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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Australian Movies

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19:16 / 30.12.05

i know a lot of people find it pretty much derivative and uninspired, but i found "kiss or kill" to be kind of awesome... pretty to look and all sorts of enjoyable so long as you check your critical mind at the door.

A fall of geckos

23:24 / 30.12.05

Has anyone else seen Bad Boy Bubby?

It's an very odd and somewhat twisted Australian film about a 30 year old man who has been kept in an apartment by his abusive mother (who has sex with him). His mother claims that the world outside is covered in poison gas and leaving would kill him. Circumstances force Bubby to leave his apartment and he tries to fit in with the normal world. Bubby is portrayed as a simple character with a very limited vocabulary which mostly consists of phrases he hears earlier in the film repeated back to other people. The society he enters is both wonderfully kind and intensely brutal.

It's horrible and very uncomfortable, and at times beautiful and funny. I watched it yesterday and I honestly don't know how I feel about the film.

It's a very powerful film, and I would have thought it would be fairly well known, but I haven't really heard about it before. So, has anyone seen this or even heard of it?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:32 / 02.01.06

Just finished watching Wolf Creek. A lot more cliched than I'd been led to expect, but not to its detriment. It kept switching, and, yes, while all this shit has been done before, it never quite did what I'd expected when I expected it.

For a movie quite so "70s-horror-movie-stylee", I found it pleasantly (probably the wrong choice of word for such an unpleasant movie, but bear with me) UN-misogynistic- there was never the tendency (so common to a lot of shit slasher movies) to make the bad guy in any way cool, and the reactions of the female characters were (without being too spoilery) alternately realistic and "fucking hell. No way would I have had the balls to try that". To be honest, other than the Australian setting, I found myself thinking "this is like a Richard Laymon novel. Only without the rampant misogyny". (You know the deal... afore ye get killed, ye must, like, have a shower, or a mud-wrestle or something. If you're female). Although, clearly, YMMV.

I'm very surprised it got a release while the Falconio case was still being heard, though...

Overall, I thought that was a damn good movie. Possibly shouldn't have leaned so hard on the "based on a true story" post, though, what with the.....

SPOILER ALERT

only survivor not having seen about an hour's worth of what went on in the film

END SPOILERS

And in other news, my favourite ex called yesterday to tell me not to buy the soundtrack to The Proposition (which, to be fair, Rothkoid did offer me an MP3 of) because I'm getting it as a late Christmas present. Yay!

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:15 / 03.01.06

Bad Boy Bubby is brilliant. And Umbrella Entertainment over here have just released a 2-DVD set of it. (They also released the Collectors' Edition of Picnic At Hanging Rock not so long ago.)

A list of their other stuff - they've got Don's Party and a bunch of other Aust features - is available here

09:44 / 03.01.06

Arriving late at the party, I know, but may I suggest Flirting ? That’s from Australia, I think, and features Noah Taylor (so good as the young Helfgott in Shine) and Thandie Newton.
Follow-up to The Year My Voice Broke, I believe.

D Terminator XXXIII

15:04 / 04.01.06

I haven't yet seen many of the movies discussed herein but When Strangers Appear is Australian, isn't it? I enjoyed it very much during hangover Sunday.

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:22 / 12.04.06

I can heartily recommend that people don't go and see The Illustrated Family Doctor. I now know why it was a "7 day new release" at the vid store. Hmm.

It was just horrible. About two script rewrites off being filmable, the thing's so in love with the Kubrickian visuals they've lovingly constructed (lots of white hallways being the extent of it, really) that it doesn't bother creating any useful sentiments towards the characters.

Colin Friels was the best thing in it, which should give you an idea of how arse-bleedingly bad it was. Avoid!

Tabitha Tickletooth

10:09 / 13.04.06

I know this is not *strictly speaking* the purpose of this thread, but...

Has anyone seen the film Gettin' Square? I'm very tempted to try to get hold of it because, well, it's about the Gold Coast (where I'm from) which is intriguing because it really isn't a place where films get set. You might *make* a film there - or just up the road at the various studios - but you'd be pretending it was somewhere else (for some very good reasons, believe me).

I used to work in hospitality (there is, let's face it, nothing else) in Surfers Paradise - crap nightclubs, 24 hour cafes, pubs, you name it - and it seems like this film might actually be about or at least feature, er, people like me! By this I don't mean to imply that I expect to see myself in it, but I'm sure you understand the possible fascination with seeing your own little form microcosm portrayed in a film - even if it's just as background.

IMDB reviews seem to be very positive, largely from Australia, though, so I'm wondering if anyone would like to share a view?

PS Sorry if this is an unforgivable misappropriation of thread and I fully accept my threadrot face knife if deemed appropriate.

Tabitha Tickletooth

10:41 / 13.04.06

[Oops, forgot to mention that this is most definitely pointed at you, Rothkoid, as you made a passing reference to the film earlier in this thread. Sorry]

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:56 / 16.04.06

It's worth seeking out. I've spent a fair time around district courts in a journo sense, and the characterisation of Johnny Spit is very close to the money.

Additionally, the Gold Coast encapsulation is... well, gold.

It's not a perfect film by any means, but it is fun to watch, and doesn't take itself too seriously.

The Return Of Rothkoid

13:03 / 16.04.06

Oh, also worth seeing is Little Fish starring Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving, amongst a cast of other notables - including the seediest Sam Neill's looked yet. Noni Hazlehurst is fantastic in this as the ex-lover of a footballer, and the mother of Blanchett's character, who's trying to stay on the right side of finances and the smack. Certainly a surprise if the only thing you remember her from is Play School.

I was originally pretty dubious about this, and almost didn't want it to be any good because I figured that surely anything that takes awards away from The Proposition had to be overhyped to buggery... but I admit, it was spectacularly shot. It's Rowan Woods' newie, and though I'm really biased towards him because of The Boys - one of my favourite films, and one of the best Australian features ever, period - it's a different beast. It's more in touch with his roots, really - the Asian cultures referenced in his earlier work is really pulled apart, but not in a cultural tourist kind of way.

Visually, it's wondeful. Almost like Sofia Coppola's work, but with more focus, if that makes sense. I enjoyed it a lot, particularly the interplay between Blanchett's character and her brother, played by Martin Henderson, who I can't honestly remember being so good before. It's a strong ensemble piece which doesn't put its morality down in stone, which I think is why it works so well.

Recommended, anyway.

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