The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Charlie & Boots
Comedy · Drama · 2009
After a family tragedy, Charlie and his estranged son, Boots, try to put their differences aside and head off on the road trip of a lifetime - from regional Victoria to the Cape York Peninsula - they overcome many challenges to reach their dream - to fish off the northernmost tip of Australia.
Movie details
Charlie & Boots
“They're on the road to somewhere”
2009 Comedy · Drama 1h 41m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.0 / 10
Community rating
After a family tragedy, Charlie and his estranged son, Boots, try to put their differences aside and head off on the road trip of a lifetime - from regional Victoria to the Cape York Peninsula - they overcome many challenges to reach their dream - to fish off the northernmost tip of Australia.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Charlie & Boots?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
My Own Love Song
Comedy · 2010
A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.
The Good Half
Comedy · 2024
Renn Wheeland returns home to Cleveland for his mother's funeral. Once there, he forges new relationships while healing old ones, before confronting his problems and trying to face his grief.
Nutcrackers
Drama · 2024
Just as Mike is on the heels of closing the biggest deal of his career, he's pulled away from his bachelor life in the big city to a farm in rural Ohio in order to help his recently orphaned nephews find a new home.
Sacramento
Comedy · 2025
When free-spirited Rickey suddenly reappears in father-to-be Glenn’s life, the two former best friends embark on a spontaneous road trip from LA to Sacramento.
Red Dog: True Blue
Family · 2016
When eleven-year-old Mick is shipped off to his grandfather's cattle station in Western Australia, he befriends a scrappy, one-of-a-kind dog that will change his life forever.
Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas!
Comedy · 2011
Teddy Duncan's middle-class family embarks on a road trip from their home in Denver to visit Mrs. Duncans Parents, the Blankenhoopers, in Palm Springs. When they find themselves stranded between Denver and Utah, they try to hitch a ride to Las Vegas with a seemingly normal older couple in a station wagon from Roswell, New Mexico. It turns out that the couple believes they are the victims of alien abduction. The Duncan's must resort to purchasing a clunker Yugo to get to Utah, have their luggage stolen in Las Vegas, and survive a zany Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Blankenhooper.
Where the Red Fern Grows
Drama · 2003
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
My One and Only
Comedy · 2009
A mother takes her two sons on an unusual road trip from New York to Pittsburgh, St. Louis and eventually Hollywood in her quest to find a man to take care of them all.
Red Dog
Drama · 2011
The legendary true story of the Red Dog who united a disparate local community while roaming the Australian outback in search of his long lost master.
Kodachrome
Drama · 2017
Matt Ryder is convinced to drive his estranged and dying father Benjamin Ryder cross country to deliver four old rolls of Kodachrome film to the last lab in the world that can develop them before it shuts down for good. Along with Ben's nurse Zooey, the three navigate a world changing from analogue to digital while trying to put the past behind them.
Where it lives
Watch in your region.
Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.
Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Dean Murphy
Written by
Dean Murphy · Stewart Faichney
Paul Hogan
Charlie McFarland
Shane Jacobson
Boots McFarland
Roy Billing
Roly
Morgan Griffin
Jess
A
Anthony Hammer
Tristan
Bec Asha
Gunbar Waitress
Alan Powell
Rodeo Clown
Court is in session
Put Charlie & Boots on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.