Best of the 2010s – 2015 – The Dressmaker

Two of the best female performances of the decade (Kate Winslet and Judy Davis) in a film that smashes genres together with ruthless abandon, this kinda delighted me. I understand the objections people have to it (there’s some, ahem, very exaggerated performances around Winslet and Davis), and a third-act twist definitely pulls the rug out from under its audience in a way that won’t necessarily make this a crowd pleaser. But the combination of great frocks and ruthless vengeance is utterly up my alley, with writer-director Jocelyn Moorehouse absolutely achieving her aim of making, as she put it, “Unforgiven with a sewing machine”. It teeters on the edge between deliciously camp melodrama and ridiculous stupidity, and for me it triumphs – though this is the kinda tightrope where I can imagine plenty loathing it (well, I don’t need to imagine it, I’ve read the alternate opinions, and … well, for me they just plain don’t get it or don’t want to get it.