Chopper

Three and a half stars. Pretty good.

Utterly bizarre, yet compelling film about the Australian self-styled psycho criminal folk hero Mark "Chopper" Read. The contrast between Chopper's callous, casual violence and his matey ebullience is striking. He's a hair-trigger nutcase who just wants to be loved. Eric Bana turns in a wonderfully natural performance, portraying him as a man who bounces between boundless self-confidence and utter confusion about why his friends (and the rest of the world) treat him like they do. Off-beat and quirky in a quintessentially Australian way.