STACK #245 March 2025

MOVIE FEATURE

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A SPLASH OF MAGIC Celebrated Australian director Robert Connolly ( The Dry ) ventures into Magic Beach , a fantasy adventure crafted exclusively for preschoolers. GENRE: Animation - family film RUN TIME: 1h 16m

Robert Connolly has been an integral part of the Australian film industry for three decades. He began as a producer on films like The Boys (1998) and The Monkey’s Mask (2000), before making his directorial debut with The Bank (2001), which set him on course to become one of Australia’s most respected filmmakers.

B ased on Alison Lester’s 1990 best-selling children’s book, Magic Beach is an unconventional celebration of imagination, with each of the ten chapters illustrated by a different artist from a collective of local talents. ” Magic Beach has been a passion project for me for about ten years,” Connolly explains to STACK , excited and relieved for audiences to see the film finally, proudly adding, ”It’s in my family film genre. I did Paper Planes (2014) ten years ago and it was after that film that I seriously started looking at Magic Beach . ” Paper Planes was for primary school, and then I did Blueback (2022) for high school, and now this is my film for preschool.” If you’re unfamiliar with Alison Lester or Magic Beach ,

you might be in the minority. She’s a prolific author of over 25 children’s books and several adult works, and Robert is eager to emphasise her prolificacy. ”I mean Alison Lester, and the book Magic Beach , is on the one-dollar stamp at the moment. That’s how famous she is. And I love that in the marketing of the film the posters say, ’Alison Lester’s Magic Beach ’ in huge letters, and then underneath ’From the director of Paper Planes ’”, he laughs. ”I’ve been trumped.” The film consists of ten beautifully realised animations, each with its own distinct style - ranging from hand-drawn and stop-motion to computer-generated and abstract. This vibrant kaleidoscope of visuals is meticulously crafted to captivate a preschool audience, relying on colour and imagery to hold their attention. ”It was really challenging,” Connolly says of the film’s style and direction.

The Bank (2001) Three Dollars (2005) Balibo (2009) The Turning (2013) Paper Planes (2015) The Dry (2021) Blueback (2022) Force of Nature: The Dry 2 (2024)

”And Alison said early on, ’My books are successful because they trust kids. They trust their imagination. They don’t fill in the blanks.’” Glenn Cochrane

• Magic Beach is out Mar 26

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GENRE: Drama RUN TIME: 1h 47m

SING SING Possibly the only feel-good film of awards season - with the exception of animation - Sing Sing stands out as a stirring true story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.

• Sing Sing is out Mar 26

L ed by Colman Domingo, the film stars an unforgettable ensemble of formerly incarcerated actors from New York’s infamous maximum-security prison, all of whose lives have been indelibly altered by the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program (RTA). Domingo portrays John “Divine G” Whitfield, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, a man who finds purpose within a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men and encouraging newcomer Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin - who actually plays himself in the film. Indeed, there are few professional actors in Sing Sing, most of the cast comprising real life RTA graduates, all grateful for their freedom and eager to give back.

STACK has met with Maclin several times, and there can be no doubt that this is a man for whom the arts has been his saviour. “We need you to think of us the way we are, not the way the mainstream would like you to believe us. Because in prison, we don't watch prison movies! So I would never even consider this a prison movie. It just happened to take place in prison,” he argues. “But this is a more human story. It's about humanity. It's about growing up. It's about being accountable. It's about being a community, about being that for real, not just faking like you gangster,” says Maclin whose broad gap-toothed smile and infectious laughter has melted hearts and minds.

Clarence Maclin and Coleman Domingo

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In real life, he was one of the most feared men at Sing Sing, a self-professed “yard bandit” who made a reputation for himself by extorting money from other members of the prison population. He happened upon RTA purely by chance. One day, he was supposed to collect money from someone in the yard, but pouring rain changed their meet-up to the prison chapel, where RTA was putting on a play. “I’m down there, I get my money - and I can’t leave, because I gotta stay for the duration,” he recalls. Gill Pringle

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The entire cast and crew, from best boy to lead actor, were paid equally to help keep the budget low and maximise the potential for profit.

14 MARCH 2025

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