Film

The Australian Dream

Adam Goodes' documentary is a reckoning with Australian racism told through his eyes. It's a portrait of a champion athlete whose brilliance became inseparable from a nation's discomfort with confronting itself. Essential viewing about sport, power, and the cost of speaking truth.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you follow a sports documentary less for the matches than for a single man's account of who he is and where he belongs.

Skip it if you came for match replays and tactics, since this is a portrait of one life far more than a record of the game.

What it asks of you: At 106 minutes on one subject, it moves at a considered pace and asks you to sit with hard material rather than skim it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Hoop Dreams1994

A landmark documentary tracking two basketball hopefuls through decades of American life. Like *The Australian Dream*, it uses sport as a lens to examine systemic inequality, ambition, and what gets lost along the way.

But It's three hours and moves deliberately. The payoff requires patience and emotional investment, not a quick insight.

Hoop Dreams poster

Free Solo2018

Documents an extraordinary athlete at the peak of his discipline, but also interrogates obsession and the price of greatness. The tension between admiration and concern mirrors Goodes' own complicated legacy.

But If you're looking for straightforward triumph, this goes uncomfortable places. It won't let you rest easy.

Free Solo poster

The Two Escobars2010

A 30 for 30 film that braids together sport, violence, and national identity in Colombia. It understands how sport reflects and refracts a nation's deepest conflicts—exactly what *The Australian Dream* does for Australia.

But Dark and occasionally brutal. Not a redemption story or an easy watch, by design.

The Two Escobars poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Australian Dream

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

I Am Not Your Negro2017

Both are refusals to let their nations off the hook. Both use a single figure's experience to illuminate a country's soul.

Raoul Peck's essay-film about James Baldwin and American racism. Uses archival footage, Baldwin's writing, and brutal honesty to examine what it means to be seen and refused by your nation. The intellectual and spiritual ancestor of Goodes' reckoning.

But Densely layered and poetic rather than narrative. Demands active attention. Devastating.

I Am Not Your Negro poster
More like this (7)

Tickled2016

Begins as curiosity about competitive tickling and becomes something far stranger and darker. Shares Goodes' gift for revealing what lies beneath surfaces we thought we understood.

But Goes to genuinely disturbing places. You'll need a moment after it ends.

Tickled poster

The Last Dance2020

A championship athlete's final season, examined with unflinching honesty. Shows both brilliance and the human cost of that brilliance—the same emotional architecture as Goodes' story.

But It's a 10-hour commitment, and some episodes feel like mythology-building rather than interrogation.

The Last Dance poster

Diego Maradona2019

Asif Kapadia's film is a portrait of genius destroyed by fame, expectation, and a nation's hunger. Another athlete whose gifts became inseparable from pain.

But Bleak and pitying. If you prefer narratives of redemption or recovery, this won't offer it.

Diego Maradona poster

O.J.: Made in America2016

A sweeping examination of race, celebrity, and justice told through one man's life. Uses sport as the entry point to America's deepest rifts—the blueprint for what *The Australian Dream* achieves.

But Nearly eight hours. You need to give it real time and mental space.

O.J.: Made in America poster

Senna2010

A portrait of an athlete's obsessive pursuit of excellence and the isolation it creates. Visually stunning and emotionally precise about what it costs to be the best.

But If you don't care about motorsport, the technical detail might feel like noise.

Senna poster

My Name Is Khan2010

Both explore what it means when an athlete or celebrity becomes a symbol larger than themselves, and the isolation that follows refusal to stay silent.

An Indian actor becomes the face of Muslim-American relations in post-9/11 America. A mainstream Bollywood film that wrestles with belonging, identity, and how being visible can become dangerous—from the opposite cultural angle.

But It's a three-hour Bollywood melodrama with songs. If that register isn't your world, it might feel sentimental rather than serious.

My Name Is Khan poster

The Killing of Two Lovers2021

Both examine what happens when an individual refuses to disappear quietly and the cost of that refusal—but this one strips away the stadium lights entirely.

A quiet, precise drama about a working man pushed to a breaking point by a system that won't accommodate him. Not about sport or fame, but about the same infrastructure of exclusion and invisibility that Goodes navigates.

But Slow and interior. If you want catharsis or action, you'll be frustrated. It's about endurance, not resolution.

The Killing of Two Lovers poster

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Recommended by

The Australian Wars, Mabo, Australian Rules