Nursery Rhymes
2017 · 5m · Australia
Directed by Tom Noakes
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
On a cold rural Australian roadside, a shirtless metalhead sings 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' to a field of cows in a single take that slowly reveals what is really happening.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A shirtless metalhead crooning nursery rhymes to cattle sounds like a reject-pile premise, but Noakes commits to the bit so utterly that it stops being a gimmick and becomes genuinely unsettling—the single take is the only honest choice here, no cutaways to hide behind.
The formal rigor of the single-take staging recalls the durational cinema tradition, though Noakes risks trading narrative depth for conceptual novelty; the tonal register—melancholic yet darkly comedic—sits uneasily between registers, which may be precisely the point.
That slow reveal works because Noakes trusts the audio design and the performer's committed deadpan to do the heavy lifting; the decision to hold the camera static and let the landscape become a character is what transforms a high-concept joke into something that actually lands in your chest.
Reviews
The kind of film where you'll need a minute to recover after the credits roll, Tom Noakes' Nursery Rhymes disorientates its audience initially via a surreal, contextless opening. Confusion gives way to a slowly unfolding puzzle however, serving up revelations all the way through to its emotional close, when it delivers a gut-punch that I am still feeling today.
Festivals
- Aspen Shortsfest 2018, Official Selection
- AACTA Awards 2019, Nominee