Writer-director Henry Boffin’s feature debut Strange Creatures forces two brothers, one pansexual and one straight, to confront their strained relationship on a road-trip into the Australian countryside.
Boffin has assembled many of the collaborators from his TV sit-com Metro Sexual, including lead actor Riley Nottingham (also a producer on the film) for this domestic drama that lets Nottingham stretch his acting chops as Nate Taylor opposite Johnny Carr (Wellmania, Five Bedrooms) as his gruff brother Ged.
The differences between the Taylor siblings are established early on. Nate is the responsible, clean-cut brother with a legal career and he has been helping to take care of their mother as dementia starts to take hold. While Ged is the unreliable one who can’t get his life together. Usually drunk or stoned, he’s always looking for a fight. When Ged reluctantly comes home to celebrate their mother’s birthday, she unexpectedly passes away overnight, leaving the two feeling duty bound to fulfill her final wishes to have her ashes scattered on their old country property.
Strange Creatures feels like a comedy that is being played completely straight, letting the potentially ridiculous scenarios unfold with a naturalistic tone. For instance, when the only car that the pair can get their hands on for their road-trip is an old hearse—courtesy of the local funeral director who happens to be Nate’s boyfriend (played by Nottingham’s real life partner Declan Clifford)—it feels like the set up for a clichéd “quirky Australian comedy”. Instead, the film focuses on the brothers’ past, their terrifying father and an unspoken issue between the boys.
It is this tension between humour and drama that threatens to leave both feeling undercooked as the script does all the set up, but no one wants to deliver the punchline for fear of spoiling the tone. Similarly, there seems to be an aversion to playing into the “cross-country road-trip” tropes that one expects. The locals all seem quite normal, rather than the usual assortment of odd-balls that most films would deliver. It keeps the focus clearly on the two leads.
In an interesting wrinkle, Nate is the source of much of Ged’s angst, and it has nothing to do with his sexuality. Ged’s never been able to find his footing in life due to a mistake Nate made, and they haven’t fully discussed the problem. Ged is the one with the sensitive, artistic temperament underneath the rough exterior that he has created. His drinking and drug-taking are ways for him to self-medicate his grief. Nate however never loses control and that juxtaposition grates on them both.
The result is a character drama sitting inside the trappings of a comedy that delivers low-key hits of both as it travels through Australia. Anchored in two strong and engaging lead performances, what Strange Creatures lacks in strangeness—or creatures—it makes up for in simple humanity.
By Chad Armstrong
Strange Creatures receives its world premiere at the 11th Queer Screen Film Fest on August 29th, 2024 with filmmaker Henry Boffin in attendance for a Q&A. For more information and to purchase tickets head to queerscreen.org.au.
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