The New Boy

What happens instead propels both on a spiritual, existential journey that challenges their beliefs. “The New Boy” explores those big questions but leaves it to us to find out the answers.

Newcomer Reid perfectly embodies the spirit of the film, making us feel his confusion and share his joy in the small moments where he’s allowed to be himself.

Thornton, who briefly attended a Christian boarding school when he was a child, brings a textured perspective to this story of cultural violence and white guilt.

It's not the film you think it's going to be. It's far more transcendent than that.

The pacing is languid to a fault and it all gets rather bogged down in allegory.

A gentle, odd little Australian fable. Warwick Thornton’s film has a lot of thoughts to process, and while they don’t always cohere, the performances from Blanchett and Reid keep it interesting.

Humanizing those who force assimilation is a risky proposition, but when it is done to show how that pressure applies not just to the victims, but also to those perpetrating the violence, it can help us understand how easily we can fall into that trap.

Although Thornton may have been more acclaimed for his brunt and brutal depictions of racism in Sweet Country, it’s the modernizing, reformist ideology in The New Boy that deserves better recognition for its vicious imprint on Australian history.

A beautifully shot film that offers powerful insights into the enduring sting of Aboriginal assimilation. Blanchett is always stellar, while Reid is impressive in his debut performance.

Handsome but slow tale of magic at a 1940s Australian Catholic orphanage.