Caleb Landry Jones has been a go-to for playing feral, gnarly characters, from “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” to the gnashing drug addicts in the Safdies’ “Heaven Knows What” and David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return.” Here, he similarly goes to psychological extremes in a full-bodied and captivatingly messy performance — one that won him the Best Actor prize at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival under the jury led by president Spike Lee.
The film also features veteran Australian screen actors Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia as Nitram’s mother and father. They live in suburban Australia in the mid-1990s, with Nitram living a life of isolation among his peers and family, never quite fitting in. He eventually forms a close friendship with a reclusive heiress named Helen (played by Aussie “Babadook” favorite Essie Davis, who is also married to Kurzel and has starred in a number of his features). But when that relationship tragically ends, Nitram’s internal rage and solitude only get worse as he heads on the path that will lead to the inevitable disaster that inspired the movie’s making. The film is written by Shaunt Grant, who also penned Kurzel’s “True History of the Kelly Gang” as well as Cate Shortland’s kidnapping drama “Berlin Syndrome.” Nominated for eight Australian Academy Awards, this is Kurzel’s first film since “Kelly Gang” and continues his return to homegrown indies after directing 2016’s video game adaptation “Assassin’s Creed.” IFC Films will release “Nitram” March 30 in theaters, on digital rental, and streaming on AMC+. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
