Dario Russo’s The Fox is the kind of film that feels impossible to predict from one scene to the next. Part dark fairytale, part relationship satire, part small-town Australian absurdist comedy, it unfolds with the confidence of a filmmaker who is less interested in playing by conventional rules than seeing just how much strangeness an audience is willing to accept. The surprising thing is how willingly we go along with it.
Set in a rural Australian community where talking animals are treated as little more than a mild inconvenience, The Fox centres on Nick (Jai Courtney), a painfully ordinary farmer whose proposal to longtime girlfriend Kori (Emily Browning) lands with all the romance of a tax audit. Kori accepts, but it’s immediately obvious that she’s already emotionally checked out of the relationship, carrying on an affair with her boss Derek (Damon Herriman). When Nick discovers the truth, help arrives from the unlikeliest of places: a fox, voiced by Olivia Colman, offers him a bizarre solution to win back the woman he loves.
From there, Russo sends the story down a rabbit hole – emphasis on the hole – of increasingly strange developments that are best experienced without forewarning. Part of the film’s delight lies in discovering just how far its premise is willing to go.
What makes The Fox so entertaining is the complete commitment to its own lunacy. Animals casually hold conversations with humans. A magpie voiced by a wonderfully profane Sam Neill dispenses advice and gossip. Nobody reacts as though any of this is unusual. Russo never pauses to explain the rules of this world because, to the people living in it, there are no rules to explain. The talking animals aren’t treated as magical. They’re treated like neighbours.
That unwavering commitment to absurdity gives the film much of its charm. Even when the narrative occasionally struggles to bring all its ideas together, there’s a consistency of tone that keeps everything engaging. Russo has crafted a distinctly Australian piece of storytelling, one steeped in dry humour, strange folklore and an underlying sense that the world is just a little bit weirder than we’d like to admit.
The film also benefits enormously from Courtney’s performance. There was a period where Hollywood seemed determined to mould Courtney into a traditional action hero, but films like last year’s vastly underrated Dangerous Animals and now The Fox continue proving that his greatest strength lies elsewhere. Courtney is a fearless character actor trapped inside the body of a blockbuster leading man. Nick is pathetic, frustrating, dim-witted and often deeply unlikeable, yet Courtney somehow makes him compelling. Sporting a glorious moustache and a permanent air of confusion, he commits fully to Nick’s shortcomings without ever asking the audience to excuse them.
Browning, Herriman and Claudia Doumit, as Derek’s suspicious – and aggressive – wife, all understand exactly what movie they’re in, matching Russo’s offbeat sensibility beat for beat. The ensemble’s willingness to embrace the material’s eccentricities helps ground even the film’s most bizarre moments.
Visually, Russo creates an impressively realised world, aided by beautiful practical effects and animatronics that give the animal characters a tangible presence. The fox itself is an especially remarkable creation, lending the film a storybook quality that sits comfortably alongside its darker themes.
Beneath the absurdity, The Fox has plenty to say about relationships, dissatisfaction and the self-destructive ways humans pursue happiness. It’s often funny, occasionally bleak and more cynical than its whimsical premise initially suggests. Whether all of its philosophical ambitions land is debatable, but the film’s willingness to wrestle with them gives the story an intriguing edge.
Not every narrative thread ties together as neatly as it could, and some of Russo’s thematic ideas feel more interesting than fully developed. Yet The Fox remains consistently watchable because it never stops surprising you. It’s strange, darkly funny and unapologetically Australian, embracing a kind of eccentricity that few films would dare attempt.
Like its title character, The Fox is sly, unpredictable and impossible to entirely trust. But it’s also fascinating company while it lasts.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Fox is screening as part of this year’s Sydney Film Festival, running between June 3rd and 14th, 2026. For more information on session times and ticket sales, head to the official site here.
The Fox is scheduled for release in Australian theatres on October 29th, 2026.
