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The New Boy doesn’t specify the period in which it’s set, but over time, it becomes clear it’s around 1940, with the World War II references. It’s also a time when those in the Australian outback wanted to “breed out the black”, and put indigenous people with white families.
The titular lad (Aswan Reid) is brought in, to be instructed by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio) in her monastery, and unbeknown to everyone – in a strange turn of events – he can create fire, making him seem like one of the X-Men.
Despite that, he doesn’t even know how to use cutlery, and along the way becomes overly-obsessed by the wooden statue of Jesus in the church, and while I’ll avoid spoilers, it did make me wonder if the boy was meant to be the second coming (that’s if you’re nuts, and think we had a first one).
Along the way, amongst the children, head boy Johnny (Tyler Spencer) is leaving to go and work a manual labour job on a farm, even though he’s only in his early teens, but the workers are needed at this time; the cure for head lice is for ‘Nitty Nora, the big explorer’ (as we called her in my day) to use sheep dip! Thankfully, things had progressed since then.
Plus, this film is a 12-certificate, but appears to use the c-word at one point. The BBFC site doesn’t specific the strong language used, and such a word usually means an automatic 15-certificate at least, but I’ve only heard that during David Tennant’s 2009 version of Hamlet.
The New Boy has some gorgeous scenery in the Australian outback, but sadly, in the end, this film never seems to go anywhere. Running at 96 minutes, I understand this originally ran for 20 minutes longer, but was tightened up into this “director’s cut”, but it feels like they just excised the plot, instead.
The New Boy is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date of May 13th.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 96 minutes
Release date: March 15th 2024
Studio: Roadshow Films
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 2/10
Director: Warwick Thornton
Producers: Cate Blanchett,Lorenzo De, Georgie Pym, Kath Shelper, Andrew Upton
Screenplay: Warwick Thornton
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Cast:
Sister Eileen: Cate Blanchett
New Boy: Aswan Reid
Sister Mum: Deborah Mailman
George: Wayne Blair
Michael: Shane Brady
Matthew: Tyrique Brady
Johnny: Tyler Spencer
David: Laiken Woolmington
Steven: Kailem Miller
James: Kyle Miller
Henry: Tyzailin Roderick
Policemen: Nathan Lawson, Kit Fortune
Tracker: Peter Jupiter
George: Wayne Blair
Michael: Shane Mckenzie Brady
Truck Driver: Les Rice
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.