True History of the Kelly Gang wants us to sympathize with a murderer who suffered great trauma from birth to death. It’s unfortunate that the film’s most critical moments fall flat.
We spoke with True History of the Kelly Gang director Justin Kurzel about Ned Kelly’s significance to Australian culture and how his adaptation of the story is unique from those that have come before.
The True History of the Kelly Gang is often punishing and resistant to facile translation, but there’s no denying the merciless power that Justin Kurzel brings.
A ghost of the film it tries to summon, The Secret of Marrowbone is unable to pull everything together and its disparate elements fail to coalesce into anything approaching satisfying.