harry-90

This is a truly wonderful film, made in the true spirit of inventive, exciting indie filmmaking. John Winter, the director/writer of the piece (some folks would call that an 'auteur') has an impressive slate of producing credits (Rabbit Proof Fence, Doin' Time for Patsy Cline) but this is the first time he has taken charge of all the principal creative elements of a feature film - and he does an amazing job. He has assembled a truly wonderful cast of Australia's most interesting and versatile female actors, to deliver an exciting, sexy, intriguing, and riveting 90 minutes of sheer brilliance. The film is brave and unusual - challenging, yet easy to go with - I was blown away by it. The wonderful Valerie Bader is sensational, and the black and white photography adds an element to the whole piece that a colour shoot would have lost. The casting director Dina Mann (Head On, Japanese Story, Mallboy) has done a magnificent job here and deserves special mention. Go and see this film - support it - tell distributors and exhibitors to get behind this film - the Australian film industry desperately NEEDS unique films like this to drag it out of its torpor.

This film is excruciatingly bad. It's like an episode of Seinfeld without the wit - it's about NOTHING. Avoid this turkey at all costs. The badly written Australian dialogue is so bad that it travels beyond bad. The infantile "storyline" (for want of another word) is so inane that even an average writer would have trouble writing it. The comedy is NOT funny - which is a bit of a drawback for comedy. And the endless shots of prepubescent teens wandering aimlessly about beaches beggars belief. The direction is non existent - need I go on?? Everything about this is EVIL. Who financed this turkey? I know the Olsens have a following of some kind but this drivel is an insult to the intelligence of even the most devoted fan.

I throughly enjoyed this very clever documentary drama about an (in)famous Australian filmmaker who never let minor things such as funding stand in his way. It is told with humor and heart and the visual effects are very clever and most effective. In fact the visual design is the film's most interesting feature. The use of old black and white photographs in a two dimensional format for the actor's to immerse themselves in does wonders in creating the world our two heroes exist in. Once again the wonderful producer Sue Maslin has found herself a great project which is challenging and interesting , and Alec Morgan's obvious love of the material stands the whole thing in great stead. Rupert Kathner is Australia's Ed Wood but with a more ample dose of the rogue about him. Congratulations!