Small Town Life

SAMSON & DELILAH

By Michael Tully

October 21, 2010

Views 900

(Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Samson & Delilah was picked up for distribution by Indiepix and is now available on DVD. It opened theatrically on October 15, 2010, in NYC, DC, and LA. Go here to learn more.)

From the opening strains of Charley Pride’s “Sunshiny Day,” set to a slow-motion shot of an Aboriginal teenager waking up in bed only to immediately begin huffing gas out of a can, Samson & Delilah lets you know that it’s going to be different. It is. Written, directed, and photographed by Warwick Thornton on 35mm, this exhilarating feature-length debut isn’t just an assured, touching, and original tale of young love in the Central Australian desert. It’s a very precious reminder of the transportive power of cinema. Samson & Delilah will make you fall in love with movies all over again.

For whatever reason, I have struggled for almost a week to write a more traditional review of this film, but since I can’t get over the hump, I wanted to at least post something to let you know how much I love this movie. I’m quite confident that you’ll love it too. See it!

— Michael Tully

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Post tags:

"Sunshiny Day"Australia Camera d'Or Cannes Film Festival Charley Pride Indiepix Samson & Delilah Warwick Thornton

Michael Tully

Michael Tully is an award-winning writer/director whose films have garnered widespread critical acclaim, his projects having premiered at some of the most renowned film festivals across the globe. He is also the former (and founding) editor of this site. In 2006, Michael's first feature, COCAINE ANGEL, chronicling a tragic week in the life of a young drug addict, world premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film immediately solidified the director as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film,” a reputation that was reinforced a year later when his follow-up feature, SILVER JEW, a documentary capturing the late David Berman's rare musical performances in Tel Aviv, world-premiered at SXSW and landed distribution with cult indie-music label Drag City. In 2011, Michael wrote, directed, and starred in his third feature, SEPTIEN, which debuted at the 27th annual Sundance Film Festival before being acquired by IFC Films' Sundance Selects banner. A few years later, in 2014, Michael returned to Sundance with the world premiere of his fourth feature, PING PONG SUMMER, an ‘80s set coming-of-age tale that was quickly picked up for theatrical distribution by Gravitas Ventures. In 2018, Michael wrote and directed the dread-inducing genre film DON'T LEAVE HOME, which has been described as "Get Out with Catholic guilt in the Irish countryside" (IndieWire). The film premiered at SXSW and was subsequently acquired by Cranked Up Films and Shudder.

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