The Sapphires (2012)

My best guess for how I ever learned about this film is that it was advertised as I prepared to see another. Based on the subject, I'm not surprised it hasn't been talked about much in the U.S., despite financial success within its home country. Still, stories about singers tend to draw me in, so I chose it from my list.

Based on a play based very loosely on a true story, it takes place in 1968, starting at an Aboriginal Australian reserve. Three adult sisters -- in descending order of age, Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), and Julie (Jessica Mauboy) -- gain the attention of talent scout Dave (Chris O'Dowd), probably the first White person to recognize their merit as singers. He gets them on a tour -- along with their semi-estranged cousin, Kay (Shari Sebbens) -- performing soul classics for U.S. troops in Vietnam. Their most immediate concern, of course, is that the army can't fully guarantee safety.

Lion (2016)

Why did I wait this long to see a rather popular, uncontroversial Academy Best Picture nominee? Mainly because the plot summary sounded like all I needed to know. It's even been adapted into a TV commercial, so how much more could we get from a nearly two-hour movie? Still, six Oscar nods, even without wins, are nothing to sneeze at, and this was the most tempting option on my streaming list at the moment.

The true story begins in a little-known Indian town in 1986, with a family poor enough to make some desperately risky choices. Such risks lead to five-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) waking on a train far from his family. Knowing way too little information to return, he ends up in an orphanage and is then adopted by a Tasmanian couple (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). Only more than halfway through the film do we come to the unique aspect: After two decades, someone gives Saroo (now played by Dev Patel) the idea to use Google Earth until he recognizes his hometown.

On the Beach (1959)

Another entry in the Gregory Peck festival, this one seemingly less remembered but important for showcasing Peck's anti-nuke stance. It is not a "beach movie," one lighthearted beach scene notwithstanding. Novelist Nevil Shute evidently chose the title for a touch of irony. It's set mostly in post-apocalyptic Australia and features a dangerous auto race, but that's about where its similarity to the Mad Max franchise ends.

In 1964 (incidentally when Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe debuted), bombs have rendered Australia the only reportedly habitable place left in the world -- and not for much longer, as radiation sickness spreads. Naval officers Dwight (Peck) and Peter (pre-Psycho Anthony Perkins) must leave their loves -- new girlfriend Moira (Ava Gardner) and wife Mary (Donna Anderson), respectively -- in order to investigate the first sign of outside life in a while: incessant, indecipherable telegraphy from the ruins of California. Tip: Don't get your hopes up for a Children of Men-like ending.

The Babadook (2014)

Somehow I had thought of this Australian horror as a potential companion piece to A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, probably just because it happened to be out around the same time, but it so happens that both are the first features of female directors. TB has the distinction of a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and a rather middling 6.9 on IMDb. I think I know why, but first, as usual, a synopsis:

After seven years, Amelia still isn't dealing well with widowhood. Her son Samuel (born the day her husband died) adds to her stress in many ways: always speaking his mind, practicing dangerous magic tricks and stunts, and believing in -- and preparing for -- monsters. The last behavior becomes more pronounced after she reads to him from The Babadook, an alleged children's book of mysterious origin, about a sort of bogeyman named for his distinctive style of knocking at the door. As the days pass, it gets increasingly hard for Amelia to dismiss Samuel's fears as unfounded....