Skip to main content

Season's greetings from DUF

 


Christmas gift hamper:

Paul Goldman’s working-class noir Suburban Mayhem (2006), about a femme fatale’s machinations to get her brother out of prison, starts strong but runs out of steam; despite a committed and star-making (in another film industry alas) lead turn from Emily Barclay, its diabolical streak eventually becomes tiresome.

Much as Emily Barclay is the MVP of Suburban Mayhem, the wonderfully expressive Miranda Otto is the MVP of Love Serenade (1996) [1]. Shirley Barrett’s Camera d’Or winning film, about small-town sisters (Otto and Rebecca Frith) enchanted by the arrival of a new radio host (George Shevstov), is willfully offbeat and indefatigably charming.

Little Australian film headlined by child star of beloved global blockbuster #1: From the star of E.T. and the director of Turkey Shoot ... While it’s unlikely E.T. would have survived the blood sport of Turkey Shoot, his pal Henry Thomas negotiates Trenchard-Smith’s Frog Dreaming (1986) intact. The film, scripted by Everett De Roche, has Spielbergian aspirations, mixing component parts of Jaws, E.T., and the Spielberg-produced Poltergeist as inquisitive Cody (Thomas) investigates the presence of a bunyip called Donkegin in a lake near his town. Like The Last Wave, Frog Dreaming appropriates Indigenous culture for its genre film narrative but with a modicum of respect.

Little Australian film headlined by child star of beloved global blockbuster #1: December Boys (2007) may be the most ‘normal’ film Daniel Radcliffe has headlined, but I’ll take it hands down over most of his ‘interesting’ choices. Directed by Ron Hardy, a TV veteran who I know mainly as a schlockmeister (Thirst, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD), the film focuses on four orphans (including Radcliffe) gifted a transformative beach holiday. While I enjoyed Suburban Mayhem, Frog Dreaming, and especially Love Serenade more on a scene-to-scene basis, December Boys was more satisfying overall: the individual scenic peaks of the former three, especially Suburban Mayhem, never quite amount to a discernibly meaningful endgame; Frog Dreaming perhaps fares best of the three, its final act on a par with another Spielberg imitation, Super 8. In contrast, the level course charted by December Boys means its character arcs and themes are rounded out. The film’s Kangaroo Island shooting locations are lovingly shot and there are nice supporting turns from Jack Thompson and Teresa Palmer.

  

Obligatory screengrab of character passing video store
Visible posters: Braveheart, Batman Forever, Under Siege 2

 

Seasonal stocking fillers from the archive:

Crackers (1998)

Bush Christmas (1983)

  

Further stocking fillers - 2023 publications outside the DUF database:

The Great Directors: Bruce Beresford (Senses of Cinema)

A Haunting in Venice is Kenneth Branagh’s 20th film – what do we make of his prodigious output? (The Conversation)

This Hath Oscar Buzz: Shakespeare and the Academy Awards Part I (The Curb)

This Hath Oscar Buzz: Shakespeare and the Academy Awards Part II (The Curb)

Sly of the Tiger: Sylvester Stallone as Auteur (The Curb)

Book Review: 'International Broadcasting and Its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft: Middle Power, Smart Power' (Media International Australia) 

 

Merry Christmas!
 

 

[1] Love Serenade kicked off a bumper stretch of films - followed by The Well, True Love and Chaos, Doing Time for Patsy Cline, and Dead Letter Office - in which Otto shined, I would argue, as Australia’s finest dramatic comedienne of the 1990s.

 

Popular posts from this blog

Malcolm (1986)

  When penning my review of Black and White , starring Robert Carlyle, I was reminded of my two theatrical viewings of The Full Monty : one in a packed theatre with patrons lapping up the film, the other a few weeks later in a large theatre with less than a dozen, far more polite punters. As a dumb teen, I took away the wrong lesson: that the film didn’t work/wasn’t successful outside a packed auditorium. As an adult, I have a more rounded appreciation of the film and its grace notes that aren't dependent on an enthused opening weekend crowd — the thoughtful, non-condescending working-class milieu it sketches (much more effective and less caricatured than the likes of Billy Elliot ), the lovely work from Lesley Sharp, and so on—but the two distinct viewings remain an instructive lesson in the role of an audience in galvanizing each other and collectively elevating a film experience [1]. Malcolm (1986) is a film I’ve also watched twice—albeit at home and with a much longer interva...
Read more

Six pack: Furiosa (2024), Force of Nature (2024), No Escape (1994), The New Boy (2023), Mary and Max (2009), and Sweet As (2022)

  There used to be a nerdy adage—at least until contrary instalments countered the point—that even-numbered Star Trek films were better than their odd-numbered counterparts. I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar adage emerges about the Mad Max films: while the obviously odd-numbered original was a trailblazer, it’s The Road Warrior and Fury Road that have commanded universal acclaim, while Beyond Thunderdome and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) have proven divisive. There are striking moments—as expected in both a George Miller film and a Mad Max film—in Furiosa , and Miller remains the most idiosyncratic generator of sequels: Furiosa (technically a prequel) is his sixth, after a Babe sequel, a Happy Feet sequel, and three other Mad Max sequels, with none of these offshoots feeling the same. However, if you’d told me Furiosa was based on a five-part prequel comic book series, I’d believe you, based on its chapter structure and the narrative dead end it arrives at. As it stand...
Read more

John Hargreaves double feature: Hoodwink (1981) and Sky Pirates (1986)

Published 2017 on Down Under Flix Discounting the film  Blackfellas , in which he plays a minor role as a racist policeman, I’m surprised it’s taken this long to cover any John Hargreaves films on Down Under Flix. A six time AFI Award nominee (including for  Hoodwink ) and triple winner, Hargreaves is one of the best leading men to emerge from the Australian New Wave, and I have particular regard for his work in  Don’s Party,   Long Weekend , and  The Odd Angry Shot . Hargreaves was a natural performer: gifted and charismatic, but not unnecessarily flashy; handsome, but not movie star handsome, and slightly crumpled like a creased jacket. He was a quintessential Australian everyman ala Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown, though he’s less familiar to young filmgoers today, partly due to his untimely passing in 1996 at age 50. This article looks at one of Hargreaves’ best films… and one of his other films… 
Read more