Fresh Air

if, like me, you kinda, sorta, y'know like, like Slacker movies then you should enjoy this. Like it's compatriot _love and other catastrophes_ it's influenced by Jean-Luc Godard to the extent that there's an A Bout de Souffle poster on the wall of one of the unemployed twentysomething Melbourne-based protagonists at the centre of the film, one of whom refers to "the short-haired chick from Breathles", but it's biggest influence is probably current US indie cinema. It's character's may be a little stereotyped: there's a guy who can't form proper relationships because of his obsession with soccer (HMMM) and a girl who's trying to become an artist but wonders if she's in "the wrong queue" as all her friends seem to be getting highly-paid jobs - an apt metaphor. The most amusing scene is an anti-car rally which hurt a little bit as well, and might do the same to other soi-disant rebels.

A social realistic film about a week in the life on three young Sydney-siders. The two girls Kit and E spend a lot of their time going from protest rally to protest rally, as we watch Jack go about his life - watching soccer & visiting his parents.

A simple & elegant movie, that if you're un-attentive, seems to go nowhere, but achieves quite a beautiful portrayal of the life's of three people that are easily related to. The humour is simple & plays on the fact that we all know people, or are people, like Jack, E & Kit.

Not for people after an action packed, high paced movie, but definitely a worth while watch.

I really enjoyed it. It demands a second viewing. The directing and the acting were raw and kinetic.

Fresh Air covers a week in the lives of 2 girls and 1 guy who share a flat in the inner city Sydney suburb of Marrickville. And that's it. If you want to experience the most boring parts of these boring, pretentious little brats' lives, then I can't recommend this film enough. Watch the guy sit around and do nothing. Watch his girlfriend sit around and whinge about him doing nothing (who does pretty much nothing herself except, um. . .paint?). Watch their room-mate distribute her 'zines' which look about as meaningless as this film. The performances are pretty good, especially Nadine Garner as Kit, but the production values are shocking. Shaky camera work and bad cinematography does not help, even though it's supposed to be 'the style'. Sure, the film does well in showing us a slice of reality. Maybe too well. If this is the reality of the inner city 'scene', then I'm glad I'm not in it.

Just caught this on TV, wasn't sure if it would be any good but for some reason Nadine Garner caught my attention so I sat through the rest of the film. Turned out to be very good, aside from the shaky ending, but that may just be because I missed some vital piece of information from the start of the film that would have made it all fit together better.

Anyway, Australian films have a tendency to be pretty horrible, so this was a very welcome surprise.