The Boys

Brett Sprague (30) is released on parole after a year in jail for an armed robbery. When he comes home to the Australian slum where his parental house stands, quite a lot has changed: his mother is living with George, a Maori, his brother Glen is married and the girlfriend of his brother Stevie is pregnant. He suspects his own girlfriend Michelle of two-timing him while he was away. The aggressive Brett was used to calling the shots, but now he has the feeling he has lost control of his family. When he ignores a strict ban and with a mixture of bravura and rancour visits the liquor store he robbed, that can only herald impending doom.In the excellently acted The Boys, flash-forwards give occasional glimpses of the near future: Brett who burns his blood-stained clothes, the arrest two days later. These interruptions at first appear to disorient one, but alongside the close photography of Tristan Milani, they give the film an apt coarse and claustrophobic intenseness. The climax iseventually only suggested, but that makes it all the more frightening.