Written by Shaun Grant and based on the novel by Peter Carey
Directed by Justin Kurzel
Starring George MacKay, Essie Davis and Nicholas Hoult
MPAA rating: R for strong violence throughout, bloody images, pervasive language and sexual content
Running time: 2 hours and 4 minutes

by Fiona Underhill

Australian director Justin Kurzel is best known for his work with Michael Fassbender (Macbeth and Assassin’s Creed), after making his feature-debut with a film about Australia’s most famous serial killings – The Snowtown Murders (2011). Kurzel now returns to reckoning with the uncomfortable corners of Australia’s past as he takes on perhaps the country’s most famous name – the Outlaw Ned Kelly. The author of the novel – Peter Carey – was very much trying to provoke with the word “true” in the title and this is something the filmmakers absolutely lean into. This film is about the mythologizing of a man who tried to take ownership of his own narrative during his life, only to have it spiral out of control. Ned Kelly has controversial legend status in Australia, with some viewing him as a folk hero and others as a violent thug. Many attempts have been made to make biopics about him, but none have really succeeded. Perhaps this one – which acknowledges the fact that it is impossible to make a “true story,” with everyone agreeing on the facts and being happy with the outcome – is the only version that is now possible. The film starts with: “nothing you’re about to see is true.”