Wish You Were Here 2012

A pill-and-liquor-fuelled blowout in Cambodia ignites a war of nerves in a fiery psychological mystery that local audiences may find disconcertingly easy to believe. Young Sydney professionals Alice (co-writer Felicity Price) and Dave (Joel Edgerton) are persuaded by Alice’s sister, Steph (Teresa Palmer), to park the kids and join her and the brand new man in her life, Jeremy (Antony Starr, suavely international), on a spur-of-the-moment resort holiday. After Jeremy disappears in the blurry aftermath of a wild night, the other three return to Sydney as freaked by questions they have about each other as by the increasingly disturbing questions the police are asking about Jeremy.

This independent production from Sydney’s actor/director-owned Blue Tongue Films (Animal Kingdom) was selected to open this year’s Sundance Festival. — BG

“Anchored by a riveting performance from rising star Joel Edgerton, Australian director Kieran Darcy-Smith’s debut feature maintains a vice-like grip that reaches maximum intensity as the mystery is solved… The visceral fireworks of the characters’ arguments and the disintegration of trust among them are observed with unsettling intimacy in the script and in the emotional honesty of the performances. In its mature examination of the corrosive effects of crisis on the fabric of family life, and also in its defining sense of place, Wish You Were Here at times recalls another Australian film, Ray Lawrence’s superb 2001 psychodrama Lantana… Jason Ballantine’s dexterous cutting and cinematographer Jules O’Loughlin’s lustrously textured HD visuals have the stinging lucidity and restlessness of a wide-awake nightmare. This is terrific stuff.” — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter