All articles by Frank Hatherley – Page 7
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Reviews
The Rage In Placid Lake
Dir: Tony McNamara. Australia. 2002. 90mins.Let's get some misassumptions about this comedy feature debut from writer/director McNamara and Australian rockstar/actor Ben Lee out of the way. Firstly, it is not related to Fox's 1999 crocodile feature Lake Placid. And secondly, lead character Placid Lake (played by Lee himself) displays none ...
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News
Sydney's 50th Int'l film festival starts on an uninspiring note
On June 6, Sydney joined the nine other international film festivals to have reached their 50th year.It was hardly a sparkling evening, however. And even though Larry Clark's controversial festival entrant Ken Park had been banned by the national censors only days before, no mention was made in the bland ...
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Reviews
Fat Pizza
Dir: Paul Fenech. Australia. 2003. 97mins.If there was an international festival for the grossest, most politically incorrect films of 2003, Fat Pizza would definitely be Australia's submission, and short-priced favourite for top honours. A spin-off from two seasons of a cult sitcom on SBS, Australia's multi-cultural television channel, and a ...
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Reviews
Ned Kelly
Dir: Gregor Jordan. Australia. 2003. 109mins.The lasting iconographic significance of armoured 19th-century outlaw Ned Kelly to Australian culture and mythology can not be underestimated. However, as Gregor Jordan's unromantic recreation insists, the Kelly Gang were 100% Irish, fighting age-old wars against the hated English in a hostile new land. Ned's ...
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Reviews
You Can't Stop The Murders
Dir: Anthony Mir. Australia. 2003. 97mins.Miramax Australia's first local distribution purchase since upgrading its Sydney office is, bravely, a gentle humanistic comedy from a director making his "first film ever of any kind". Anthony Mir is a local stand-up comedian, and his feature debut, You Can't Stop The Murders is, ...
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Reviews
Crackerjack
Dir: Paul Maloney. Australia. 2002. 92mins.Relying heavily on the shambling amiability of its co-writer/co-producer/ star, this easy-going comedy will register with local audiences familiar with comedian Mick Molloy's unkempt persona, developed during a decade of TV, radio and stand-up appearances. With Roadshow investing in a wide Australian release (it opened ...
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Reviews
The Nugget
Dir: Bill Bennett. Australia. 2002. 97mins.Although he is strictly one part of a sparky acting ensemble, Eric Bana shoulders the above-the-title promotional weight for The Nugget, a pleasantly folksy Australian comedy. After his huge arthouse success as Chopper, his macho lead in Black Hawk Down - and before his coming ...
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Reviews
Garage Days
Dir: Alex Proyas. Australia. 2002. 105mins.With the major backing of Fox Searchlight and a US$7m budget - hefty by Australian standards - Alex Proyas' eagerly anticipated first feature since his acclaimed, effects-laden dramas The Crow (1994) and Dark City (1998) is a surprisingly lightweight comedy about an underachieving Sydney band's ...
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Reviews
Dirty Deeds
Dir: David Caesar. Australia. 2002. 98 mins.Hot on the heels of the last Australian gangster caper, The Hard Word, comes David Caesar's equally macho, amoral and raucous Dirty Deeds, with the distinct advantages of a decent budget, a smart script and a vibrantly realised late-1960s setting. In addition, a top ...
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Reviews
Black And White
Dir: Craig Lahiff. Australia/UK. 2002. 99mins.The Sydney Film Festival traditionally opens with the world premiere of a quality Australian feature: last year it was the free-flowing, cinematically intense Lantana. This year's opener was an altogether more stolid affair - the worthy dramatisation of a 1958 South Australian murder trial and ...
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Reviews
The Hard Word
Dir: Scott Roberts. Australia. 2002. 103 mins.Guy Pearce and Rachel Griffiths, two Australian actors running hot in the States, return home to lend class to this lively but otherwise undistinguished gangster comedy-thriller. Screenwriter Scott Roberts' directorial debut has plenty of bloodthirsty violence shared between a strong cast of tough guys ...
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Reviews
Australian Rules
Dir: Paul Goldman. Australia. 2002. 98mins.The Australian success of Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence has opened distribution doors previously locked to depictions of Aboriginal issues and racial conflict. In its wake comes Australian Rules, a biting reminder of the distance that still exists between white and indigenous communities in modern Australia. ...
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Reviews
The Diaries Of Vaslav Nijinsky
Dir: Paul Cox. Australia. 2002. 95 mins.One of prolific Paul Cox's most admired movies is his 1987 'docudrama' Vincent, a portrait of Van Gogh told by flowing imagery and close inspection of the paintings in situ, accompanied by voice over excerpts (read by John Hurt) from Vincent's letters to his ...
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Reviews
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Dir: Phillip Noyce. Australia. 2002. 92 mins.It's generally accepted that films about aboriginal Australians are local box office poison, which unfairly adds a layer of difficulty to the marketing of Phillip Noyce's excellent homecoming production. International audiences will have fewer problems with his elemental tale, which cuts raw into the ...
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Reviews
One Night The Moon
Dir: Rachel Perkins. Australia. 2001. 54mins.A showing at the Berlinale continues the remarkable journey of this sub-one-hour, made-for-TV outback musical drama, a collaboration between the lively Sydney-based MusicArtsDance Films (which is now working on Paul Cox's drama-doc Nijinsky), ABCTV's Arts and Entertainment department and OzOpera (the experimental division of Opera ...
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Reviews
The Man Who Sued God
Dir: Mark Joffe. Australia. 2001. 102 mins.Although this intelligent comedy could well have bitten deeper and challenged its heavyweight targets (God, religion, insurance) more aggressively, it's nevertheless a pleasure to welcome a widescreen entertainment so confident in its adult, humanistic stance. With an intriguing premise and a star role exactly ...
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Reviews
Let's Get Skase
Dir: Matthew George. Australia. 2001. 100 mins.The recent death from cancer and emphysema in Majorca of Christopher Skase, fugitive Australian businessman and would-be media mogul (he nearly owned MGM in the 80s), has not stopped the wide local release (October 18, 110 screens) of this loud and rumbustious action comedy ...
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Reviews
The Bank
Dir: Robert Connolly. Australia. 2001. 106 mins.This quality thriller's super-villain doesn't threaten the world from the usual fortified island - but although he's merely CEO of a profits-obsessed Melbourne bank, global domination is still his evil aim. Former successful producer (The Boys, The Monkey's Mask) Connolly's first feature as writer/director ...
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Reviews
La Spagnola
World premiered at the 2001 Sydney Film Festival, this finely textured local feature proudly proclaims its multiculturalism. Subtitles translate the mainly Spanish and Italian dialogue: the film's title - The Spanish Woman in Italian - is itself testimony to the film's mix of cultures and language. This is admirably, even ...
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Reviews
Russian Doll
Dir: Stavros Kazantzidis. Australia. 2001. 90 mins.This ambling, soft-edged romantic comedy is due to receive a New York premiere on June 15, only days after its local debut, which saw it take $8,929 off 10 screens in five days - which says much for Beyond Films' enthusiastic sales muscle and ...