Suburban Mayhem

Suburban Mayhem is a sturdy-ish drama/black comedy-with-very-little-comedy about the exploits of brash young sociopath and single mum Katrina. She lives in the 'burbs and her beloved brother is in jail for decapitating someone(!), yet Kat blames her dad's fumbly efforts during the court proceedings for her brother's incarceration - and also for the swooping of social services upon her kid - and starts scheming to have dad murdered.

This is a very well performed film, especially by Emily Barclay as Kat, and it's craftily directed for the most part, but unfortunately in the end the parts don't add up to create much overall effect. There's little suspense and very few surprises along the way to embellish the fatalistic plot. The device of framing the story with news interviews from after the events sometimes has the effect of delaying our access to the inner lives of the characters, especially Kat. I had the feeling we were about twenty minutes into the film before we started to experience anything from her point of view.

Perhaps what struck me the most is the gulf between the way the film's being promoted - as a lively, maybe even wacky, black comedy - and what it actually is; a black and steady portrait of a sociopath. Certainly there are funny moments, but this is by no means a funny film. Kat is a hugely impressive creation, completely unyielding in her unreasonableness and constantly manipulating those around her through her dumb psychopathy in such a way that the line between apparent calculation and banal self-centredness is hard to distinguish. Any film which builds itself around such a relentlessly appalling character is a brave film, but this just isn't a very entertaining film overall.

Even if you're as open to being bathed in dysfunction as I am, it's hard to stay interested in the character when Suburban Mayhem's trajectory feels so static, seeming to move towards quietness and bleakness at the end rather than any kind of intensity. As for those who demand likable characters, well, they're all going to recoil from this film anyway. Folks expecting a lot more fun are going to be justifiably disappointed, and I blame the film's advertising for this. Take a look at the poster for starters! Instantly it was one of my favourite film posters of all time when I saw it, but it simply isn't representative of the material.

I'll be interested to see if this film manages to take off, or if word of mouth is going to subdue it. It's been compared (pretty vaguely) to Chopper, and Chopper became a cult hit in spite of its own great bleakness, but I don't think Chopper was ever promoted as being something it wasn't.

This film, directed by Paul Goldman ("Australian Rules", "The Night We Called it a Day"), is not so much Pulp Fiction Australian style as pulp faction; first-time scriptwriter Alice Bell has cobbled together a story inspired by the real-life murder of her father committed by 19 year old Belinda van Krevel in suburban Wollongong (though the film was shot in Newcastle). Cyclone Katrina, as another reviewer accurately calls her, is indeed an elemental force, unrestrained by social conventions and morality. She has a hopeless passion for her brother Daniel (Laurence Breuls) who is locked up early in the movie for taking the head off a convenience store clerk with a samurai sword during an ineptly executed robbery. Katrina is determined to get him out, and the need to get money for Danny's appeal drives her to organizing her blameless father's murder. In the meantime she drives furiously, has sex with practically every young tradesman in the district and neglects her baby, fortunately largely cared for by her loyal boyfriend Rusty (Michael Dorman), who likes to think of himself as the father.

Whatever production defects this movie may have, it passed the watch test. It really is hard to take your eyes off Emma Barclay as Katrina. Kat is vulgar, rude, lewd, and driven largely by emotion, yet she radiates sexuality, the kind that a well-brought up male feels guilty about acknowledging. She knows what men want; hence the long string of "admirers". Interestingly she tends to adopt the superior position during sexual congress, no doubt to stay in control, for she is a controlling sort of person.

Her environment is standard suburban wasteland (well-off blue collar boring) but it is not obvious why she and her brother have turned out to be such poisonous personalities. Mum, it seems, was a drug addict banished years ago from the family home, but Dad (Robert Morgan) is a decent caring person, a builder by trade and maybe not very perceptive. Perhaps Dad was too indulgent and a firmer line with the kids might have avoided disaster, though his girlfriend "Auntie" Dianne (Genevieve Lemon) puts it all down to genes – Grandma and mother both having been mad.

There is an obvious parallel with "The Boys" of a few years ago, which was no comedy but did explain how a truly monstrous crime originated. This is a lighter piece though what Katrina brings about is still pretty nasty. Justice is not done either, which is disturbing.

Even so, whatever is driving Katrina, Emily Barclay makes her totally believable. The rest of the cast are rather overshadowed, but Steve Bastoni is effective as an intimidated policeman and Michael Dorman convincing as Rusty, a moth to Katrina's candle, or rather blowtorch. We know via the mockumentary sections what is coming up, but we still get a surprise. Katrina does rather better than her real-life counterpart, but someone like her is not likely to enjoy a quiet life, or a very long one either.

Katrina is 19 with a neglected toddler, a lipstick-smeared pout and a bad attitude. Her brother's in jail for murder and her dad's fed up with her bludging off him to finance a life that revolves around the beauty salon, bourbon and blow jobs. Soon she, too, is plotting a murder, which may or may not involve her sweet mechanic boyfriend Rusty or her brother's best mate, Kenny, a dropkick with a sadistic streak. In fact, every man she knows becomes a drooling idiot as soon as she unzips her micro-mini denim skirt. It's a juicy role and Emily Barclay attacks it with relish, making this vile steamroller of a sexpot almost likable. But her brash performance is also the movie's fatal flaw: Hurricane Katrina has it all her own way. Everyone else is too stupid or too nice to stand up to her. We've seen this character before, but Dede Truitt in The Opposite Of Sex and Suzanne Stone in To Die For weren't just bad to the bone, they were better written. Still, like that other wild ride through westie wasteland, Idiot Box, this is a bold, blackly funny picture of the Australia most of us live in, full of noisy energy and visual flair, and for that it deserves a big thumbs-up.

Having just seen Suburban Mayhem at a screening event, and really enjoyed it, I was a little shocked to read the first two reviews here! Sure the film doesn't have a major budget, but I thought in general the acting was very good. Michael Dorman as Rusty and Genevieve Lemon as "Aunt" Dianne were particularly good, whilst Emily Barclay was always believable as the thoroughly rotten Katrina.

Katrina is not a character you can empathise with - let alone like, but the movie makes for good car-crash watching. How far will she go to get what she wants? What exactly is the relationship between Kat and Danny? Overall a very dark and comedic movie, with some wicked dialogue. The closing line of the movie was genius, and possibly the best I've seen yet!

Spoiled suburban girl Katrina turns into a femme fatale monster after her brother goes to prison in this Aussie portrait of a middle class crime wave. The box copy promises more in the way of sex and violence than this picture ultimately delivers, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The picture cuts back and forth from tell-all interviews to girl-gone-bad flashbacks and the effect, rather surprisingly, is not as jarring as it might be, as the cutaways were well-timed, and the overall pacing was quite slick. A low budget is in evidence, but the creators manage to combine a darkly comic tone with a believable situation and credible characters to create effective drama. Not great by any means but better than many similar films.