review by Jon
Lowenstein did it better with Dogs in Space.
Although the film has its moments and is worthwhile viewing for anyone who has lived in a share house, this film doesn’t quite make the grade.
The script is loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on the book by John Birmingham. Whereas the book was vaguely believeable, some of the scenes in this film stretch the tale a little to far. For instance the chainsaw wielding Nazi’s who chop the front of the house down seems a little far fetched (maybe I’ve just lived in the wrong sharehouses). And by the way, what was the girl with the ‘Class War’ t-shirt doing with the Skinheads anyway?
Noah Taylor tries his hardest to look like Nick Cave, and Sophie Lee plays herself.
There are a few enjoyable moments, but the film leaves one feeling fatigued by the half way mark and drags on for too long.
It looks like the rewrite of the story was to add some cohesion to the disparate elements of the novel. It sort of hangs together but not very well.
Initially I heard the film was no good, but David Stratton loved it, and convinced me to see it (plus I got a free ticket).
Iain thought it was crap, I thought it was just OK.
Nice ‘Beat’ article on sharehouses. Should be up for, ooh, another day or so. SHARING THE NIGHT TOGETHER – The Lowdown on Share Houses by Holly Shorland.
“You move into your first share house generally when you start uni or when you come back from your post VCE overseas jaunt. It’s a shithole with a brown velour couch, milk crate bookshelves and frequent cereal dinners. Dishes are stacked a metre high and there’s usually no toilet paper, sometimes for days at a time …”
You never know, David – that article could be up online a little longer than another day or so.
After all, Beat’s version of Christie Eliezer’s industry news column here hasn’t been updated since February :-)