RECOMMENDED
Jeremy Sims’ sweet, easygoing “Last Cab to Darwin” is a sunburnt elegy to both its dying protagonist and a passed era of road-proud Australian filmmaking. Finding he hasn’t long to live, the taciturn Rex (scraggly Michael Caton) sets off across the Outback, from Broken Hill, the mining town where he’s driven a cab for years, to Darwin, 3,000 kilometers away, where a doctor (Jacki Weaver) can legally allow him to die. While based on a play, the ruddy landscapes Rex traverses elevate “Last Cab” to movie form, and the quietly seductive performances and modest moments to bittersweet delight. “Last Cab to Darwin” received eight Australian Academy Award nominations. With Ningali Lawford-Wolf, Emma Hamilton, Mark Coles Smith. 123m. 2.35 widescreen. (Ray Pride)
“Last Cab To Darwin” opens Friday, July 15 at Siskel.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
