Australian Rules

Despite it's essentially predictable script, adapted from Phillip Gwynne's novel Deadly, Unna?, this tale of a mixed youth rugby team - half 'goonyas' (whites) and half 'nungas' (blacks) - from Prospect Bay, the Tidy Town runner-up of 1993, seduces thanks to sympathetic acting and neat observation of small town life. As the talented indigenous 'Dumbie' as his white pal 'Blackie', Carroll and Phillips are impressive, as is Harrington, the idiosyncratic trainer 'Arks' (so named because he's always arksing questions). Writer/director Goodman's take on racism is hardly subtle, but his sincerity is unalloyed. (Parents of junior rugby fans beware: exceedingly foul-mouthed.