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Wild boys and the dogs that tame them

Three Aussie boys are on a rocky path towards jail until they meet a rule-breaking jackaroo and join his legendary dog jumping team.

Director

Catherine Scott

Country

Australia

Language

English

documentary

100 mins   More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

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  • Joshua Richards

    Review by Joshua Richards

    Bernie Shakeshaft is an Australian hero.

    WATCHED ON:
    UQ Library

  • STEPHEN TUBBS

    Review by STEPHEN TUBBS ★★

    A well meaning documentary that is, unfortunately, a bit flat to watch.

  • Cameron Dunlop

    Review by Cameron Dunlop ★★★★½

    Beautiful story about some rough kids and the support network fighting to get them back on track.

  • omgyikes

    Review by omgyikes ★★★

    :*)

  • sundiallove

    Review by sundiallove ★★★

    Wild Boys and the dogs that tame them 💪🐺😭💪

    The compassion and connection between the mentors and the troubled young men was wonderful to witness. Dogs give unconditional love and trust to these youths and their bonds develop and it’s so healing for them as they gain more confidence and develop essential life skills.

  • Maccas75

    Review by Maccas75 ★★½ 1

    Really thought I would enjoy this more than I did. I love the concept of the Backtrack program, but just think the documentary failed a little in execution here. Damn, the youth of Australia are lucky to have so many opportunities and programs to help assist them get back on track.

    While it's clear some of these initiatives are under-resourced and funded, they still have it incredibly good compared to other countries around the world. I couldn't help but feel half those depicted here would be bashing me up on the streets or trying to make life miserable for my community. Because of that, I often failed to find empathy for them and my enjoyment of the documentary suffered as…

  • Chris

    Review by Chris ★★★

    NZIFF 2019 #7

    Combines all the worst clichés of contemporary doc-making resulting in a distinctly boring experience.

  • Andrew Cozens

    Review by Andrew Cozens ★★★½

    NZIFF 6 of 28
    Perfunctory filmmaking but the subject matter itself is v.powerful. Nice companion piece to Celia

  • Heidi Austin-Crawford

    Review by Heidi Austin-Crawford ★★★★

    NZIFF #2

  • Steve Austin

    Review by Steve Austin

    NZIFF Film #2

  • Felix Brown

    Review by Felix Brown ★★★★

    Equally soul crushing and incredibly hopeful. This is such an empathetic documentary with lots of very cute doggies as an added bonus.

    I hope those boys are doing ok. It’s sad knowing there are so many cases similar to these all around Australia in places that don’t have programs such as Backtrack to help. I love this film.

  • Conner Evans

    Review by Conner Evans ★★★★

    An empathetic realisation of the young misfits of Australia. Even though some are cursed with a bad childhood, you can tell some of the kids are trying to straighten out and the work they do proves this. The connection and passion between the mentors and kids is wonderful. If anything, this film taught me that the last thing you want to do with a misbehaving child is to get angry at them. All they need to know is that someone really does care.

    It's funny that a film about misbehaving young people could be so enlightening.