![]() ![]() When George MacKay takes centre stage as the grown-up Ned, the character becomes a compendium of class and colonial discontent, whose cross-dressing and suggested bisexuality seem inspired by anti-establishment gesture politics as much as deep internal need. Essie Davis delivers a full-on turn as Ned’s mother, whose consuming love for her son essentially weaponises him as a vengeful force for her resentments. That’s powerfully laid out in an opening section focusing on Kelly’s abject rural upbringing, where startling newcomer Orlando Schwerdt portrays a boyhood innocent curdled by his parents’ mindset, shaped by Irish rebelliousness against the corrupt forces of Anglo authority. While the tale of the Kelly gang could be seen as a case study in aberrant psychopathology – something Kurzel also explored in his career-defining true-crime debut Snowtown (2011) – here screenwriter Shaun Grant’s adaptation of the admired Peter Carey novel opts to draw the outlaw as more sinned against than sinning. ![]()
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