The Plains

Name: The Plains
Genre: Drama, Documentary
Released: April 12, 2023
Duration: 180 min
Rating: 84
Cast: Andrew Rakowski, Cheri LeCornu, Christos Tsiolkas, David Easteal, Henry Belot

2023

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Universal acclaim based on 5 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

MUBI | Release Date (Streaming): April 12, 2023 | Not Rated

Starring: Andrew Rakowski, Cheri LeCornu, Christos Tsiolkas, David Easteal, Henry Belot, Inga Rakowski, Jon Faine, Julian McMahon, Sarah Jane Bell

Summary: Every day at 5pm Andrew, a middle-aged man working a white-collar job in a community legal centre, drives home through Melbourne’s outer suburbs in peak-hour traffic. The long commute affords him time to phone his ailing mother and his wife, and occasionally offer a lift home to a younger colleague.

Director: David Easteal

Genre(s): Drama, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 180 min

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Critic Reviews

100

The Film Stage Leonardo Goi

Apr 13, 2023

For a film that seldom lets us step outside Andrew’s car, this is a most evocative, soul-replenishing journey; for one that just as rarely lets us look at its protagonist in the face, this is an astonishingly full-rounded, richly textured portrait of a life, epic in size and scope. Read full review

100

The Guardian Luke Buckmaster

Apr 13, 2023

This extraordinarily mundane film – a combination of words I’m fairly certain I’ve never used before – is a tremendous achievement and, in a subtle way, an amazing work of art. Read full review

Richard Kuipers

Apr 13, 2023

Skilfully creating an engaging and likable protagonist without fully showing his face until the three-hour running time has all but elapsed, David Easteal’s first feature is a thematically rich and quietly compelling portrait of a man at the crossroads. Read full review

Neil Young

Apr 13, 2023

The structure of The Plains is playful and idiosyncratic, rather than formalist or rigid. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Apr 13, 2023

Fans of structural film, “Jeanne Dielman” and Google Maps will find much to treasure, even if the narrative elements — and occasional cutaways to imagery shot in a more remote area in western Victoria — upset the movie’s rigor and purposeful tedium. Read full review

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User Reviews

JLuis_001

May 9, 2023

The Plains is a very long documentary that has a narrative recourse that also makes its three-hour running time feel even heavier.
It shows Andrew's daily commute as he drives home from his office every day.
Everything we see is through the camera that is located in the windshield. The onlyThe Plains is a very long documentary that has a narrative recourse that also makes its three-hour running time feel even heavier.
It shows Andrew's daily commute as he drives home from his office every day.

Everything we see is through the camera that is located in the windshield. The only thing that changes is the traffic, the weather and the surroundings that the camera manages to show.
All this over the course of a year in an exercise that comes to feel like an exploration of how fleeting time is as we go back and forth to earn a living.

It's a monotonous documentary. It does not hide it, and its long duration will deter many viewers.

I personally didn't enjoy its length because seems that the director tried to give a bigger dimension to the real time that transpired in the life of his subject, but the experience becomes one that notoriously seeks a kind of time dislocation in the viewer since apparently you must feel like the guy behind the wheel, since after all you're not getting any information from this tale and evidently you are not being entertained either.

Be warned. The Plains is an interesting journey, but a journey suitable for very few viewers.… Expand

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