Full-Tilt

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2016)

George Miller's nightmare post-apocalypse vision is told primarily through kinetic visuals with dialogue provided only when needed. Yet it's so simple a story he's telling that the visuals are pretty much all that are needed; Miller relies on the visceral to move his story along. This all works because the dystopian world Miller and co-scenarists Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris creates is complete, with history, customs and rituals fully developed and identifiable; the viewer doesn't need a whole lot to buy in. This is also true in relation to the main characters, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and Max (Tom Hardy): they don't have a lot to say but you get them immediately. Miller consistently comes up with imaginative set pieces (there's a knockout sandstorm and a nice monochromatic section is an interesting alternative to the mostly daylight action--the production design is by Colin Gibson) and displays as much Gothic grotesquery as he possibly can: there are alabaster bald children, weird midgets and startlingly obese men on wild display and that guitar player swinging from the front of the truck gave me the creeps; he gets tremendous make-up artistry from a team led by Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin; every ugly image--and there are many--is beautifully rendered. Everything is full-tilt here but fortunately John Seale's cinematography and Margaret Sixel's editing are up to the task. Miller has thrown away the campy shtick that was "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" in order to revisit and fortify the series' original raison d'etre: a despairing view of a world gone insane due to a dependency on oil. Its relevance is just as timely as it was back in the days of "The Road Warrior" and even though it's a heady theme, this entry is just as entertaining as "The Road Warrior" was, only turned up to eleven. The soundtrack is by Junkie XL (he of the remix of Elvis' "A Little Less Conversation") and it's very good.