The Black Balloon

The Black Balloon

Normal is relative.

PG-13 2008 · 97 min · ★ 6.3 · Drama

Thomas is turning 16. His dad's in the army and they've just moved to a town in New South Wales; his mom is pregnant; his older brother, Charlie, who's autistic, has his own adolescent sexual issues. Thomas finds Charlie an embarrassment in public, so when Thomas is attracted to Jackie, a girl in his swim class, Charlie presents any number of obstacles when she drops by their house, when the three of them go for a walk, and during a family birthday dinner. Can Thomas find a way to enter the world of teen romance and still be his brother's keeper, or is Charlie's disability going to prove more than Thomas can handle?

Directed by Elissa Down · Written by Elissa Down

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Rhys Wakefield Thomas Mollison
Luke Ford Charlie Mollison
Toni Collette Maggie Mollison
Erik Thomson Simon Mollison
Gemma Ward Jackie Masters
Sarah Woods Woman Next Door
Sam Fraser Kid Next Door
Zelie Bullen Mother in Van
Anthony Phelan Mr. Masters
Deborah Piper Janet-Social Worker
Henry Nixon Trevor-Social Worker
Rebecca Massey Miss Babb

Make it a double feature

3h 24m together

The Black Balloon

Feel the Beat

Both from Elissa Down.

More from Elissa DownSee all →

Feel the Beat

Feel the Beat · 2020

MovieComedyMusic

After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.

Pink Pyjamas

Pink Pyjamas · 2001

A little girl must suddenly confront her isolation due to puberty and the death of her father. She gradually sees her childhood relationships slip away as her life and life around her change.

Ivy + Bean: The Ghost That Had to Go

Ivy + Bean: The Ghost That Had to Go · 2022

Ivy + Bean: The Ghost That Had to Go

MovieFamilyComedy

Cold, white mist. Clanking pipes. And an eerie voice that's coming from the drain. Is the school bathroom... haunted? Ivy and Bean are on the case!

Ivy + Bean

Ivy + Bean · 2022

MovieFamilyAdventure

Ivy and Bean never expected to be friends. Ivy is quiet, thoughtful and observant. Bean is playful, exuberant and fearless. However, sometimes an adventure reveals that opposites can become the best of friends.

Confess

Confess · 2017

Auburn Reed is determined to put her challenging past behind her and get her future on track. Now in her mid-twenties and struggling to fund her custody battle for her only son, she stumbles upon the art studio of the talented and charming artist, Owen Gentry. The two wrestle with their developing romance and the secrets they're both keeping until they realize they may risk their future if they don't reveal their pasts to each other.

Ivy + Bean: Doomed to Dance

Ivy + Bean: Doomed to Dance · 2022

Ivy + Bean: Doomed to Dance

MovieFamilyComedy

Ivy and Bean sign up for ballet, only to learn they'll be dancing in a recital in front of hundreds of people. Time to get out of it — tout suite!

The Honor List

The Honor List · 2018

Four girls sink a time capsule in a lake with a list of things they want to do before graduation, but they all go separate ways before graduating. When a tragedy strikes, they reunite to find the capsule and complete the bucket list.

While the Men are Away

While the Men are Away · 2023

While the Men are Away

While the men are away fighting in WWII, two Women’s Land Army recruits join an Italian immigrant, her Indigenous domestic, and their draft-dodging farmhand to run the family farm – but can the improbable freedom and kinship they find survive beyond the war?

HMAS Unicorn

HMAS Unicorn · 2001

In the summer of 1964 three unusual incidents took place on Lake Grace. The first two were totally unexplainable. The third, and most disturbing one, provided one clue... Based on the journal of sixteen-year-old Gwendolin Howard.

More Like This

My Life Without Me

My Life Without Me · 2003

My Life Without Me

MovieDramaRomance

A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.

American Sweatshop

American Sweatshop · 2025

American Sweatshop

MovieThrillerMystery

A content moderator is tasked with purging offensive media from the internet. When she witnesses a crime in a video, she is lured away from the safety of her keyboard as she obsessively seeks to hold someone accountable.

All About My Mother

All About My Mother · 1999

All About My Mother

MovieComedyDrama

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners · 2000

Italian for Beginners

MovieComedyDrama

Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.

Desert Hearts

Desert Hearts · 1985

MovieDramaRomance

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

The Celebration

The Celebration · 1998

The Celebration

The family of a wealthy businessman gather to celebrate his 60th birthday. During the course of the party, his eldest son presents a speech that reveals a devastating secret that turns the night into a battle of truth and denial.

Beyond Silence

Beyond Silence · 1996

MovieDramaMusic

Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.

Snow Cake

Snow Cake · 2006

MovieRomanceDrama

A drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident.

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams · 2006

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

MovieDramaHistory

A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.

Rain Man

Rain Man · 1988

When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.

Open Hearts

Open Hearts · 2002

MovieDramaRomance

Cecilie and Joachim are about to get married when a freak car accident leaves Joachim disabled, throwing their lives into a spin. The driver of the other car, Marie, and her family don’t get off lightly, either. Her husband Niels works in the hospital where he meets Cecilie and falls madly in love with her.

The Secret Life of Words

The Secret Life of Words · 2005

The Secret Life of Words

MovieRomanceDrama

A solitary nurse bonds with a badly burned patient who survived an accident on an oil rig.

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation · 2003

Lost in Translation

MovieDramaComedy

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter