The New Boy – Movie Review
Director: Warwick Thornton
Writer: Warwick Thornton (Screenplay)
Cast
- Cate Blanchett (Thor Ragnarök)
- Aswen Reid
- Deborah Mailman (Offspring)
- Wayne Blair (Seriously Red)
Plot: A nine-year-old Aboriginal Australian orphan boy arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun.
Runtime: 1 Hour 36 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The New Boy starts in a time when Australia is trying to breed out Aboriginals. The authorities take a nine-year-old boy (Reid) to a remote monastery where Sister Eileen (Blanchett) and Sister Mum (Mailman) run an orphanage. They have a group of boys who haven’t got families and haven’t told anyone they run the monastery themselves.
However, the young boy struggles to adapt to the new life, until he starts showing what he is capable of. Sister Eileen and the team try to help the boy find a new direction in life and he starts giving the nuns a new way of understanding life.
Verdict on The New Boy
The New Boy is a fantasy drama following an Aboriginal boy taken to a monastery to be raised by nuns. However, he struggles to adapt to this new life, one that offers him opportunities to escape the brutal behavior towards his people.
This movie uses the idea of religion being used to bring people together while leaving previous beliefs behind. It creates an honest chance at a new life for a young boy and shows the testing circumstances the nuns are put through to give it to him. All while, showing a historical series of events that changed a nation and put bigger questions on why they did it. It offers a big question about history and religion’s place in it even if there is a message of hope for someone who might not have had a better life.
Where to Watch
The New Boy is on Blu-ray 3rd June. Distributed by Signature Entertainment.
Final Thoughts – The New Boy poses an interesting question about religion in history.