That's Not Me

Comedy IS difficult. It's difficult to do, and it's difficult to get right. This film, sadly, fails on both accounts, and more ...

The movie is shot OK, looking quite presentable, and the acting from a lot of the characters is alright too. But where "That's Not Me" really falls into its deepest hole is in failing to meet up to the expectation of its apparent genre - it's just not funny. Not even remotely. In actuality, it has more than a few cringe worthy scenes throughout which were clearly intended to be comedic, but aren't.

In short - the movie is uninteresting, boring even, with little or no plot and/or emotion to make you care what's going to happen next. There is also nothing dynamic, either visually or in the storytelling. In shorter than short - it doesn't do what it says on the tin.

'That's Not Me' is a delightful comedy centering on a pair of aspiring actors, Amy & Polly, twenty-something identical twins. When Amy lands a big role and becomes a celebrity, Polly is frequently mistaken for her. Polly becomes somewhat frustrated and jealous as she continues to work in a cinema candy bar. At one point she acts on an impulse and travels to LA to try her luck in Hollywood, with dramatic results.

The different career paths of the twins pivot on a point of principle where Polly feels a pang of conscience over 'whiting-up' to play an albino when she feels she would be depriving an albino actor of a rare role. She is less principled later on when she dangerously allows herself to benefit from her sister's celebrity. It's an original story, sharply scripted to alternate between being wickedly funny and sweetly tragic.

Although set in the world of film and actors, it is also a universal story of family dynamics and expectations. The twins' parents have instilled in them the notion that they can be anything they want, but they also seek to protect the girls from the disappointment of over-reaching. In this story, the twins offer alternative measurements of success and personal fulfillment.

For lovers of cinema, there are many touchstones throughout including references to the work of Sophia Coppola, David Lynch, Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto.

Alice Foulcher creates delicious and very funny girls-next-door characters, but she also elicits great sympathy, particularly for Polly, in her nightmarish circumstances. Foulcher is on-screen throughout, surrounded by an outstanding supporting cast as family and friends.

Identical twin stories on the screen famously include Bette Davis in 'Dead Ringers'', Nicolas Cage in 'Adaptation', Hayley Mills (& later Lindsay Lohan) in 'The Parent Trap' and most recently, Tom Hardy as the Kray brothers in 'Legend.' In 'That's Not Me' the doppelganger allows the playing-out of different scenarios in a life. It's not really 'Sliding Doors' or 'Run Lola Run', but perhaps more the multiple universes idea, or about a fork in the road, or the role of dumb luck.

Set mainly in Melbourne, 'That's Not Me' is deeply Australian without being ocker in any way, perhaps because it was written by Foulcher and director Gregory Erdstein while in Paris. It is really a snapshot of and challenge to the realities facing young women, especially in relation to employment, relationships and the narcissism of present day life in the western culture.

The debut feature from this gifted pair was independently produced and emerges as refreshing, funny and visually exquisite. 5 stars

This movie is epic for the simple reason it was done on such a small budget. Yet another example of the raw talent we have here in Australia.

If this was a big budget Hollywood movie I would have it at 5 stars. No it isn't the best movie I have ever seen but considering the budget it is close. Having just seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood which people are raving about (and was done with 150 times bigger budget).

I would put both movies at the same rating when it comes to entertainment so from my point of view That's Not Me is 150 times better than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

This film is Gregory Erdstein's first full length feature film (10 previous credits for short films) as director, producer and co-writer alongside Alice Foulcher who was also the lead.

It's a cute film directed fairly decent, but with a sloppy story that really had no point to it, and was certainly not a comedy (I did not laugh once).

It's clearly a low budget Aussie flick that made a decent attempt to tell a story, but failed so in the screenplay. In the beginning, it was hard to tell which twin was in certain scenes. Although the story was based on the struggles of one of the twins chasing her acting career and riding the coattails of her sister, at the end of the film you are left saying "that's it? so what?". There was no point to this film.

The acting was however fairly decent, the score a little too obvious in certain scenes, and the editing could have been tighter. This film missed the mark in telling the story better. Certainly not 10/10 material the other two fake reviewers posted, of which are clearly a spoiler plot summary. Would I recommend it or see it again? Nope. It's a very generous 6/10 from me only because it's a low budget indie Aussie flick and for its "cuteness" factor.

This played at the Sydney Film Festival to a packed house, and was an absolute delight.

Alice Foulcher, plays an identical twin, Polly, whose sister Amy is winning all the acting roles. Things get worse and worse for Polly, as she gets mistaken for Amy, and passed over for auditions due to being "the other one". Her parents seem oblivious to what she is going through, and it only gets worse when her sister is all over the internet due to dating Jared Leto. Whereas Polly, when she googles herself, is nowhere.

All the cast are strong. Belinda Misevski as flatmate Ariel is great. So is Rowan Davie as Oliver, the modern-day hookup from hell.

The ending is bittersweet albeit a bit quick, and leaves you wanting more. There would be room for a sequel: perhaps Polly could have another (even more disastrous) stab at Hollywood.

It is mystifying how they made it on a budget of $60k, it easily looks like a $1m+ production. The only time it looked slightly tighter on budget is with the LA scenes, but they're also some of the funniest and most poignant. Isabel Lucas is brilliant here as another Australian actress who has kind of made it in Hollywood, but is still struggling for roles. According to the director, Lucas's scenes (supposedly set in LA) were actually filmed in Australia due to scheduling, with Foulcher the only cast member actually filmed in LA. The continuity is so flawless that you can't tell.

Definitely see this one if you get the opportunity. While it's an Australian film, it's not self-consciously so. It's simply a very funny contemporary comedy that happens to be set in Melbourne.