Kestie Morassi Movies
Thunderstruck begins with the death of a boy who shared with his closest friends an affinity for the music of the rock band AC/DC. The survivors pledge to pay tribute to their fallen friend by burying him next to the late lead singer of the band Bon Scott. Over a decade later the survivors reunite to follow through on their commitment, but soon learn that the intervening years have affected them and their relationships. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Damon Gameau, Stephen Curry, (more)
A dream vacation turns into a nightmare in this taut thriller from Australia. Ben (Nathan Phillips), Lizzie (Cassandra Magrath), and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are three friends who, after a night of celebratory drinking, hit the road for a trip to Wolf Creek National Park, where they plan to spend a week hiking and surfing. The three friends are happy to be spending time together, especially after Ben makes the happy discovery that Lizzie is as infatuated with him as he is with her. However, after a long day on foot, Ben, Lizzie, and Kristy make the unpleasant discovery that their car's battery is dead, leaving them stuck in the middle of nowhere. Help arrives in the form of Mick (John Jarratt), a burly but good-natured outdoorsman who happens upon them; Mick tells them that he can fix their car, and offers to give them a ride to his place down the road. Grateful but a bit nervous around the gregarious stranger, Ben, Lizzie, and Kristy offer Mick a wealth of thanks for his help, and give him some money for his troubles before they fall asleep around the campfire. The next morning, the travelers find themselves bound, gagged, drugged, and separated from one another, and they realize Mick is not the good Samaritan they imagined. Wolf Creek was the first feature film from writer and director Greg McLean. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips, (more)
Some folks will do anything to pinch a penny, and when a pair of lifelong friends discovers that they can evade the taxman by pretending to be a loving gay couple, their worries are just beginning in this comedy starring Paul Hogan and Michael Caton. Though their simple plan seems to go off without a hitch at first, the arrival of a by-the-books tax inspector threatens to blow the lid off of their inventive scheme. Now, with the IRS on their back and the pressure mounting, the stage is set for a series of comic misadventures you won't forget in this warmhearted tale of friendship and the eternal quest to beat the taxman at his own game. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Michael Caton, (more)
- 2003
Australian writer/director Kathryn Millard makes her feature-length debut with the drama Travelling Light. Set in the Southern Australian town of Adelaide during the 1970s, the film is concerned with a group of bored teenagers. Leanne Ferris (Pia Miranda) lives in the suburbs with her parents, Betty (Heather Mitchell) and Don (Marshall Napier), while her sister Bronwyn (Sacha Horler) has already gotten married. Leanne spends her time with aspiring actress Debra (Anna Torv) and next-door neighbor Gary (Tim Draxl). The friends are soon introduced to a different lifestyle when stranger Lou Bonetti (Brett Stiller) blows into town claiming to be an American beat poet. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pia Miranda, Sacha Horler, (more)
Children have a very good reason to be afraid of the dark in this flashy horror story. Matilda Dixon was a genially eccentric woman who, in the 1850s, lived in a New England town known as Darkness Falls. Matilda was well known to the local children for her habit of paying them for teeth they'd lost, but when two youngsters mysteriously disappeared, Matilda was lynched by an angry mob wrongly convinced that she had murdered the kids. In the year 2002, former Darkness Falls resident Kyle Walsh (Chaney Kley) lives in Las Vegas and is still desperately afraid of the dark since a childhood run-in with the ghost of Matilda Dixon left him severely traumatized. While police and psychiatrists scoffed at Kyle's stories about Matilda's spirit, his childhood friend Caitlin (Emma Caulfield) is alarmed when her nine-year-old brother Michael (Lee Cormie) begins having nightmares very much like those which disturbed Kyle's rest for years. Like Kyle, Michael has little luck convincing most grown-ups that the white-robed specters he sees in the dark are real, so Caitlin asks Kyle to return to Darkness Falls to help get to the bottom of his story. Darkness Falls marked the directorial debut of filmmaker Jonathan Liebesman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, (more)
Directed by David Caesar, Dirty Deeds is an Australian crime picture inspired by real-life Sydney mobsters, and is set in the Sydney crime underworld of 1969. Bryan Brown stars as Barry Ryan, a prominent gangster whose ruthlessness rivals some of the toughest in the trade. He lives with his downbeat wife, Sharon (Toni Collette), and their son, but spends the majority of his time either with fellow mobsters or his mistress, Margaret (Kestie Morassi). Ryan's business is threatened when a Chicago Mafia boss dispatches two of his goons to scope out the poker machine scene for a potential takeover. Tony (John Goodman) and Sal (Felix Williamson), however, are lost when it comes to Australian culture, and stick out like a sore thumb. Negotiating with the Americans will be difficult enough for Barry, but the real blow comes when he learns that one of his own gang members has been deceitful. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Toni Collette, (more)
