#PUBERTY BLUES SEASON 3 SERIES#
Where Safari felt content to merely parade a series of nostalgic reminders of the past to appeal to Australia’s senior cinema-going audience, Breath is luckily much more muted when it comes to its period setting, with enough thought put into the costuming and production design to give understated credibility to this journey into the past.
Winton’s leisurely, likable and laconic work yearns for a time when kids would fill their times with outdoor activities, navigating their ways around remote suburbs with their bikes, a jubilant period of Australian history that was already covered in the failed comedy Swinging Safariearlier this year. When We Were Youngīased on the 2008 book by celebrated Australian author Tim Winton, Breath’s story outline sounds instantly tacky – a coming of age tale about the defining childhood friendship between Pikelet ( Samson Coulter) and his troubled companion Loonie ( Ben Spence), set against the backdrop of a fictional country town in 1970’s Australia. It’s a perfect opening in terms of setting up the movie’s irritating clash between the subtlety of its storytelling and the overt nature of its thematic substance, a central dynamic that leads to an end product that’s slight in content but accomplished in technical form. Its opening underwater shot, (similar to the opening shots of previous 2018 entries Tully, Mary Magdalene and The Shape of Water), is paired with a reflective voiceover (provided by the source novel’s author, Tim Winton) telling us what the thesis of the film is going to be – Pikelet, our young protagonist, learned to conquer fear this summer, through the experience we’re about to see unfold on-screen.
Breath, Australian actor Simon Baker’s directorial debut, begins much like a traditional visual essay.