Gorgeous Visuals Can’t Save “The New Boy”

The New Boy (Warwick Thornton, 2023) 2 out of 5 stars

The New Boy—the latest film from Warwick Thornton (Sweet Country)—boasts a seemingly unreal visual depiction of the Australian outback, but its pursuit of dense images of even denser religious symbolism creates a near-impenetrable barrier between the audience and whatever its emotional message might be. Inspired by Thornton’s upbringing as an Aboriginal child attending a Christian boarding school, the film revolves around a young Aboriginal boy (Aswan Reid) who is seized by police in the 1940s and taken to an orphanage, led by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett, TÁR). The film takes an unexpected turn towards magical realism when it’s revealed that the young boy has the supernatural power to heal animals and humans.

After watching The New Boy, I was compelled to compare this film’s aesthetics to that of Andrew Dominik’s 2007 Western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. With the help of master cinematographer Roger Deakins, Dominik, like Thorton, crafted a visual palette that evoked a vivid, subconscious vision most Americans have of the life and times of the Old West. In this critic’s opinion, despite the film’s glacial pace and enthralling visuals, the story of a meager man striving to be as legendary as the infamous outlaw, Jesse James, successfully came through until the end credits. Thornton does what Dominik did with Jesse James but refrains from providing the best path for audience engagement.

Among the film’s reliable cast—or reliable on paper—newcomer Aswan Reid, the young man who plays the titular new boy, punches through the film’s monotony with a stellar performance. Reid’s initial scenes at the orphanage are truly something to behold, finding just the right balance of believability and wide-eyed wonder needed for this story’s tone. You will not see the sometimes-overbearing child whimsy that Steven Spielberg likes to infuse in his own films; you will look at Reid with as much curiosity and intrigue as does Blanchett’s Sister Eileen.

A case can be made that the main theme of The New Boy is that a Westernized religion like Christianity, with all of its bureaucracy and problematic intentions, can never fully comprehend or elevate a spirituality only found in indigenous communities. The boy’s supernatural abilities—and the bright and sparkling ball of light that he can manifest at will—guide you to that interpretation. If someone wants to commit the time to uncover this reading of the film, then they will find it, but the characters as written will not be of any help to them.

Patrick Howard

Patrick Howard has been a cinephile since age seven. Alongside 10 years of experience in film analysis and criticism, he is a staunch supporter of all art forms and believes their influence and legacy over human culture is vital. Mr. Howard takes the time to write his own narrative stories when he can.