Susie Porter Movies

A teenage girl from the coastal town of Robe in South Australia realizes that hoping for change just isn't enough as she sets out in search of the father she never knew. Seventeen year old Emily (Victoria Thane) lives with her single mother Susan (Susie Porter) in a sleepy seaside town. Emily never knew her father, a man her mother claims was just a drifting summer tourist who wandered into town one day before disappearing without a trace. Susan's devoutly religious parents were mortified when their daughter got pregnant at the age of fifteen, and ever since she had Emily she's been struggling to forget the past. Kindly local Stephen lost his wife and baby daughter in a tragic accident, and remains haunted by the incident to this very day. In Stephen Emily sees a surrogate father, and in Emily Stephen sees the daughter his baby daughter could have grown into. Though Stephen's sister Elizabeth is married to local policeman Carl, she suspects that her husband is currently engaged in a clandestine extramarital affair. Could Carl be Emily's real father? If so, what would that mean for Emily's relationship with Elizabeth and Carl's teenage son Joel? Perhaps by summoning some much needed courage, Emily can bring about the change in her life that she so desperately craves. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Directed by Melani Rodriga, Teesh and Trude is a low-budget feature starring Susie Porter as Teesh, a twentysomething unwed mother living with an old friend in a tiny two-bedroom apartment. Set in West Australia, both women are unemployed and bored; their lives are largely spent smoking and arguing in front of the TV. Teesh can barely control her son Kenny (Mason Richardson), and resorts to drugging him with a sleeping pill at one point in order to get some peace. Les (Jacob Allen), her boyfriend, seems like a gift from God, but the burden of a son and an abusive father (Bill McCluskey) keep Teesh from focusing on love. Trude (inda Cropper), Teesh's roommate, has her own problems to deal with. Unlike Les, Trude's boyfriend Rod (Peter Phelps) is a lazy construction worker unfit to replace her ex-husband, who left with their two children after she had become addicted to drugs and alcohol some years before. Trude and Teesh's lives come to a head one day when all of these figures convene inside of the small flat. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Australian newcomer Davida Allen's film is a sharp, funny look at a woman's attempts to balance her passions with her responsibilities. All Vicki (Susie Porter) wants is passionate, romantic sex. Unfortunately, she finds herself married to a self-absorbed doctor who is rarely home and saddled with two screaming babies. She is not feeling sexy. At first she resorts to Walter Mitty-like fantasies about big muscular men. But when she takes a part-time job as a painting instructor and catches the eye of a sultry bohemian type, she risks losing her husband and her family. Later she manages to fuse her fantasies with her artistic urges in a manner both funny and touching for the man she loves. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Dein Perry, the dancer and choreographer who scored an international hit with the stage show Tap Dogs, made his debut as a film director with this drama inspired by his early days as an Australian laborer. Sean (Adam Garcia) and Mitchell (Sam Worthington) are two brothers who work at a steel mill in a rough-and-tumble area of New South Wales, Australia. Sean is a talented dancer and thinks this could be his ticket to a better life; Mitchell, however, is more practical, and tries to talk his brother into joining him as he opens a new business, leaving dancing as a hobby. Tensions grow between the brothers when Sean quits his job to study with a well-known dance troupe and come to a head when Sean and Mitchell fall for the same woman, Linda (Sophie Lee). Dein Perry also co-wrote the original story for Bootmen, as well as appearing in a small role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A female detective discovers the dark side of the world of contemporary literature in this unusual thriller from Australia. Mickey (Abbie Cornish) is a brash young female poet who is gaining a potent reputation for her powerful verse about love and sex. When she suddenly disappears, private detective Jill Fitzpatrick (Susie Porter) is hired to help find her. Jill doesn't know much about poetry, so she starts her investigation by tracking down Mickey's teacher and mentor, Diana (Kelly McGillis), to learn more about Mickey and the circles in which she traveled. Jill is a lesbian, and quickly finds herself strongly attracted to Diana; though Diana is married to Nick (Marton Csokas), she finds herself equally infatuated with Jill, and the two are soon having an affair. When Mickey is found murdered, her parents ask Jill to step up the investigation, and Jill digs deeper into the facts of Mickey's life -- learning the young woman was willing to sleep with nearly anyone who could advance her career. She also discovers that the two older male poets with whom Mickey had become involved are not at all eager to answer questions about her disappearance. The Monkey's Mask is based on a mystery novel written in verse form by Dorothy Porter; the novel became an international bestseller and the biggest-selling book of poetry published in Australia since World War II . ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In part, filmmaker Stephan Elliott (best known for The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert) made this black, surrealistic and subversive comedy to bid farewell to Australian cultural traditions (i.e. excessive beer drinking, racism and sexism) that are rapidly disappearing due to the increasing infiltration of urban sophistication and political correctness into even the county's most remote regions. Unfortunately, Elliot's outrageous tribute to past 'traditions' is presented with such vulgar abandon that many Australians are sure to be offended, not tickled, even though Elliot did try to tone down the mean spirit of the original script which was first titled 'Big Red.' The story centers on Teddy, a fugitive con-artist who has fled New York and gone into the Australian outback. His troubles begin when he is picked up at a lonely gas station by the blonde and brassy Angie who quickly seduces him and then knocks him out cold. Teddy awakens to find himself in the dusty town of Woop Woop. Surrounded by steep cliffs, the town, which was built near a now-defunct asbestos mine, is ruled by Angie's father Daddy-O, who is as much a warden as he is a local leader, deciding when and who will enter and leave Woop Woop. A weird place that is supported by a kangaroo-meat dog-food factory, it is populated by beer-swilling rednecks, crude eccentrics (and a giant kangaroo named Big Red) who find endless entertainment listening to Oscar & Hammerstein musicals (the town's ramshackle drive-in runs The Sound of Music and South Pacific continuously). Teddy quickly discovers that he is in effect the burg's newest prisoner and is expected to constantly service the sexually insatiable Angie. Not willing to remain a captive, Teddy begins planning his escape. The story's surrealism comes from Elliot's deliberately inappropriate use of musical numbers to punctuate events. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The second prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy takes place ten years after the events depicted in Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace. Now 20, young Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is an apprentice to respected Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). Unusually powerful in the Force, Anakin is also impatient, arrogant, and headstrong -- causing his mentor a great deal of concern. The pair are ordered to protect Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), the former queen of the planet Naboo, now representing her world in the Galactic Senate. Someone is trying to assassinate her on the eve of a vote enabling Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) to build a military force that will safeguard against a growing separatist movement led by mysterious former Jedi Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). After another attempt on Padme's life, Obi-Wan and Anakin separate. The young Jedi and Padme fall in love as he escorts her first to the security of Naboo and then to his home world of Tatooine, where the fate of his mother leads him to commit an ominous atrocity. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan travels to the secretive planet Kamino and the asteroid-ringed world of Geonosis, following bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) and his son, Boba (Daniel Logan), who are involved in an operation to create a massive army of clones. A vicious battle ensues between the clones and Jedi on one side and Dooku's droids on the other, but who is really pulling the strings in this galactic conflict? In late 2002, the movie was released in IMAX theaters as Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones: The IMAX Experience, with a pared-down running time of 120 minutes in order to meet the technical requirements of the large-screen format. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide