“A dingo took my baby!” is one of the most famous lines in film history, but how does the movie itself hold up? Theo joins us as we head to the Australian outback for the Meryl Streep/Sam Neill true crime drama A Cry in the Dark (Evil Angels in Australia)!
The film follows the infamous Azaria Chamberlain case, in which a months-old baby girl was tragically lost and killed out in the outback, and their parents, Lindy (Meryl Streep, in one of her many Academy Award-nominated performances) and Michael Chamberlain (Sam Neill) are put on trial for murder. The film’s surprisingly great, with two strong performances centering a sensitive and complex drama about the way media affects public perception of events, the willingness of a discriminatory public to think the worst of grieving parents, the coding of women’s behavior in the public eye, and more. We can’t honestly recommend the film enough, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
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THIS EPISODE’S DRINK: Myer’s Rock
This Australian-inspired drink is named after Ayer’s Rock (the site of the baby’s disappearance), and is a variant of the Wombat, yet another Australian mammal! We use a Myer’s dark rum and amber rum base, along with a bevy of fruit juices and banana liqueur to lighten up the syrupy nature of the Myer’s.
2 parts Myer’s dark rum
1 part amber rum
1 part banana liqueur
2 parts orange juice
2 parts pineapple juice
Combine and stir; serve in Collins glass with ice.
DRINKING RULES FOR A CRY IN THE DARK:
- Whenever someone says “Dingo”
- Whenever someone says “baby”
- Every time the film cuts to a new group of people discussing the Chamberlain case amongst themselves
FINISH YOUR DRINK WHEN:
The wealthy Australian woman hosting a bourgeois dinner party says, “I’ll not have another dinner party ruined by those people.”
Join us next week as we sample two great tastes that go great together with Samurai Cop!
