Movie review - "Noise" (2007) ***1/2

The commercial arm of Australian cinema has been weakened by the ease in which our top filmmakers are snapped up by Hollywood but the art house arm (for lack of a better term) remains strong, indicated by this terrific drama-thriller. Brendan Cowell is good as the lead cop (I think he will be a really great screen actor in around ten years when he grows into his looks a bit more then will be set for the rest of his life), as indeed are all the cast. The hero is a v gen X copper - lazy, keen to claim compo, fond of the odd toke of mull, lives in a bit of a dump.It's rare to find a movie hero so dim - no one expects him to be Columbo, but when Henry Nixon plays his second visit and refers Rockwell getting in trouble from a superior officer... surely that's a bit of a hint. But it still doesn't work. He literally has greatness thrust upon him. Superbly directed, with some heart-stopping scenes and one of the best soundscapes of a film in recent memory.