Ask the people who have actually seen Kangaroo Island, and the same three words keep coming back: heartfelt, beautiful, real. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has drawn a run of five-star write-ups from viewers who came for a quiet independent drama and left moved, in more than one case buying it to watch again the same night. Of the audience reviews written so far, nineteen of twenty award the full five stars, with a single one-star dissent. Here is what audiences are saying, in their own words.
The word viewers reach for again and again is authentic. Reviewers describe a cast that plays like a real family rather than a marquee, which several found all the more striking given the film is largely unknown faces.
In a five-star review, Sarah T wrote that “every performance felt authentic and the story was told with a lot of care,” adding, “I don’t usually connect with Australian films, but this one was something special.” Another five-star viewer, idean B, was surprised the acting held up “especially considering that most of the cast were not mainstream or well-known actors,” whose “performances felt genuine and made the characters easy to connect with.” ronald M, also five stars, put it plainly: “The leads are phenomenal, the whole cast really.”
Almost every positive review pauses on the landscape. For these viewers, Kangaroo Island the place is not a backdrop but a character, and the way it is shot is part of the film’s pull.
Five-star reviewer Emily G praised the film’s “wonderful sense of place, stunningly captured.” Honey D, five stars, was brief and breathless: “Absolutely beautiful film. The cinematography and direction are particularly stunning. Breathtaking!” In a five-star review, Jon S called it “one of the most beautifully shot films I have seen in years,” singling out a use of “silence and sound at the most intense interpersonal psychological moments” he had “not experienced before in a film.” Courtney Y, also five stars, said the film “immediately transported” her “to one of the most beautiful places on earth.”
The other thing audiences keep flagging is tone. Viewers arrive expecting one kind of film and find it moving between comedy and grief without losing its footing.
Five-star reviewer jenna K warned there is “plenty of comedy along the way, but by the end prepare for the waterworks.” Sarah D, five stars, found it “surprisingly funny and moving at the same time,” with a lot of big plot points “handled so elegantly and with such humor.” ron M described a film that “starts quirky and funny then adds emotional layers.” And Amy B’s entire five-star review is that tonal whiplash in miniature: “Not a comedy! But a riveting drama.”
For many reviewers, the surprise is how much the film carries under its quiet surface. They describe a story willing to sit with mortality, faith, and family without lecturing.
The most expansive five-star review, from Jon S, calls it “an incredibly powerful film about navigating the challenges of life to include trauma with profound loss, the stages of life most notably that of aging, illness, and dying,” and credits writer Sally Gifford and director Timothy David with “a masterpiece.” In his five-star review, ron M noted that “religion is discussed with intelligence and wit but neutrality,” and that the film “doesn’t give the viewer too much information, but that information is there, it just doesn’t over explain.” Mark D, five stars, framed it as “a thoughtful family drama with many twists and turns, and characters who discover or uncover hidden qualities.”
A few reviewers name the film’s pacing directly, and they agree it is deliberate rather than sluggish.
In his five-star review, ron M called it “a bit of a slow burn, or more correctly, measured; it takes its time before really sticking the landing.” ronald M agreed the “pacing is measured but not slow.” idean B credited the film for never straining: “the film didn’t try too hard. It told a simple, heartfelt story that was captivating from beginning to end.”
Across the five-star reviews, a handful of themes recur. Here is the chorus in one view, each in a viewer’s own words.
| What they praise | In their words | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Performances | “The leads are phenomenal, the whole cast really.” (ronald M) | 5 stars |
| Sense of place | “Wonderful sense of place, stunningly captured.” (Emily G) | 5 stars |
| Humor and heart | “Surprisingly funny and moving at the same time.” (Sarah D) | 5 stars |
| Big themes | “Writer Sally Gifford and director Timothy David have created a masterpiece.” (Jon S) | 5 stars |
| Pacing | “Measured; it takes its time before really sticking the landing.” (ron M) | 5 stars |
The write-ups are not unanimous, and the dissent is worth quoting fairly. The lone one-star review, from Arthur M, faults the film for tonal whiplash rather than craft. It “can’t decide its genre,” he wrote, “ping-ponging between a sentimental drama and generic comedy,” which he found “woefully uneven in tone,” even as he acknowledged how “seriously and compassionately the film takes the father’s illness.” He also objected to the film tying a real place to its title.
It is telling that another viewer pushed back on a related complaint before it arrived. Responding to commenters who called the plot “predictable,” five-star reviewer Mark D countered that the crowd he saw it with “laughed at the jokes, winced at the awkward conflicts, and clapped with enthusiasm at the end,” so “they had not been able to predict any of it.”
Viewers keep placing Kangaroo Island in the company of warm, character-driven films about family, grief, and landscape. If these are the movies you return to, this one belongs on the same shelf, and the table below is a starting point rather than a ranking.
| If you liked | Why it rhymes with Kangaroo Island |
|---|---|
| The Dry (2020) | The benchmark modern Australian “return home to a reckoning” drama, with the land central to the story. |
| Rams (2020) | Estranged siblings and rural Australia, balancing real emotion with dry humor, much like the Wells sisters. |
| Babyteeth (2019) | A festival-acclaimed Australian family facing mortality, tender and funny in the same breath. |
| Palm Beach (2019) | A warm coastal Australian reunion where old tensions and buried history surface over a weekend. |
| Ladies in Black (2018) | A gentle, character-first Australian ensemble with warmth to spare. |
| Sentimental Value (2025) | The Cannes Grand Prix winner about estranged siblings, a father, and a family home that critics have compared this film to. |
Read the reviews together and a portrait forms of a film that trades spectacle for feeling and earns it. Audiences describe Kangaroo Island the way they describe the movies they keep: beautiful, funny, quietly devastating, and true. Nineteen of the twenty written reviews land on five stars, and even the lone dissent concedes the compassion at the film’s center. For a small, independent drama made far from the studio system, that is a rare kind of chorus.
Kangaroo Island follows Lou Wells (Rebecca Breeds), a struggling actress who returns from Los Angeles to her family home on the island, where a dying father’s wish pulls her back into an unresolved past with her sister Freya (Adelaide Clemens). It is a family drama about grief, forgiveness, and coming home, told as a tragedy laced with genuine comedy, with a strong sense of place.
The cast is led by Rebecca Breeds as Lou, Adelaide Clemens as her sister Freya, Erik Thomson as their father Rory, and Joel Jackson as Ben Roberts, with Nicholas Hope also among the ensemble. It is the debut feature of the writer-director team of Sally Gifford and Timothy David.
Kangaroo Island was filmed entirely on location in South Australia, on the island itself and in Adelaide. That commitment to place is something viewers noticed: reviewers repeatedly single out the “breathtaking” scenery and the film’s “wonderful sense of place,” and it treats the island less as a backdrop than as a character in its own right.
The film was made on Country and acknowledges it, naming Adelaide as the Traditional Land of the Kaurna people and Kangaroo Island by its name, Karta Pintingga. This is an Acknowledgement of Country, a mark of respect for Aboriginal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that pays respects to Elders past and present. For a story so rooted in place, honoring whose land it is sits at the heart of the film’s care for its setting.
An audience review is a rating and written reaction from a regular viewer rather than a professional critic. On Rotten Tomatoes these feed the audience score, or Popcornmeter, and a “verified” tag means the reviewer’s ticket or purchase was confirmed, while critic reviews feed the separate Tomatometer. This article draws entirely on those audience reviews.
In Australia and New Zealand the film streams on Netflix and is also available on Prime Video. Elsewhere, including the United States, it is available to rent or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV, and availability varies by country.
If the reviews have you curious, the film is easy to find. Stream it on Netflix in Australia and New Zealand, or rent or buy it on Prime Video and Apple TV elsewhere. It lands in a single sitting, and if these viewers are any guide, one you may want to take twice.
Kangaroo Island is the film those five-star reviews are about. Stream it on Netflix in Australia and New Zealand, or rent or buy it on Prime Video and Apple TV.
