Red Dog: True Blue (Kriv Stenders, 2016) prod. Nelson Woss, Good Dog Enterprises, wr. Daniel Taplitz, dp Geoffrey Hall, music Cezary Skubiszewski; Bryan Brown, John Jarratt, Levi Miller, Jason Isaacs, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, Thomas Cocquerel; boy and dog
With Bryan Brown and the stunning Pilbara region as its greatest assets, True Blue is a sweet film, although it lacks the completeness of the 2011 original. Targeting a younger audience this time, there is less spontaneity and I wish Kriv Stenders had shaken things up to make everything more real. It all comes together in the end, but there is a contrivance about the storyline with its two-tier structure set in the present and flashback, when we are taken back in time to the late 60s for the central boy and dog story. Louise Keller, urbancinefile.
Fire, smoke, drama and spectacle rouse Red Dog: True Blue into a climactic arch. The coming-of-age elements pull it into a softer, less contrived and more affecting space, which is ultimately where this very rewarding journey resides. Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian.
Buckmaster Luke 2016, 'Red Dog: True Blue film-makers on what makes a dog a star: 'When you see it you just know'', The Guardian.
Garry Gillard | New: 4 January, 2017 | Now: 3 December, 2019