Moving Out

Quite a good teen film about an Italian-Australian teenager, played by Vince Colossimo. Schoolboy Gino thinks that his life is hard enough caught between his parents' Italian culture at home and the Australian culture at school, but when his parents want to move to a better suburb, he fears being separated from all his mates.

This film captures the dilemma of migrant kids trying to reconcile his parents' culture with the mainstream culture which he wants to fit into. He sees Australian culture with an outsider's eye, but wishes he didn't. Vince Colosimo is great as the inarticulate Gino, who wishes that his parents and teachers would just leave him alone.

It's a fairly amiable film, and Gino manages to survive all the pressures put upon him by others and by himself. This is one of a handful of films that looks hard at the migrant experience in Australia, a country where migration is one of our most important social phenonmena.

'Moving Out' presents a familiar theme of Australian teen dramas produced around this time (primarily the 80s, although I haven't seen many from either prior to or following the decade). That is, the difficulty of a young Australian teenager, usually male, who struggles with a sense of identity and place which often translates into the consequences of difficulties with family and authority. Although, the theme need not be limited strictly to Aussie dramas, as I have seen this frequently in films about young Asian teens (where the divide between teens and older generations is probably the most prevalent as it is likely elders had adhered the most to tradition). But in any event, I have yet to see Australian teen dramas (note, that I'm from America, so our supply of the teen-based Australian market is limited to begin with) that do not present an identical or similar theme. And, this film, too, adds investigation into the threats of cultural preservation.

The story is about that of a young Italian teen named Gino (played well by Vince Colosimo). We see the conflict between Gino and his parents is primarily one of identity as he consistently vents his frustration over his parent's refusal to conform (or at least adapt) to the country's language and some of its culture. While his extended family comes to help the family prepare for their big move (I assume to another part of Australia? I was confounded by some of the Italian conversation), we see that they speak only in Italian (which is frustrating for us monolingual audiences for the lack of subtitles which may or may not have been intentional). However, as another viewer commented, we are not given very much insight into persecutions upon Gino's family that would give them reason for clinging so tightly to their cultural heritage (and I further wonder why, if they left Italy to go to Australia because they perceived it as America-lite, they wanted later to return to their homeland). I can only guess that they came with a heritage that, regardless of any persecutions (or lack thereof), they simply wanted to hold on to that as much as they could (you might assume in general that they fear their children dismissing their traditions and heritage past). In any event, Gino doesn't want to make the move.

The part that I couldn't understand is whether the filmmakers were making the link between Gino's frustration (and persistent conflicts with his parents which neither party could fully understand of each other or at least, didn't communicate effectively their reasons to one another) and the trouble he frequently found himself at school or in the general mischief he and his friends frequently participated in. It seemed to me, that these were the results of "boys will be boys" activities, where it was boredom to lead to breaking into a house or disgust with school in general that would lead to a disinterest in his teacher's urgings that learning a particular poem may somehow help him in the future. This part of the plot seems entirely severed from the cultural conflicts between Gino and his family and is also resolved for entirely different reasons.

I was also a little aggravated with Gino's cousin Maria, who later becomes his sort of civilized therapeutic source (as opposed to the scenes of typical teen mischievous), was presented to be like she was some kind of moron. Despite the language difficulties, I doubt cousin Marie could have little difficulty what a "rolling plain" is or why Australia might be referred to as "Sunburn country."

However, despite that and a terrible soundtrack, this, it is quite an enjoyable film and well worth finding if you are craving Australian dramas of the coming-of-age varieties.

I enjoyed watching this movie and was surprised at how good Vince Colosimo was. Upon subsequent contemplation, I realized that he's generally good in all the roles he has undertaken (though not so the actual movies). This is a good vehicle to see him at his early best.

Without the flash and almost vulgarity of STREET HERO, this movie manages to achieve a certain home-spun charm as it deals with the trials and tribulations of an Italian born teenager (Gino) of a migrant family in Melbourne. His parents still speak their own language, cling desperately to their cultural identity and refuse to fully emerge as Australians - this he disparages in much the same way as Nino Culotta does in the final pages of his novel THEY'RE A WEIRD MOB (1957). This is then confounded by the arrival of relatives from the old country which sparks even more old-country celebration.

I found this movie fairly enjoyable to watch and felt it had a valid point (or meant to have one) in the pressure on migrant families to conform to Australian cultural norms. It did not really, however, seem to show overt or patent persecution of Gino's family or Gino's own heritage which made Gino's quest more one of self-improvement. Maybe the point is that feeling alienated and outcast is similarly felt and occasioned by the subtlety of society and vague impressions given by the those in authority. Watch it for yourself to decide.

The movie is technically quite proficient, though it remains for the viewer to decide whether it is a certified Australian classic. I think not.

Being lucky enough to own a copy of this film, I watch it frequently and am always moved by its tender coming of age tale about Gino (Vince Colisimo) struggling to find a balance between the freedoms in Australia and the conflicting conservative shackles of the ways of the "old country".

Due to the large amount of post-war European migration to Australia, this kind of story has almost become a genre in itself, yet "Moving Out" stands alone in its brilliance.

The plight of Gino is a common one as he struggles to fit in, both with the Aussies at school, who call him soccer-jock, and with his father who feels the freedoms in Australia are a negative thing, leading him away from his studies.

One can't help feeling that Gino's story extends in a way to all people regardless of background as he struggles to find his place in the world.

This movie is amazing and an excellent time capsule into early 80's Aussie life.

A must see for all.