The Nothing Men

I recently caught a second look at this film. It remains a brave portrait in a landscape of safe Australian choices. I'm aware that the film has had a long and arduous road in getting a theatrical release, but having now seen it writ large in a modern cinema, I was made aware of the importance of seeing some of the shadowy plays of our culture up on the big screen.

Technically polished, it strains the confines of its meagre budget and concentrates its priorities where they need to be - in the dialogues and in the performances. Its theatrical origins are obvious, but it doesn't need to be ashamed of them in the spirit of cinema. Its camera prowls like some kind of spectre waiting to possess these broken men. If they leave the circle of protection, the ritual of their lives is disrupted and chaos and entropy become their bedfellows. And that can only unleash a particular kind of hell on these shells of men.

As a raw and tattered banner of an aspect of 'Australian mateship' on screen, it really is a landmark work.

Just when you thought you knew were this was going ... it does not exactly take that route. While it is played out as ... well play, it does depend mainly on the actors and the story. And while the actors try their best, it's the story that could have been helped with a bit of a re-write or polish.

The unknown is sometimes what is appealing. Though sometimes not that appealing. And while the ending is strong, it also feels wrong, because there is almost no sympathy you could feel for some of the people. And to say that some things are convenient would be a major understatement. But then again its a movie and thats the way it is. Still good, but unfortunately not as good as it could have been

I just saw this movie a couple of hours ago at the USC, Los Angeles, and am now writing this review. I went to see this movie because the USC website promoted this movie as the first one of the first feature length movies to be shot entirely using Red One Camera.

Sure enough, Red is amazing! The picture quality is far beyond what one expects from HD. However, the movie would have been excellent even without the use of Red One.

I never heard of the actors in this movie, and I am not much exposed to Australian cinema either, except perhaps for The Castle and The Babe. But this movie was really a good experience (the wine & refreshment after the movie did not hurt either). This is a very nice movie with an explosive (yes, that is the word they used) ending. And they say, it cost them only $400,000 to make this movie (If I heard correctly what they told in the Q&A session).

I really enjoyed the story and the superb acting by the cast. In fact, the acting was often so good that it made me think at times that they were non-actors (sorry Martin Dingle-Wall, I did not mean to insult you, when I asked what your primary occupation was; it was an off-handed complement!). The cinematography was also excellent, though 80% of the movie happens under the claustrophobic atmosphere of the inside of a factory, whose glory days are a thing of the past. Perhaps I could connect more with the movie, because some of the evens depicted in the movie either happened to me or my neighbors.

Highly recommended.

We attended the opening night of the movie on a recommendation and didn't really know what to expect. What started out as light-hearted banter between the characters (think the café scene in reservoir dogs) soon became a lot darker and very powerful. The story and the tension build very well, and while in isolation some of the characters actions seem extreme, the story moves you along in a believable fashion from 5 guys sitting around shooting the breeze while they wait for their redundancy pay-outs, to something much more sinister. Ironically the movie is quite violent and certainly doesn't hold back on the 'colourful' language which might put off some female viewers, but at the same time it was my wife and her friend that were the most moved by the movie - as the back-story of one of the characters in particular is revealed. At the time of writing the movie only seems to be on at a few cinemas here in Oz but I would think this is destined to be a sleeper hit.