A Story About Silence That Speaks Volumes

Read Time:4 Minute, 54 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
The New Boy
–

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, History
Year Released: 2023, 2025
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director(s): Warwick Thornton
Writer(s): Warwick Thornton
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Aswan Reid, Wayne Blair, Deborah Mailman
Where to Watch: in select theaters May 23, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: There’s something about a film that invites you to sit with discomfort rather than explain it all away, making it hard to forget. With premeditated pacing, haunting imagery, and minimal exposition, this story is more interested in lingering questions than easy resolutions. It unpacks deep-rooted cultural trauma through a quiet, symbol-laden narrative that demands attention, even when it feels just out of reach.

Set during the 1940s in a remote pocket of the Australian outback, the story centers on a young Indigenous boy thrust into the middle of a religious mission run by a nun grasping to hold together a crumbling system. Without a name or a voice for much of the film, the boy becomes a symbol of what the world around him is trying to suppress—his identity, his spirit, and his connection to something older than colonial law or organized religion. The arrival of this quiet figure kicks off a quietly unsettling unraveling of belief systems, particularly for Sister Eileen, a woman of God who seems to have lost her way long before he stepped into her world.

Rather than guiding the audience with exposition or drama, the film works in fragments. You’re asked to read between the lines and feel your way through. It's less interested in telling you what to think and more focused on making you sit in what it’s showing. The structure leans on visual storytelling over plot mechanics, using the natural world, sparse dialogue, and carefully controlled performances to paint a larger picture. For some, that approach will feel freeing. For others, it may feel like reaching for a story that keeps slipping through your fingers.

Visually, the film creates a stark contrast between confinement and openness. Inside the mission, the world is dim, structured, and restrained. Outside, the landscape stretches endlessly—a reminder of what’s been taken and what still resists being owned. The wide shots aren’t just beautiful; they’re part of the story, grounding the tension between spiritual containment and ancestral freedom. Every camera movement feels purposeful, letting nature speak when words fail.

Spiritual themes run through nearly every frame. Miraculous occurrences are treated with the same quiet as ordinary ones. The result is a portrayal of the supernatural that feels grounded. The religious elements don’t dominate the story, but they shape it, especially as the boy’s abilities mirror Christian iconography. What’s striking is that he never seems to recognize himself in these symbols, creating a fascinating contrast between what others project onto him and who he is.

While minimalism works in many ways, it occasionally turns into a wall rather than a doorway. Key emotional moments drift by without making the impact they seem built for, and instances that should break something open remain muted. The film wants the viewer to do the work. While that can be rewarding, it also leaves you wishing for a few more handholds, especially when characters disappear into the atmosphere rather than evolve.

Cate Blanchett’s performance is pared down to match the film’s ethos. She doesn’t command the screen so much as recede into it, letting her body language and silences do most of the talking. It’s a choice that fits the character. She blends into the landscape more than she stands apart from it. Meanwhile, Aswan Reid’s near-silent performance does the opposite—he quietly anchors the film. Without speaking much at all, he communicates strength, confusion, and a sense of resistance that gives the narrative its pulse.

In the final act, everything builds toward reinterpreting a sacred rite. Instead, what should be a moment of spiritual renewal becomes a statement about loss and forced transformation. It reframes a familiar image and asks you to consider what gets destroyed in the name of salvation. It's one of the few moments where the film moves forward more clearly, letting the metaphor hit with purpose.

This isn’t a story designed to be easily processed. It leaves gaps, and those gaps are intentional. It challenges rather than comforts and asks for your time without the promise of traditional reward. For some, it may feel aimless. For others, it may be the story that keeps unfolding. That push and pull between meaning and mystery, between restraint and expression, gives the film its uneasy but memorable power.

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[photo courtesy of VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT]

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