I’m sure this film is going to get a lot of mixed reviews, much like the opening night film, 2:37. It’s very, well, different, and very controversial. 19-year-old Katrina is stuck in boring suburbia, still living at home with her divorced father and for her toddler daughter, although her devoted stoner boyfriend looks after the child most of the time. When Katrina’s brother Danny is sent to jail for life, after committing one of the most stupid crimes I’ve ever seen, she is devastated and will do absolutely anything to get her brother out. She decides that she needs money for an appeal, but having never worked a day in her life, and knowing that her father’s not going to help her financially, she has to think outside the box. Her solution: she must kill her father as she’s first in line for the family inheritance. She’s too lazy to do it herself, so she will have to convince one of her many boyfriends to do the job for her, but luckily she’s never had any trouble getting men to do what she wants. This film takes sibling devotion and support to a totally new and disturbing level.

Starting out as a dark comedy, this film basically turns pitch black by the end. Katrina really is the devil. She has absolutely no redeeming features and no moral boundaries. She will literally do anything to get what she wants, and we can only just sit there are watch in amazement as she succeeds. This film is really like watching a train crash. You feel disgusted and revolted, yet you know there’s nothing you can do about it and simply can’t turn away. It really is a horrible film to watch, yet at the same time, exciting and hilarious. You just watch in disbelief as some really wrong stuff just happens on screen.

The acting in this film is fantastic. The woman who plays Katrina has done a truly amazing job. This is one scary character. She’s aggressive, arrogant, pushy, cocky, sexy, loud, cheeky, and basically, just pure evil. Emily Barclay plays her perfectly. She’s the whole reason the film works. The rest of the acting was done quite well, although you’re too busy trying to understand Katrina to pay to much attention to the others. They’re basically just your stereotypical boring suburban drifters. I did think Robert (the local copper) did do a great job though, and was very convincing in his role. Katrina’s father felt kind of shallow, but I think that helped the storyline and added to Katrina’s motivations. Katrina’s neighbour is a highlight, and delivers some of the funniest lines of the film.

Technically speaking, the film didn’t have the highest of production values. The footage was kind of bland and dull, and I really hated the computer graphics used in the opening sequence (the mail symbol flying through the air). Although the concept was quite good, visually, it just looked cheap and nasty. However, I did really like the title sequence, with the predictive text effect. It suited the whole suburban idea quite well, as mobile phone reliance is a fact of life in Katrina’s world. The sound was also pretty average, much like watching an episode of Neighbours or Home & Away. However, as the film is set in suburbia, the filmmakers could get away with saying it was intentional. The soundtrack/score was very appropriate (although I’m not the hugest fan of that style of music), and reminded me of the songs that blast out of the cars driving through suburban streets.

The structure of the film is very effective, shifting in time, through a series of real-time interviews, flashbacks and testimonies. By using this technique, the film has an added degree of energy and suspense. The story is told from many different perspectives, ranging from the local cop, small town gossip, friends, family, Katrina’s boyfriend and her many, many lovers. Although every one in the town is scared to death of Katrina, she’s basically a celebrity and everyone has a story to tell about her. In fact, it’s safe to say, most of the male population has probably slept with her.
Overall, as I’ve said, this is a really disturbing film about a world of sex, crime, youth culture and, as the title suggests, suburban mayhem. It’s about a girl without a conscience in a world without morals. You basically have to strap yourself in, and go for the ride as Katrina hoons around her small town, doing donuts, sleeping around, and generally making everyone’s life a living hell. But at least there’s never a dull moment in Katrina’s life (although I’m sure she doesn’t feel that way)! This is a film about a family that gets destroyed, and a daughter who literally gets away with murder. She does so many appalling things, and yet by the end of the film, despite all the horrific events that have happened, things are looking good in Katrina’s world – it’s disgusting. You really feel bad watching a girl you can’t help to despise, achieving fame and fortune by doing all the wrong things. This is a seriously rude, dark and sexy film, that will make you laugh and will make you cringe. But one of the best aspects of the film, much like 2:37, is that when you leave the theatre, your head is full of unanswered questions. Why is Katrina the way she is? Why is she so driven and so unrepentant? Is it simply a matter of brother and sisterly love, or is something else going on? For the record, I think maybe the brother is the father of her child. But I guess I’ll never find out. Finally, this quote sums up the movie best: “I knew the grandmother, she was mad. I knew the mother, she was madder. It’s genetics I reckon, that’s the only thing I can come up with. You can’t get clean water from a dirty tank”. Despite all its faults – this is a film you much watch, even if you decide you hate it.

This is a unique documentary that gives a detailed insight into the life of an extremely colourful and gutsy Australian design innovator and artist, Florence Broadhurst. She was found murdered in her wallpaper design studio in 1977, a crime which is still unsolved. This film explores Florence’s life, leading up to this tragic event. Using a mixture of visually stunning real interviews, stylised drama re-enactments, wonderful computer graphics, Monty Python-style animation, incredible archival footage and interviews, this is a truly vibrant and intriguing film. As Florence eventually gained her local fame by designing wallpaper, this film makes use of this fact, and every shot has the same vivid, multi-coloured and flamboyant feel as her designs. It took me a while to work out whether this movie was fiction or fact (despite the fact it was label as a documentary), as the opening voiceover was that of someone who was apparently dead. But once I got my head around what I was actually watching, I slowly got hooked. Although Florence’s life was very interesting – she was such a powerful and determined women – it was the overall look of the film that I respected the most. The mixture of so many different styles and mediums was amazing. I really loved some of the animations in the film as they really made me laugh. Overall, it was a relatively slow paced film, that was a little hard to follow at first, but as the time paced and the story progressed, it developed into a stunning work of art. For a film based around wallpaper, I guess it was fairly exciting in contrast!

I honestly believe this film has really changed me as a person. I’ve learnt a lot from it. Daniel, a talented male dancer is abducted by three hooded women, raped and tortured for twelve days, then dumped in the middle of no where with no clues to his attackers’ identity (other than one girl’s hair colour and some intimately located birthmarks and tattoos). Completely and utterly emotionally damaged, humiliated, and broken, Daniel tries to get his life back in to order, but struggles and eventually makes a huge mistake, in a very threatening and horrifying scene (although as a viewer, I can forgive him). This film is incredibly confronting, and has some horrendous rape scenes. The director wanted viewers to witness this kind of abuse with “fresh eyes” and as “human beings” instead of from either side of a gender divide. She has certainly achieved this. After watching “Last Train to Freo”, where the young lady onboard the train is in constant fear of violence and sexual abuse, this film really makes you think about the issue of sexual violence in a new light. The tables have turned. I’ve personally never seen a man getting raped by a woman, and after witnessing some of the scenes in this movie, they really got to me. I felt really sick and completely terrified. Actually, I still feel really terrified. But also numb. There have been plenty of movies with females getting raped by males. It really is something new to see it the other way around. I feel educated now. Scared shitless, but educated none-the-less. Any rape scene is horrible, and I really hate watching them. But theses scenes felt different emotionally. This is an amazingly powerful movie. But the unconventional context aside, the film is visually very beautiful and captures some great desolate tight urban locations in my home town, Melbourne. This film shows the city in a way that I’ve never looked at it before. The musical score and soundtrack is quite powerful, although I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, as the film had me sucked right in to its world.
This film explores a wide range of issues and themes, the most obvious being sex and power. I still can’t get over the sickening confronting and distressing rape scenes (I wonder if it had the same effect to female members of the audience?). What makes it even more overwhelming, is that Tom Long plays so many lovely nice characters in other films and television series that when watching this film, it’s almost like watching one of your close mates be violated and there’s nothing you can do about it. Any scene where a person is getting hurt normally bothers me a lot. I hate watching anything or anyone getting abused. I really hate needles, as I feel like it’s a violation of the human body. But this film really touched me, as much as some of the most horrific war and murder scenes in other movies. I really consider this film to be a brilliant masterpiece, if only become it affected me in such a major way. Step aside “The Isle” – you’ve been replaced.

Despite the fact that everyone who saw this movie with me hated it, I thought it was really intriguing. It’s a feature length documentary that is made up of home video footage captured by American television personality Rick Kirkham, over his lifetime. When he was fourteen he got a video camera, and basically has been filming his life ever since. He’s basically in love with being in front of the camera and captures everything (and I mean everything). This is a really self indulgent film, but at the same time, feels authentic and truthful. Rick’s life starts off full of excitement and success as he works as a national correspondent for the television show Inside Edition. But when his wife becomes pregnant and they get married, his life suddenly becomes far more complex. This film gives, what I can only presume is an accurate representation of Rick’s life. It shows his highs, and the moments when he hits absolute bottom. Rick’s life is truly a rollercoaster ride. One minute he’s on top of the world, the next, he’s fighting just to survive. Unfortunately drugs and depression play a huge part in Rick’s life, and it’s all caught on film. What’s so amazing about this film is that we really get an insight into this man’s life for better or for worse. We witness everything, from his fights with his wife, to his moving self confessions, to when the police take him away. Rick becomes completely and utterly obsessed with recording everything, which in the end contributes to his wife and children leaving him. This is not a happy film. It’s actually really depressing watching this man throw his life away. But it really does give you an amazing insight into the psyche of human beings. I don’t care what anyone thinks; I really got a lot out of this film. Sure the production values were crap, as it was shot on a dodgy handy cam. But the content was just so fascinating. Who ever edited this together did an amazing job. What would have been millions of hours of footage has been nicely compressed into a tight and effective story. This film also explores a generation obsessed with celebrity and technology. It will make you laugh, but more often than note, it will make you just think to yourself “why”! Human beings are so very complex and frustrating. This film proves it.

I really liked this movie. It still amazes me that people can come up with such fantastic scripts, which only feature one location and a couple of actors. This is a film about two dodgy looking ex-criminals that are travelling on the last night train to Fremantle; basically your stereotypical loud drinking train bogans. One of the men is a real big and scary man, although clearly smart but also with obvious anger management issues. The other is more of a side kick; young, less intelligent, immature, but quite funny. When an attractive woman gets aboard the train, both men are instantly captured. To an outsider, it would look like a couple of drop beats are harassing a young attractive woman, which is basically correct. At the next station, an older woman boards as well as a quiet geeky young man. As the trip to Fremantle continues, the power balance takes a much unexpected twist. This is one of the best Australian thrillers I’ve ever seen. The whole movie is just so tight and unpredictable. Although you know that the characters aren’t what they seem, you can never quite work out what their real story is. The best part is everything only becomes clear at the very last moment, so you’re pretty much at the edge of your seat the whole movie. I really loved everything about this film. The acting was superb. All the characters felt very, very real. The dialog was absolutely spot on. I really liked the classical music that played right through out the film. It added a nice subtle ambiance and helped set a great mood. It also helped reinforce the feeling of danger in some of the more dramatic scenes. The sound effects and Foley were great. Audio wise, the film felt very natural and authentic. This is a really entertaining film that keeps you guessing none stop. It also shows that you don’t need a lot of money to make a fantastic film. All you really need is a good idea.