Is This the Real World

I first saw this movie on a plane coming home and I'm not ashamed to admit I got really emotional at the end. The main guy in it is the original Lochie Leonard and was in Puberty Blues too (Sean Keenan) and he is brilliant in it. It's a story with all these gaps in it where you get to work out that happens and then by the end you kind of realise you've been totally drawn into a family and all the stuff that goes down when things don't go right. It's all so real. School looks real. Home looks real. And the BMX riding is super excellent. It's not an action movie, it's an emotional story with heart and brains. Okay, so I totally get this is not a mainstream flick, but for something out of the usual this is a winner.

Is This the Real World - A Masterclass in Misguided Filmmaking

Martin McKenna's Is This the Real World is a sluggish, derivative toddler's mess that drowns in its own pretensions. His rudimentary script and lifeless direction are a waste of a talented cast, resulting in a film that feels as empty as its characters. A painful watch. This was a forgettable experience at best, a regrettable experience at worst.

And for that, the blame rests squarely on McKenna. It's one thing for a film to be dull, but it's another for a director to take a concept with potential and smother it under a mountain of self-importance and poor storytelling choices. McKenna seems determined to convince us that his film is deep, meaningful, and artistic, but in reality, it's a hollow, uninspired slog that confuses self-indulgence with genuine filmmaking skill.

From the outset, it's clear that Is This the Real World wants to be an intelligent, emotionally charged coming-of-age drama, but McKenna's direction actively works against any chance of that happening. He lingers on scenes far longer than necessary, stretches out moments of supposed tension until they collapse under their own weight, and employs empty visual flourishes that serve no purpose other than to remind us that he wants to be taken seriously. The result? A film that feels like it's constantly tripping over its own pretensions.

McKenna's greatest failure, however, is his script. It's astonishing how little life exists within the dialogue, which sounds more like someone trying to imitate human speech rather than anything a real person would say. Conversations are stilted and unnatural, with characters delivering their lines in a robotic monotone, as if even they don't believe in what they're saying. The protagonist, Mark Blazey, is meant to be a rebellious, misunderstood teen, but thanks to McKenna's writing, he comes across as insufferable, whiny, and completely uninteresting. There's no complexity to him-just an empty, angsty shell that the film tries (and fails) to pass off as compelling.

Even worse, McKenna doesn't seem to understand how to develop characters or relationships. Mark's romance with Kim (Charlotte Best) is underdeveloped and lifeless, existing purely because McKenna seems to think every coming-of-age film needs a love interest. His conflicts with authority figures, particularly the school's vice principal (Greg Stone), are formulaic and unearned, relying on tired tropes instead of actual storytelling. There's no depth to any of it-just a collection of scenes strung together with no real emotional weight.

But perhaps the biggest insult is how McKenna treats his actors. There is talent in this cast-Sean Keenan has proven himself in other projects, and actors like Greg Stone and Susie Porter are more than capable of delivering compelling performances. Yet McKenna directs them into the ground, sucking the energy out of every scene and leaving them stranded with lifeless dialogue and zero dramatic tension. It's almost as if he gave them one instruction: "Say the lines, but make it as dull as possible."

Visually, Is This the Real World is yet another example of McKenna reaching for artistry and landing in pretentious mediocrity. The film throws in slow-motion sequences and black-and-white imagery as if that alone will elevate it, but none of these choices serve the story. Instead, they feel like cheap gimmicks-a desperate attempt to make a hollow film seem profound. Rather than enhancing the film's themes, these stylistic flourishes only highlight how little McKenna has to say.

And then there's the pacing. Calling this film slow would be an understatement-it drags itself forward with all the urgency of a dying slug. Scenes go on forever with no payoff, and by the time the film finally stumbles to its conclusion, any shred of investment has long since evaporated. A well-crafted slow-burn film builds tension, develops its characters, and rewards patience. McKenna does none of this. Instead, he simply stretches thin material to its breaking point, leaving the audience bored and frustrated.

At the end of the day, Is This the Real World fails for one reason: Martin McKenna doesn't seem to understand what makes a film compelling. He confuses aesthetic gimmicks for storytelling, empty angst for depth, and slow pacing for emotional weight. Instead of crafting a meaningful coming-of-age film, he delivers a tedious, self-important mess that lacks any real substance.

A director's job is to shape a film, to guide it, to breathe life into its story and characters. McKenna does the opposite-he drains his film of energy, heart, and purpose, leaving behind an experience that is neither engaging nor thought-provoking, just painfully dull.

Skip this one.

This movie starts slow and I didn't know where it was going, but then it just totally hooked me in. At the end I just wanted to watch it all over again. The actors are brilliant. Sean Kennan and Charlotte Best are so good. The guy who plays the teacher, Greg Stone, is amazing. And 360 just should have been in it more. It's not like a lot of other films but it's really emotional and I thought well made. The music all the way through it is really good and I saw somewhere that it won awards in England. Basically it's the story of a family, but really it's all about the middle son (Sean Keenan) and how he deals with school and a teacher who is a bit of a freak and how his family are kind of a mess.

I really wanted to like this movie, but in the end it seemed rather familiar, a sort of retread of a lot of other things I've seen. And unfortunately, it was fairly boring really. A sort of soap scenario which never really surprises. Also despite it's rating, it was extremely unsexy, except for a few brief moments of Sean Keenan without his shirt. This was almost false-flagging, with an MA15 rating and nothing really to see from an eye candy perspective, although Sean is nothing if not pretty. Even the sex, the little there was of it, was curiously stilted and inhibited. For the budget, though, this was a reasonable effort, with solid if not outstanding performances. Unfortunately it seems Australian movies are no longer willing to take risks, even in low budget indie flicks, and the results are just, meh. Don't get me wrong, this is fairly competent, but I was hoping for something more interesting, and definitely sexier.

Sean Keenan is brilliant. Definitely worth watching. Really enjoyed it. (Thanks for recommending DL) All round a top film, funny and sad and cool. 360 should do more acting because he's cool AF. Charlotte (from H&A) is so great in this; she looks amazing and is really an excellent actress. It's actually worth watching a few times, as you miss things first time.