Snowtown
From the current issue of Clash.
The Australian arm of Warp Films makes a promising debut with this suffocating sketch of notorious serial killer John Bunting. Daniel
Henshall (Bunting) and Heath Ledger lookalike Lucas Pittaway (Jamie, an impressionable teenager groomed as Bunting’s underling) shine in their first major film roles: Henshall a maelstrom of sinister charisma and Jamie equal parts vulnerable and violent.
A murky sound design and the stop-start narrative makes certain events a little tough to follow, but this is an effective study of corrupted innocence. Snowtown fulfils its mission statement admirably, although the squalid atmosphere is challenging to engage with.
