Hotel Coolgardie

Well you don't need to go in the bush to find this behaviour in Australia, you can actually find it basically everywhere. This wannabe male machismo behaving, getting drunk and then if they can't get a sheila, a group of drunk guys would attack a single male, due to their frustration that they couldn't score a girl. Reality is pretty bad, I worked in the security industry over there and had to deal with pretty bad things, I am just happy that I was able to save some life through my actions. Maybe it is time to realise for example that there is an alcohol problem over there, drug problem, violence problem, domestic violence problem, racism problem etc. I really disagree with a comment in a review saying "I have seen such places in Scandinavia and most of Europe." Well living in Europe I haven't to be constantly aware of my surroundings that someone will sneak up from the back and will hit me with a coward punch, or that I will get attacked by some drunks or a meth head etc. This is also the reason why drinking in public isn't allowed, while in Europe people just enjoy to have a drink in a park etc. Life is quiet here in Europe and for sure no police helicopters flying around the whole time nor sirens. Instead of sugar coating constantly things in Australia, it is time to acknowledge there are many problems, just like in schools should be shown The Australian Wars tv series, to start a serious discussion about how aboriginals are getting treated in their own country.

The most accurate portrayal of Australian culture on film and everything that's wrong with it. One of the most harrowing pieces of film-making I have ever seen.

This gave me anxiety. It felt like I had been dunked underwater and couldn't come up for breath. You can't look away. From the moment the film started, it's engrossing and eye-opening.

I wish the likes of "Pikey" were fictional characters. But they're not. He and many others (women included) are throughout Australian towns and cities causing havoc, committing assault and other assorted crimes.

I have been on both sides of the bar, and experienced a lot of what was depicted in this documentary. Australia's rampant culture of alcoholism is well on display here and captured so accurately by the filmmakers. The fly-on-the-wall style suits it perfectly.

It's embarrassing viewing as an Australian, but essential viewing at the same time. The postscript was as jaw-dropping as the rest of the film, and equal parts heartbreaking. Hotel Coolgardie is a film I will never forget.

RIP Canman.

Hotel Coolgardie which is directed, shot and edited by Pete Gleeson is a fish out of water tale which shines a light on the attitudes of Australian men albeit in the Australian outback. Two young Finnish girls try their luck when they take a job working as barmaids at a pub called Hotel Denver City, in a remote mining town named Coolgardie, in the Australian outback. Although they are forewarned by the female recruiting agent in Perth that they are going to a somewhat isolated mining town and will be dealing with a lot of male attention, Lina and Stephanie take the job regardless, out of economic necessity.

Like clockwork, every quarter a new batch of girls arrive to work the bar at Hotel Denver City. Lina and Stephanie are replacing Becky and Clio who are wrapping up their three month contract. Interviews with the male regulars of Hotel Denver City reveal that they view the girls as the only game in town, and their is a race to bed them. Their employer, Pete, announces their pending arrival, on the sandwich board outside the bar with the words, "New Girls Tonite". The film documents Lina and Stephanie's attempts to see through their contract and hold it together while they fend off the unrelenting male attention. Gleeson creates intimate portraits of these two young women struggling to maintain their dignity in a sexually charged atmosphere. You not only feel their discomfort and alienation but are worried about their mental health. They are subjected to rude and insulting language and behaviour not just from the blokes but from their boss, Pete, who does nothing to stop it but adds insult to injury by belittling them in public. I was thankful for the presence of John, aka "The Canman", one of the few nice male characters in the film, who presents a different male perspective. I was touched by John's story and his benevolence and friendship with Lina and Stephanie. The dramatic tension in the film doesn't let up and if you want to find out what happens to Lina and Stephanie, well, you've got to see the documentary.

I found Hotel Coolgardie a fascinating documentary. Gleeson has done an excellent job editing his film as it moves fluidly between Lina and Stephanie allowing for two different perspectives, and by interspersing the entire film with day and night shots of Coolgardie and the Australian outback which situates their story in a cultural context. The film not only shines a light on shared attitudes prevalent among Australian men albeit in the Australian outback, but, is a metaphor for the outsider, the migrant, who far away from home, most often alone, must learn an unfamiliar language and navigate and adapt to new cultural contexts to eke out a precarious economic living.

Oz band Men At Work once wrote a song about a land down under, "where women glow and men plunder". They obviously weren't singing about Coolgardie, where the women are every bit as vile and repugnant as the men. The last time I heard the phrase "bar girl' was back in the 70s in a town in a third-world country, and even back then the term was considered derogatory. But it is still gleefully used by a bar called The Swan in Coolgardie, in the new millennium! The reason why I watched this till the end (and might watch again) is because of my fascination with rural Australia, facets of which were well served by movies like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the remake of Wake in Fright. So yes, I found this movie downright unpleasant, yet fascinating to watch, if only to tell myself how lucky I am not to be living there :) !!

Hotel Coolgardie is an engaging, human tale that follows two Finnish travelers in the Australian outback. Following the theift of their credit cards they are forced to find work in a small mining town east of Perth where lodging is provided. In this isolated and harsh environment, Lina and Steph encounter continunous drunken, chauvinistic behaviour from the patrons (and bar manager for that matter), behaviour the two outgoing barmaids seemed to imbrace. To Lina and Steph's credit they handle their work under these horrible conditions with grace and even form bonds with some of the locals, Lina in particular.

While the sexism on display is predictable and uncomfortable to watch, there's also a loneliness and sadness to the locals portrayed. Some of the drunken interactions are amusingly cringeworthy, with their macho behaviour exposed to be very fragile at times. I almost felt a degree of sympathy for them.

This was a moving, well paced documentary where I felt genuine care for the two travellers. I would thoughorly recommend. 8.5/10