Featuring hot up and coming stars including Xavier Samuel from Twilight Saga: Eclipse, a blistering soundtrack and stunning cinematography, Newcastle is the perfect antidote should you feel that summer just doesn't last long enough...
17-year-old beach hunk Jesse and his brothers live in the small port town and surfing hot-spot that is Newcastle. A rising surf star, he spends time chasing waves, all the while living in the shadow of older brother Victor, who insists he compete and win at the towns annual surfing competition. Younger brother and emo teen Fergus, in the meantime, has a major crush on Jesse's surf buddy Andy. When Jesse, Fergus, Andy and their beach bum friends go on a camping trip out on the dunes, confrontations arise and the youngsters are forced to come to terms with burgeoning emotions, life-changing decisions and a surf duel they didn't see coming.
Terence Stamp as a drag queen an Aussie drag queen? Darling, you'd better believe it. In Stephan Elliott's delirious exercise in ultra-camp meets outback macho, Stamp plays an ageing trans-sexual who, with two of his equally high-glossed pals, heads off for a cabaret engagement in Alice Springs. Priscilla is their chosen vehicle, a school bus painted an outrageous purple. The culture-clash comedy that ensues is none too unpredictable: the local Ockers, initially contemptuous, soon find the spangled and bewigged trio can out-talk, out-drink and if necessary, out-punch them; everything ends in a warm glow of mutual tolerance and appreciation. Elliott maybe hits the feelgood button a little too hard, but it's impossible not to be swept along by the sheer brash energy of the film. The bitchy dialogue snaps and crackles, the costumes and Fellini-esque dance numbers are to die for, and Stamp and Co. enjoying themselves no end play the whole thing to the hilt and some way beyond it.
Starring: Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Bill Hunter
