2:37
Director: Murali K. Thurali Stars: Teresa Palmer, Sam Harris, Joel Mackenzie, Charles Baird, Frank Sweet, Marnie Spillane, Gary Sweet
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
A very impressive first film. When one hears that it is about teenage problems and high school crises, expectations are that it will be a variation on the jocks and bimbos of American high school movies. It is not. It stands on its own, all the more striking that the writer-director has had practically no training and was born in 1984, making him 20 when he was working on the film. He had no Government assistance in making it.
The film is very serious. It was occasioned by the suicide of a friend of the director who dedicates his film to her.
We are introduced to six students in black and white talking heads interviews. The film opens with the suicide (but we don’t know which of the students it is) and goes back over the day at school. It uses the three steps forward, one step back technique to highlight how the incidents interconnect, making the drama more intricate and powerful.
There are the expected problems (what other problems are there?): measuring up to parents’ excessive standards, crushes and relationships, jock boasting, bullying and mocking, the newcomer from England with embarrassing disabilities, the marginalised gay character, pregnancy, going to counsellors… But they are all taken with appropriate seriousness and the young cast give of their best to make the problems compelling.
The film was screened in Un Certain Regard and was received with prolonged applause… quite exceeding the maker’s expectations.