Noise

I loved this film. It's a subtle, layered and measured work with good performances and a wonderful use of music and sound design. The story is well paced and again I see it in musical terms with the crescendos and diminuendos carefully crafted and motifs re-occurring throughout. I also found it a visual pleasure - well lit and photographed.

For a lot of the time, the soundscape echoes the tinnitus of the lead character. Constable McGann is a man isolated in several senses and the film hovers for the most part, like he does, on the periphery of a horrendous and senseless crime. This isn't really a police procedural, but an exploration of the lives affected by the event - the locals sitting just outside the event horizon and in danger of getting sucked into the vortex.

There's knowledge hidden from us, the audience, and also events and motivations that are hidden from the protagonists - even those directly affected by them and involving them. To that extent, this movie reminds me a lot of Memento.Meaning unfolds and understanding grows as the film progresses, but at the end, you are deliberately left with pieces missing from the jigsaw puzzle. It seems to me that you are meant to be left with a sense of the fragility of society; a sense that there will always be gaps in the way we understand our relationships to others and in the way our lives play out.

I love the way that the movie ends with austere credits rolling over a couple of minutes of silence, before sound in the form of an orchestra creeps back into our perception, instrument by instrument. We share the hero's aural affliction throughout the movie and the silence and re-introduction of sound offers a sense of change and resolution - and maybe hope.

That's right – an Australian drama with no heroin addicts. It is possible and it can still result in high quality piece of cinema.

This isn't to say Noise is a light piece. No, no. It's is a very serious-minded and thoughtfully produced film. The mood is carefully and slowly created and the places where things happen feel real (though I will say there were some overly self-conscious scripted moments that didn't ring true to me). And like life – some of the big questions in this movie go unanswered.

It's a brave thing to do but as an audience member, you realise Noise isn't trying to be a police drama or a murder mystery, though those elements are both there. It's more about how things just happen – people come into your life, events take you over and you can't control any of it, all you can do is deal with the consequences.

Noise is one of those rare films that stays with you for some time after you see it. No car chases, no explosions – just emotional engagement and a place to consider how you're coping with the hijacks and loose cannons in your own life.

After seeing an interview with director Matthew Saville, who seemed as intelligent as any film maker you could care to name, I was interested enough to go out and track this one down. And it doesn't disappoint. Certainly visually it is wonderfully well executed, and the sound is strong too. The dialog is sharp, subtle, and at points hilarious (and supremely Australian).

Unfortunately, the downside is the disjointedness of the plot line. To me it seemed yearning to be free from a plot line as a major source of interest (and focus instead in the pure dialog and landscape - certainly I feel that's where Saville's interest is). But it wasn't. There are two driving plot lines along the whole film and something happens in every scene, even though subplots are not continued, or often resolved. To me the finale was also ultimately quite generic and futile as a point of interest.

Ultimately, the words 'interesting, but not "great"' come to mind, and it fits vaguely into a bucket with several other Australian films of the last 5 years (candy, little fish, look both ways, Japanese story, etc.) in dealing with the same demographic, themes of emptiness and loss, and being willingly obtuse (artistic?) in its presentation, even if this one does have its own thing happening a little outside of that also.

I like independent movies. I like to see the work of many talented people resulting in a work of art. This piece is one of those. The acting, sound, post, cinematography, story, the entire piece was really good, it is totally worth watching. However, this piece of art tried too hard to suck the audience into its psyche by elongating the scenes to the point of exhaustion. I wonder how many "beats" were in the script. I actually got so bored with the pace of the movie that I decided to get out the ironing board to do something productive with my time while the movie slowly unfolded. So ladies and gents, make sure you bring something to keep you entertained during the unnecessarily long scenes. Chop 15 minutes off the top and you got yourselves a real winner. Still a good little indie.

Now this is what I call a surprise, and one of the best Australian films to come out in the last couple years. Matthew Saville's magnificently striking, movingly sombre and realistically crafted crime drama "Noise" is quite a neat little package that really does over deliver. We follow that of a self-doubting, and tinnitus afflicted cop McGahan, as he finds himself manning a police van in a suburban community that has just been overwhelmed by a group of vicious murders. The script (within the character's make-up), plus the technical side of the production (sound effects) demonstrates some creative brushes with the whole tinnitus angle. Brendan Conwell's convincing lead performance is nothing more than sensational, in what is a vulnerable turn of coming to terms with the responsibility of his duties and the growing fear of his uncertain health. Maia Thomas' traumatised performance is just as hypnotically good. Saville's lean material is high on mood, blunt and darkly engaging on the gradual build-up of the inner-workings of his characters and environment. The location photography is masterfully shot, and the lighting composition also helps provoke an arresting and brooding atmosphere that shrouds the air. The direction of Saville is casually handled with a prominent rich style, and Bryony Marks' alienating music score never overstays its welcome. Meaningfully top-notch and powerful entertainment.