Chopper

Eric Bana is brilliant in this as Mark 'Chopper' Read, a larger than life criminal who had someone cut off his ear lobes, amongst other things. Like 'Bronson' earlier this year, (about a British criminal who changed his name to Charles Bronson), the film is an in-depth character study of a real life man who can't fit in with a normal or criminal society. Chopper and Bronson are at their best in prison. Its remarkable just how similar the two men are, and just how much Bronson owes Chopper to its own success. Without Bana I think this film would be a less impactful film, although i'll definitely look out for director Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. 

Dominik likes to change the colour pallet  of the film depending on the setting. The prison scenes are in a washed out, overwhelmingly monochromatic blue. Released into the world, the film takes on a lurid, sickly red that unsettles the viewer. Even then it still changes, the nightclub scenes are a deep red, household scenes, like at his dad's house, take on an orange hue. 

The film is kept to a tidy 90 minute running time and is relentlessly entertaining.