Arriving on these shores already loaded with awards, Sarah Watt’s slight Australian ensemble drama owes a clear debt to Messrs Anderson and Altman. The action meanders around the lives of seven characters whose fates are tied to a harsh suburban railway accident, frequently focusing on the tentative relationship between William McInnes’ cancer-stricken news photographer and Justine Clarke’s fatalistic artist.
Despite some rather heavyhanded stylistic riffs, Watt’s debut is remarkably assured, teasing out naturalistic turns from an unstarry cast and approaching the — let’s face it — thumpingly depressing material with stark, wry humour and a rugged sense of battered optimism. Strange and surprisingly poignant; the force of Magnolia is strong in this one.