savelyleyoung As I have grown up with a lot of similarities of Lena I find the movie very emotional and close to my heart.The small town kids with no real direction for their future other then smoke, drink and do petty crime. Lena with a white dad and Aboriginal mum, in my case it was a white mum and Aboriginal dad.The violence which isn't really shown to much in the movie, the longing to belong to one culture or another and the analogy of travelling to find a better future.Iven has obviously lived the same sort of life especially in the earlier ears if his life to portray such a factual story.Damien Pitt a natural actor and passed away to early to see the depth of his acting skills and Danielle Hall were remarkable in this movie. Why either of them didn't try for bigger things I could understand the small town life and especially the Aboriginal cultural issues and to break free from such strong community connections is very difficult.I couldn't give it any less than 9

bk_heather Enough to say that I did not go looking for this movie.....it found me and transfixed me while I was channel surfing....and watch it I did - enthralled by the atmospheric capture.Recently I was traveling in outback rural Australia and so many memories stirred of places that I knew in childhood ..... One pub or store little towns with clapboard houses and the poorest of the poor both socially and economically and the dreams one dared not dream as a young person...This movie was excellent in so many ways.....following Lena home I was almost shocked to enter her life at home....I knew families that lived like that, watching the teenagers hanging out together....the memories surfaced. I did not ask anything from the plot....there is no point asking when you find circumstances like this to negotiate but there was enough reality for me that I came looking today to read more about the movie, the actors and the producers etc - job well done ...the discomfort of rural youth well captured along with he rural magic

jay-sears Why all the great reviews baffles me. The acting is awful but i agree the story line is OK.This film would have so much more justice if the actors had shown more emotion and non robotic movements. It was like watching slow robots. The story line is reasonable and would have worked better if there was more action in the film - i'm not saying fights but more emphasis to have some exciting scenes in the middle. The film drags on a bit so expect a slow, slow, slow movie. The scenery is great but that does not put you off from wondering how any of these actors got a job. If only the acting was great I would love this film but it is terrible. If anyone has watched good actors they would realise that they were terrible, non emotional robots. Another promising OZ film, another flop in acting! Don't waste your time cringing on the acting by watching this movie. Watch something else instead.Worst acting i have ever seen.

zig-zag If Starlight Hotel(NZ)(1987) had got so much as half the recognition it deserved, Beneath Clouds would not be able to even rear its head.Initially this ran as a most beautiful work of art, then around halfway through I began to realise I had seen it all before.See if this sounds familiar. Starlight Hotel is a road movie about a young girl who leaves home to seek out her estranged father. She teams up with a guy who is on the run from the law and they have recurring close encounters with the law, as well as folks who help them. After you see how the leading ladies in both films are framed and the way they are placed into circumstance, the parallels become complete.I was disappointed that this film did not make a better effort to be unique.Zig Zag