The Dry (2020)

 Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.Federal Agent Aaron Falk returns to his home town after an absence of over twenty years to attend the funeral of his childhood friend, Luke, who allegedly killed his wife and child before taking his own life - a victim of the madness that has ravaged this community after more than a decade of drought. When Falk reluctantly agrees to stay and investigate the crime, he opens up an old wound - the death of 17- year-old Ellie Deacon. Falk begins to suspect these two crimes, separated by decades, are connected. As he struggles to prove not only Luke's innocence but also his own, Falk finds himself pitted against the prejudice towards him and and pent-up rage of a terrified community. Eric Bana commands the screen, ably supported by Genevieve O'Reilly but the direction just lacked spark. This was a film that begged to be evocative, yet it just plodded through, getting the job done with no standout atmosphere. Robert Connelly is a journeyman director. Solid but unremarkable. If it were not for Bana, this film would have passed by unnoticed. By comparison Iven Sen creates slow burn, outback, damaged detective films that burst with atmosphere and leave you with red dust up your nose.