell ride adds an added menace and longing to the proceedings. In fact this menace is so palpable throughout the entire picture that when it does degenerate into quick, sickening violence and then tapers off the menace still remains.
All in all a fantastic achievement.
People on twitter are having good reactions:
Nathan Archer @doub7
THE ROVER:Makes The Walking Dead feel like a Disney series. Stunning & surprising performance from Pattinson. Bleak but riveting film #myign
Thorn Stitwitya @DownzFalls
@TheRoverMovie maybe a bit repetitive but it's sure as hell work really well,with amazing directing from David Michod and astonishing actors
Jeanne Kaye @bunnykaye30
....And I'm conflicted if The Rover or Cosmopolis is R's best work accdg to my judgment. R blew me away with Cosmo.
Jeff Prugh @jeffprugh
David Michod does it again with THE ROVER. A beautifully-shot, well-acted, thought-provoking film from @A24Films @TheRoverMovie
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From the Dear Film Blog...
...Pearce is the center of this film, imbuing a stoic and seemingly directionless man with the kind of haunted gaze and crackling silences that speak loudly of the dark places in his past in which his mind still dwells. His quest for the car is hardly just about the car, that much is certain, and without ever saying out loud what the truth of his situation is, his demeanor consistently speaks to his state of mind. Something is not right, and it must be put right. The world has lost its sense of right and wrong, and in such a situation a man must cling ever tighter to the sense of what is correct within him. The world is a moral desert, and Pearce will do anything it takes not to die of his thirst for what is right and just.
Pattinson, however, is a true revelation here. His transformation into the disabled Rey is so complete and without pretension that he just about effortlessly disappears in the role. It is easier now for me to recall him as Rey and imagine him in his personal life as Rey than it is for me to picture him as any other character I have ever seen him as. Under his careful modulation Rey turns into a much more conflicted and complicated character than even Pearce’s nameless wanderer.
His mixture of helplessness with sudden flashes of competence makes him unpredictable in action, but not in motivation. Unlike Pearce he is in search of a friend, a companion, anyone he can lean on, and who he can feel as though he is helping. It’s a sweet, nuanced, near-perfect performance.
The direction by David Michôd is equally as compelling as these performances. There is a stillness to his compositions, a certainty in the meaning behind the small moments in between the significant action. When violence breaks out, which it does often, each gunshot has the immediate and jarring impact of a sledgehammer hitting a box of dynamite. You become accustomed to the pervasiveness of the violence, but never inured to its horror. This unflinching stillness, powerful and painful attention to violence, and the oppressive air of some moral drive moving Pearce forwards gives you the air of a horror movie, one that depends on the heart of man to serve as the haunted house...
Full review: http://dearfilm.net/dear-the-rover/
I read in the movie awards forum here in IMDB that early reactions praise Pattinson, saying that he was really good here. Cannot wait!
Of course cant wait to see Pearce too. Love to see him in these kind of films.
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Did Ned Stark father you on some fishwife?
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Yes, Animal Kingdom was just mind-blowingly great
shareI hope it does end up being a masterpiece. I enjoyed Animal Kingdom and I think Michod is a director with much potential. I also absolutely admire Guy Pearce's acting talent and am glad he is finally given a leading role again in what seems to be an excellent film. He's my favorite actor.
shareSo so excited about this film. Sure hope it does live up to its expectation. Watched the trailer and Guy is so great in it. Especially when I see him having teary eyes in one scene. Can't wait to see him and the other cast at the Cannes Film Festival.
shareThe Rover makes another Top Ten list:
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/cannes-film-festival-2014-10-movies-w e-cant-wait-to-se-1575982558
His followup film, The Rover, is set in a bleak future in the middle of nowhere that looks like a combination of The Road and The Proposition. The film stars guy's-guy actors Guy Pearce and Scoot McNairy, but it also has Robert Pattinson, in his second of two big Cannes entries. (He's also in David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars.) Screening in Cannes' Midnight section, this may not be high art, but for fans of flinty, hellish post-apocalyptic dramas, it looks like heaven.
Coverage doesn't get much better than that. They used Guy and Rob's poster pic in their montage, too.
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From the Mercury News:
Against the backdrop of this purposefully elusive narrative, "The Rover's" two main protagonists, Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, inhabit their roles with unwavering conviction. Pearce, always a versatile actor, is terrifyingly intense as Eric, a survivor seething with rage and contempt for society. The demanding role is a clever tribute to Clint Eastwood's enigmatic Man With No Name from the classic Sergio Leone "Dollars" trilogy of Westerns, one of several film references.
It offers Pearce the chance to give one of his most incidenary performances -- which is saying a lot. But what's made him so angry is revealed late in the story. To fully understand his actions and Michod's motivations, you'll need to see the film a second time.
Pearce's Eric is taciturn and fierce as he goes on a mission to retrieve his car which has been stolen by three gangsters, one of whom is the brother of the easily manipulated Rey (Pattinson). Rey, who has been abandoned at the scene of a gunfight, holds the key (if not literally) to Eric retrieving his car.
As he keeps apace of Pearce's immersive acting style, it's clear Pattinson's capable of much more than what was asked of him in the "Twilight" series. He downplays his pretty-boy image and takes command of the role with the authority of a stage veteran. His Rey is a vulnerable boy-man in a world where innocence will get squashed like a bug.
4/5 stars review from Oxford:
Pearce is melancholy but ferocious in his performance as our mysterious protagonist, bringing an exhausted menace to the film. His unclear motivations and single mindedness make for an intriguing first act, but it is only after the arrival of Pattinson that the audience is able to emotionally connect with the film.
If it is Pearce’s Eric and his stolen car that provide the film’s plot, it’s Pattinson’s Reynolds that provides its heart. Whilst Eric tests the audience’s patience with an unsympathetic protagonist, Reynolds becomes the audience’s surrogate, terrified, unsure of himself and adrift in this bleak inhumane world. Whilst Reynold’s arc is the most accessible in the film, it is also the most heartbreaking, as his misguided attempts at independence lead him round in circles.
Pattinson is remarkable in the role, with no trace of Twilight’s pensive Edward Cullen in the darting eyes, jittering limbs and quivering jaw of his emaciated Reynolds, who flinches from an imagined attack anytime someone speaks.
The film is at its most engaging when both actors share the screen, with Pattinson’s magnificently watchable freneticism perfectly complementing Pearce’s recessive presence. This tension between performers reinforces the instability of their character’s power dynamic, which sustains the film’s momentum to its conclusion.
http://www.cherwell.org/culture/reviews/2014/08/25/review-the-rover
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If there’s anything more I love than post apocalyptic films, its post apocalyptic films with substance and meaning to them. “The Rover” is a slow boil drama thriller set in Australia where the continent has now economically collapsed. Set ten years after an apparent apocalypse, Australia is the Wild West where law is so corrupt that its citizens have zero respect for those in blue.
“The Rover” garners nothing but slime balls and the amoral, but that doesn’t stifle the utterly compelling storyline. David Michôd’s film is about honor and maintaining some semblance of humanity in a world that’s lost it all in a hail of greed.
Director Michôd paints the outback as this hazy and hot landscape that helps unfold this simple yet effective narrative. Pearce is perfect as this mentally unstable man whose life has been rattled and tattered over the last twenty years, all the while relying on Pattinson’s character Reynolds for information.
Pattinson is barely recognizable as the mumbling mentally disabled Reynolds, forced in to helping Eric, and unsure of what to do about his brother who abandoned him during the initial crime. “The Rover” seems to drift along on a seemingly random series of events as director Michôd paints a grimy and disgusting new vision of Australia and a gruesome underbelly of society trying to survive day by day.
The final scene is a clear picture of how regardless of the lawless land, principles and honor means everything.
http://cinema-crazed.com/blog/2014/11/26/the-rover-2014/
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I've seen it, too, and it is mind blowing. A nearly perfect piece of filmmaking. I understand why Tarantino was so impressed by Michod now. Tarantino's films are all dialog, but to tell this kind of powerful story with so few words was amazing.
This was a great follow up for Animal Kingdom, Michod can be very proud.
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