Innuendo

Imagine a 90s sex murder thriller with Matt Dillon if Matt Dillon never got near the thing and the manic-pixie-nightmare leading lady was treated with a psychological insight and a twisted sympathy that creeps into you and stays to unsettle you for a week. It's hilarious, and shocking. It's set in sharehouses you're sure you've been to a party at, that life drawing class you took in 2015, and features that play your housemate's girlfriend was in that you couldn't escape, and then never wanted to end. The settings are idiosyncratic, familiar, yet you have not seen anything this original in a long time.

Saara Lamberg brings to life the quirky, unhinged and deliciously despicable character Tuuli who travels to Australia to start a new life after leaving her homeland in Finland. Tuuli uses her sexual power to get what she wants from men, and leaves behind a trail of destruction and devastation. We discover early on that Tuuli has a twin Suvi, and the film jumps back and forth from the past in Finland to the present day. Ms. Lamberg plays both roles with pathos, also the subtle nuances required to convey each character is ever so present which is a testament to Saara's skill as an actor. Innuendo features many local actors from Melbourne, notably Andy Hazel who plays the timid and dejected Thomas and Brendan Bacon delivers an engaging, heartfelt and cheeky performance as the love interest Ben.

Shot in Melbourne, Australia and in Finland on a micro budget, the debut feature also written and directed by Saara Lamberg leaves the viewer absolutely mesmerized by chainsaw sculpting, nude modelling, very very fringe and experimental theatre and the utterly reprehensible actions of the protagonist.

A truly ambitious independent feature that delves into the psyche. The talented Saara Lamberg is definitely one to watch in the future.

Innuendo is a low/zero budget independent film that can keep you entertained throughout the whole film if you are ok with films with low production value. This is thanks to its well written story which is its strength. But then it is let down by the moments that really show the lack of budget, and these moments are enough to take you out of the film.

The film is cast of some practicing actors and some amateurs, and while this can work well on some films, in this case the good performances of the leading cast are overshadowed by the lacklustre performances of the supporting cast and the extras.

All low budgets independent films are a mammoth task to complete, so what this film has achieved with the low budgets is commendable. I'm surely if the key creatives had more time and budgets they could've done much better. And I look forward to their next project.

Director Saara Lamberg has created a film that resists easy categorization, so I'll go with psycho-sexual drama.

Tulli and Suvi (both played by the deliciously off-kilter Lamberg) grew up in Finland, and were subjected to contrary parenting whose legacy is now being visited on Tulli, who has relocated to Australia (as Lamberg herself did).

Like its uncertain genre, it's also uncertain here what is autobiographical and what is fiction –– ultimately, it matters not, but the drama possesses a strong scent of earthy authenticity. What the audience gets is a whirlwind odyssey to Toxic-Town as Tulli emotionally and physically rampages through the lives of everybody she meets and annihilates.

As it skilfully sets up its premise, it skilfully fulfills its promise also with a conclusion that intelligently wraps up its many open sores.

With its stark and perverse humour, tangy eroticism, and detours into surrealism blended with kitchen sink drama, INNUENDO is the orgasm Aussie cinema has been begging for.

The set up of Innuendo is that the heroine has left her religiously and sexually oppressive parents in her home in Finland, along with her favoured twin sister, for a life in Australia. Her past has rendered her a completely insular character, almost monosyballic, who repels or attacks almost all form of interaction.

Watching a character give nothing to anyone makes the film hard to stick with for a long time. I felt like I was getting nowhere, and not wondering 'Where is this going?' but 'Will this go anywhere?' Knowing so little of the backstory at this point, I didn't think Saara Lamberg's performance was giving me enough hint of what was hidden to hold my interest

Slowly, violence and weird fantasies start to creep in, and the film gathers more of a hold as it continues. Seeing more of the heroine on her own in more extreme situations, not just fobbing off all the other characters, also starts to suggest more her inner turmoil, which is the point of interest needed to focus everything.

There are some audacious scenes, painful and ominous and true scenes, and some strong performances. I think Lamberg is really good in multiple roles, it's just that for too long in the film, the screenplay (her own) keeps the character too barricaded. Ultimately Innuendo ends much stronger than it began, which is way better than the opposite, and has resonance. But much of it is a slog on the way to building to that point. Flawed but with value.