Bosch and Rockit: A film that is out of this world!
By Laura Monaghan
On behalf of the Curieux editorial team, I’d like to thank Lucy Robson and Dendy Cinemas for hosting a wonderful, exclusive media launch for the Capital Film Festival program. The staff were friendly, the food fresh and palatable, and the atmosphere was beyond inviting. It is clear that this year’s Capital Film Festival will be one to remember.
Bosch and Rockit
If Dendy’s surprise screening from the Capital Film Festival is anything to go by, then the Capital Film Festival 2022 line up is going to be out of this world. The surprise screening for this year was Bosch and Rockit, directed by Tyler Atkins and inspired by true events. This film is electric in its vulnerability though it is lightened by its biting Australian humour and raw footage of Australia’s famous east coast surfing beaches and landscapes.
Bosch and Rockit is an Australian film starring Luke Hemsworth and Isabel Lucas. The eldest Hemsworth brother features as Bosch, a young, smooth-tongued father who goes on the run after getting caught for drug dealing with his surf mates. His teenage son Rockit (Rasmus King), whose potty-mouth rivals that of his father, believes that their road trip is nothing other than a magic-filled holiday. Throughout this journey, the audience falls in love with Rockit and bleeds for him as he navigates adolescence and his unconventional family.
Bosch and Rockit reels you in only to crack you open, right down the middle. Set in Byron Bay in the late 1980’s, this story is intensified and nuanced through the innocent eyes of Rockit. He is the kind of character that will unintentionally break your heart and then, when you’re in the height of your pain, will stitch it back up again. His naivety and good-naturedness is a complete juxtaposition to what you would expect from a boy growing up with a drug dealer for a father and in an environment that is founded on chaos and lies.
The bond between Rockit and his father is frayed time and time again as Bosch feels obligated to lie to his son about his job and Rockit’s mother. Yet despite Bosch’s many faults as a father, it is clearly evident that he loves his son. So, to watch him try so hard to outrun his mistakes only to dig himself deeper and deeper is heart-breaking. Although, it is more for Rockit’s sake, that you want everything to work out. For Rockit to get the conscious parenting, the stability, and the family that he deserves.
On another note, the resolution to Bosch and Rockit’s story is subtly spectacular. As the climax draws near, Bosch is stuck between a rock and very hard place. It seems as if there are two options for a resolution then, both of which would have been too neat. Either there is a quick fix for Bosch’s mistakes and he stays with Rockit or Bosch is sent to prison. However, Atkins chose neither. Instead, whilst at his first job as a prawn farmer, Rockit applies his father for a job that will covertly send him to Fiji and away from the law enforcements still on his tail. It wasn’t the happy fairy tale ending where the father rights all his wrongs, but it was this resolution that ultimately rounded off Bosch and Rockit as an unforgettable film.
Throughout the film there were numerous inclusions of breathtaking ocean and coastal scenery particularly when Rockit was in the surf. When the film slowed down around these moments, it truly highlighted Rockit’s relationship with the ocean as something tangible and integral to his character. The ocean delivers the calm and security that Rockit seeks, and this is made strongly apparent in the aftermath of a fight scenes where Rockit is immediately drawn to the ocean. The film additionally emphasises this by utilising phantasmagorical visuals and predominantly natural lighting when outside in the beautiful canvas that is the Australian landscape.
Moreover, the utilisation of camera angles and blurred focus throughout Bosch and Rockit deftly highlighted tension scenes, especially between Bosch and Rockit. Earlier on in the film, the father and son have a fight and when Bosch goes to make amends to Rockit in his room, the camera shifts focus each time a different character speaks. This technique contrasts the two perfectly during their first real argument of the film.
All in all, Bosch and Rockit will haunt you, in the best way possible. It opens your eyes to the consequences of unconscious parenting and opens your heart to witness raw and unapologetic love. It is the perfect icebreaker to begin what will surely be a Capital Film Festival to remember.