An exploration of racial tensions through a radically placed protagonist, as well as a rousing finale, compensate for the lack of narrative oomph.

| Aug 23, 2019

Huge skies, low horizons, glowing orange sunsets and a depiction of a culture and environment we rarely see in genre mystery movies make Mystery Road an unusual and thought-provoking film.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 4, 2019

I won't lie and say Mystery Road kept me on the edge of my seat for its duration, but there is a lot to enjoy in its delicately peeled back layers.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 27, 2016

This tightly wound drama evokes a strikingly inventive sense of the Wild West in the Australian Outback.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2014

Sen (who also shoots, scores and edits) goes walkabout through the minefield of contemporary Australian culture, offering an evocative snapshot of an unravelling crime scene - social, racial and economic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 31, 2014

A superior and taut outback adventure, you'd have to go back to Samson and Delilah to find an Australian feature this bonsa.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2014

Slow-burning but very powerful.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2014

Aaron Pendersen is thoroughly believable as the conflicted Jay and the blasted landscape is photographed so well you'll be sweating and swatting the flies away from your own face after 10 mins.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2014

Mystery Road is a detective story that unspools with languid menace on the widescreen of the Australian Outback.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2014

Mystery Road may be set in modern Queensland but it has the feel of a flinty, slow-burning western as one stetson-wearing lawman stands against an entire community.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2014

Director Ivan Sen's fourth feature evokes old westerns, Polanski's Chinatown and other noir classics, but still feels grounded in the dust and dried blood of the Australian soil.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2014

This sand-blasted Aussie murder mystery tinkers with genre convention while managing to remain sincere and thrilling.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2014

A striking and menacing slow-burn thriller set in the Australian outback which blends dry humour with startling social commentary.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2014

Measured and sparing in its use of dialogue and music, Mystery Road remains strikingly atmospheric and expertly controlled as Sen builds a sense of quietly escalating tension.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 26, 2014

Slow but reasonably suspenseful drama where an Aboriginal cop (Aaron Pedersen) returns home to investigate the murder of an indigenous teenager.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2014

Imagine a racially charged Outback Chinatown and you have the measure of this terrific Aussie noir written, shot, directed, edited and scored by Ivan Sen.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2014

As a straight-up, "Law & Order"-esque criminal investigation, it's watchable. But lingering shots and half-baked racial commentary overstate the importance of "Mystery Road."

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 31, 2014

Detective Jay Swan is no Marlowe; he just isn't engaging, or all that interesting.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 27, 2014

There simply isn't enough dynamism to justify Sen's story. Australian movies have to work harder to secure audiences beyond those who go to them out of a sense of duty or worthiness; Mystery Road simply doesn't go that far.

| Dec 17, 2013

A masterfully executed slice of storytelling that rates as one of our finest films of the past few years.

| Dec 17, 2013