Highly enjoyable documentary about the Melbourne punk scene of the late 70s (for lack of a better word) and the making of a film inspired by that era, Dogs in Space. Briskly handled, edited very quickly, and a lot of fun, its upfront about the inspirations, pretensions, pettiness, bitchiness, downsides and excitement of the time. Everyone knew everyone else, life was about breaking the rules, far too many people took drugs.
Talking heads include lots of people I've vaguely heard of including Clinton Walker and Ollie Oleson, plus more famous Alannah Hill (who has the best line - I'm paraphrasing - "everyone told me I should like The Birthday Party so I did but I didn't really they were wankers") and Sean Kelly of the Models. It feels honest - some people tell me they didn't enjoy those days, the drugs clearly did a lot of damage, Clinton Walker is a bit of a smart arse (a few of them are fairly full of their own importance), there was a lot of jealousy of other bands. But it was also a vibrant experimental time. I would have liked to have heard from Richard Lowenstein, who directed this, but I guess he figured it was time to let other people shine.
The most moving segments actually come from interviews with Michael Hutchence during the making of the film. What a talent. What a waste.
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