One of the slate of films Frank Howson made via his Boulevard Pictures, this tackles many of his favourite themes: Melbourne, showbusiness, Australia vs US, love, tearjerkers, his bland middle of the road rock songs.
Alan Fletcher and Dave Roberts are a writer and director who sell a film to America (they've already made the film, which kind of lessens the stakes). The American exec is Terri Garber, who was married to Frank Howson IRL. The cast includes familiar faces like Nicholas Hammond, Nick Wendt (as Fletcher's girlfriend I think), Tim Robertson.
The film sends up soaps and post apolcapytic movies - blows which might have landed better if Howson's own dialogue had no been so on the nose and clunky.
Howson said Pino Amenta was going to direct this but they fell out over Howson directing Hunting. So Dan Burstall, Tm's son, made this.
There's some decent drama here - what is selling out (using an American editor, accepting changes), a neat twist where a dopey action film Roberts directs inspires a real life shooting (this is the best bit in the film), Garber sees Roberts and Hammond simultaneously.
There's maybe not enough story for a feature - it's padded out with montages. I think there was enough dramatic meet but Howson didn't dig in enough. The whole thing sort of feels like an amateur play written by a suburban group from people who have a bit of talent but can't land the knockout punch. I mean the ending has Roberts and Fletcher make a film about themselves.
Terri Garber goes topless in one scene which feels like a jolt. This film never got theatrically released. I'm not surprised.
It does have some effective moments. The leads can act. Nice photography.
No comments:
Post a Comment