Director Sotiris Dounoukos
Staring Maggie Naouri, Jerome Meyer, Sacha Joseph
Rated TBC
Score 5/6

On 26 October 1997, Australian National University student Anu Singh killed her boyfriend, Joe Cinque, by lacing his coffee with Rohypnol and injecting him with heroin at a dinner party where some of the guests had heard about the plan to murder Cinque. Despite this, none of them warned him.

In the past I’ve said that I get excited by the release of Australian movies, but what makes Joe Cinque’s Consolation a little cooler is that it’s a local film funded by Screen ACT. Possibly one of the first great movies that I have seen that I have received funding from Screen ACT (if there are other movies funded by Screen ACT that I need to watch please bring them to my attention).
A word of advice as you would’ve guessed this movie has a bit of a dark tone and is probably not something that you should go see if you have had a bad day or a little bit depressed. The movie was adapted from Australian author Helen Garner’s 2004 book Joe Cinque’s Consolation: A True Story of Death, Grief and the Law. This was a really interesting first feature from director Sotiris Dounoukos, I particularly enjoyed how Dounoukos showcased Canberra with some beautiful shots of the city.
I suppose the standout performance was Maggie Naouri as Anu Singh, there was just so much for her to work with and Naouri was more then up to the task.