Metal Skin

I saw this ages ago but I still remember how realistic,gripping and thought provoking it was.The character of Joe,a social misfit and race driver wanna-be was brilliantly portrayed and is still probably the best performance I have ever seen of somebody truly at the end of their rope and the director gives the film a very nightmarish look.At first glimpse,this will come across as depressing and off-putting,but the performances are really brilliant and the film overall is magnificent.

Few films in the teen genre truly deal with a core component of being young- recklessness and the aching yearning of the years after high school. Here is a film that does which was originally to be called "Speed" until a certain American flick stole the thunder. What that film could never steal is the intense agony and sprinkles of joy that this film so powerfully captures. Its the tale of Joe, a young aimless guy who just wants to do good, be in a relationship and enjoy life. Instead he finds himself ostracised because of his poverty and his fathers collapse. His passion is his car but its a rundown creature. Just as you think he's found friends and maybe a chance things spiral out of control. Featuring a great soundtrack featuring Nick Barker and some brilliant drag racing scenes, this film will both exhilirate and smash you up much like its subject matter. A brilliant cast and fiery direction make this a must see grungy

As an admirer of Wright's earlier work "Romper Stomper" (certainly not ideologically, just as an interesting film), I must say that I enjoyed this film just as much, even though it is equally disturbing.

The story concerns a group of people in their early twenties. Joe, who lives with his insane father, gets a job at a wholesale warehouse where he meets Dazey, the local Don Juan, and Savina, a Satan-worshipping shoplifter. Joe, Savina, Dazey and Rosalyn, Dazey's girlfriend, are inextricably bound in a tangle of love, lust, insanity, death, and hot rodding.

This film is of a largely unexplored genre; "teen movies" about love-sick young stars just don't work anymore, and Wright reminds us of that fact with gritty characters and realistic dialogue. Very few directors are willing to go to the lengths that he does, refusing to tell a story that involves conventional moralities and cardboard characters, nor does he balk at portraying the violence perpetrated by these unhappy youths in their quest for identity and meaning. Not for the morally squeamish, but definitely worth watching.

Essentially a re-setting of the Arthurian stories in the context of an Australian subculture of lost, dope-addled car-obsessed young males, this is a compelling and disturbing look at how empty, disconnected lives can become focused on an arbitrary quest in order to find meaning. Cars playing 'chicken' substitutes for jousting, the quest for the ultimate turbo charger replaces the Holy Grail, a spell-casting bogan witch girl takes the role of Morgan Le Fay. The title probably comes from the line in John Boorman's equally bizarre Arthurian movie "Excalibur" - When Arthur questions whether Lancelot should leave his lands and people to serve him, Lancelot points to his armour and says "I gave up my castles, and my lands - my domain is here, inside this metal skin". Similarly the characters here are totally cut off from their families and any other human emotional connection, they carry their entire world around inside the metal skins of their cars.

What I remember about this movie after seeing it, was I wasn't a happy camper. Set in Melbourne, in dark dismal tones is a story of 4 messed up, disowned twenties sorts, well acted by all, especially the 'so underrated, it's no joke' Morice, as a real introverted, weird Ally Sheedy, Breakfast Club character. Garner has grown as an actress too, who just got better and better after this. Actually voted the most depressing film back in it's day, I don't remember any blood at all being shed, but the movie which I've only seen once, and I had been warned by others who had seen it, not to, just became an overlong bore. I wasn't affected or didn't care about the four twenty plus types, who did have the share of problems. I didn't care about the parents of these young adults who had nonchalant attitudes, hence their pride and joys, evolving like they have. No character in the movie was memorable, more dislikeable. The one thing I loved about Metal Skin besides it's title, was it's soundtrack. If separately rating this, I'd give it a nine, unlike it's movie which does have a strong intensity about it, in those four going nowhere characters, isolated from everyone around them, who'd you'd wanna shoot most of them. These four are the only real family, they've got. This is a disappointing feature in light of director Wright's still most powerful and best film, Romper Stomper.