Judy & Punch 105 mins

Now showing at

Australian director Mirrah Foulkes's astonishing, indefinable feature debut reimagines the Judy & Punch puppet show as a blackly comic feminist revenge tale starring Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman.

It's the mid-17th century in the anarchic town Seaside (which is nowhere near the sea), and The Enlightenment feels very far away indeed. Seaside has spiralled into violence, mob rule and God-fearing hysteria. Amongst the chaos, one glimmer of artistry remains: Punch and Judy's puppet theatre.

Once a master puppeteer, the charismatic Punch (Herriman) has fallen too much under the sway of whiskey, but his wife Judy (Wasikowska) is a puppeteering genius and ensures that their shows are a hit with the baying crowds. When a Punch bender goes disastrously and violently wrong, Judy decides to wreak vengeance on those who have wronged her and, as she discovers, many others.

Mirrah Foulkes said: "My hope is that this epic female driven vengeance story incubates a wholly original and unique world, speaking volumes through its feminine inversion of the traditional hero's journey. Judy & Punch is bat-shit-crazy and fun!". Taking cues from everything from Monty Python to The Crucible to Kill Bill, Judy & Punch is an ambitious film that finds its own singular path.

Now showing at

Utterly bonkers but also sort of brilliant … a tonally complex comedy-drama about spousal abuse, infant mortality and misogyny told with magic tricks, puppets and slapstick

Hollywood Reporter

"Wasikowska, is the beating heart of the film...wringing the most out of every scene, Foulkes has announced herself to the world as a bold new directorial talent from Down Under."

Ben O'Shea, Reel Talk, WANews

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