Metal Skin

Essentially a re-setting of the Arthurian stories in the context of an Australian subculture of lost, dope-addled car-obsessed young males, this is a compelling and disturbing look at how empty, disconnected lives can become focused on an arbitrary quest in order to find meaning. Cars playing 'chicken' substitutes for jousting, the quest for the ultimate turbo charger replaces the Holy Grail, a spell-casting bogan witch girl takes the role of Morgan Le Fay. The title probably comes from the line in John Boorman's equally bizarre Arthurian movie "Excalibur" - When Arthur questions whether Lancelot should leave his lands and people to serve him, Lancelot points to his armour and says "I gave up my castles, and my lands - my domain is here, inside this metal skin". Similarly the characters here are totally cut off from their families and any other human emotional connection, they carry their entire world around inside the metal skins of their cars.

This movie gives a pretty good feeling about what's like for a rev head growing up in the lower socio-economic suburbs in Australian cities. There's Joe, who is a bit of a loser, and lives with his Migrant father who has lost his marbles, and there's Daisy - a guy who is the winner character in this movie - that was a race car driver in another state in Australia, but came back after an incident that you will find out about in the movie. These two characters meet at a grocery packing warehouse where they both work, and form a friendship based on the fact that they both drive old Australian built Chrysler cars - Joe a beat up station wagon with home made mods, and daisy a grungy modified charger with off the shelf performance parts. This movie has many facets - it has romance of a sort, lots of jealousy, racial tension, witchcraft/ satanism, real human drama, some really tense action, and a story line and a quality of acting that allows the audience to emphasize fully with the colorful characters. The car action isn't a huge part of the movie, but the quality of it is up there with Ronin, and The Fast and The Furious. Well worth a look in my opinion.

Few films in the teen genre truly deal with a core component of being young- recklessness and the aching yearning of the years after high school. Here is a film that does which was originally to be called "Speed" until a certain American flick stole the thunder. What that film could never steal is the intense agony and sprinkles of joy that this film so powerfully captures. Its the tale of Joe, a young aimless guy who just wants to do good, be in a relationship and enjoy life. Instead he finds himself ostracised because of his poverty and his fathers collapse. His passion is his car but its a rundown creature. Just as you think he's found friends and maybe a chance things spiral out of control. Featuring a great soundtrack featuring Nick Barker and some brilliant drag racing scenes, this film will both exhilirate and smash you up much like its subject matter. A brilliant cast and fiery direction make this a must see grungy

If you've ever thought that in order to qualify as an Australian all you had to do was grow a pony-tail, spend the day bodyboarding down the beach and then wind down by drinking light beer at a BBQ while listening to The Offspring and Weezer, then this film tells you that you would be dead wrong! This grungy coming-of-age tale set in Melbourne, makes it clear that Australia is not ONLY populated by people who spend weekends listening to Counting Crows while tossing dwarves down bowling alleys - they have awkward teens and devil worshipping goths like we have as well. This story centres on four lost souls, including a couple of gearheads and a female Satanist who are drawn together in a fragile friendship - jealousies soon get in the way and, to cut a long story short, it all ends in tears. It's a fairly downbeat movie overall, with little hope or joy for the characters but they are well drawn and well-acted by the principals. It seems to have won awards, while not winning audiences which is often the way in movies such as this which don't prioritize being crowd pleasers.

I saw this ages ago but I still remember how realistic,gripping and thought provoking it was.The character of Joe,a social misfit and race driver wanna-be was brilliantly portrayed and is still probably the best performance I have ever seen of somebody truly at the end of their rope and the director gives the film a very nightmarish look.At first glimpse,this will come across as depressing and off-putting,but the performances are really brilliant and the film overall is magnificent.