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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.

 

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