Friday new releases: 9 February 2024

Force of Nature and Charcoal are in cinemas

It has been a busy week of watching lots of stuff for another project, so there are no new streaming reviews today, sorry. And cinema openings are light with only an uninspiring Australian sequel and a surprisingly deep Brazilian black comedy to work with.

The Dry (the first one) was an entertaining whodunnit with a strong sense of place and it was a good vehicle for leading man Eric Bana and some of Australia’s best character actors. Jane Harper, author of the novel the film was based on, had three Aaron Falk books in the portfolio so it seemed sensible to think of these as a potential franchise for Bana to produce and star in.

Unfortunately, he and writer-director Robert Connolly seem to have lost track of what made the original film work and have produced a thematically top-heavy muddle that doesn’t even satisfy on a plot level.

A key whistle-blower in a financial fraud case that Falk is building against a firm of shady money managers, has gone missing during a corporate tramping retreat in the remote Victorian bush.

Desperate to find the computer files she had been copying that morning, Falk and his partner (played by Jacqueline McKenzie) insinuate themselves into the search and rescue effort. Falk is also a teeny-weeny bit guilty about how much pressure he had been putting on the woman (Anna Torv from Secret City) but not so much that he isn’t still desperate to find that thumb drive.