THE GARTH METHOD
Director: Greg Pakis
Reviewed by GREG KING
There have been a number of low budget, independent films made about trying to succeed in show business over the years, most from America, and the ultra-low budget, locally produced The Garth Method follows in this tradition.
Garth Petrides (played by writer/director Gregory Pakis) is a struggling actor who dreams of making the big time. He also has little success with his love life, despite the willing help of his best mates. Garth quickly tires of a series of fruitless auditions, humiliating jobs that require him to dress like a chicken and hand out flyers, or tedious door-to-door sales positions for which he is plainly unsuited. He develops a desperate plan to make his own movie and prove to the world what a great actor he really is. He kidnaps innocent passers-by and forces them to participate in his film.
With its exploration of one man’s desperation to succeed in the brutal, cut throat movie world much of this film seems to mirror the experiences of Jimeoin’s character in The Extra from last year, although with even less funny moments and less charm. Presented almost in the style of a mockumentary, shot digitally with hand-held cameras and in guerilla fashion around the streets of Melbourne, The Garth Method may invite comparisons with Scott Ryan’s recent The Magician, which was shot in similar fashion, but with far more ambitious ideas.
The whole thing was produced on the smell of an oily rag, and its lack of budget and resources is telling in the overall quality of the finished film. The film’s early scenes are shot in black and white, and then, for no discernible reason, Pakis switches to colour. Pakis seems to have called in a number of favours to help with the production and to help cast the film, and a number of vaguely familiar faces populate the peripheral characters.
He certainly earns points for trying. However, it might have been better if he had spent more time polishing and honing the script before rushing into production. There are a number of scenes that set up the occasionally promising idea but quickly go nowhere or fail to deliver the expected killer pay off.
Pakis apparently plans to film a few sequels, further exploring the adventures of Garth. But, on the strength of this first outing, he is such a rather uninteresting character who lacks charisma, that he is not all that much fun to spend time with.
*
Reviewed by WENDY RAWADY
If you want to see a film made on the smell of oily rag, look no further…this is Indie low budget and at least now Greg Pakis and his cast and crew have something on their c.v. to prove they can get the job of making a film from start to finish (even exhibiting) done.
Over the months (years) we have heard quite a bit about The Garth Method which is now complete and ready for viewing. Its a bit rough around the edges and has a redundant montage near the end (this could be flicked to tighten it up considerably) and its not fair to compare this with films that have had heaps of support and development. The basic story isnt able to be taken far enough on this budget. What IS unforgivable is that Bob Weybury's credit is misspelt as Wavery – if you get favours from good people, be sure to check the spelling of their names!
Anyway, Greg Pakis , the director, is an ethical and enthusiastic chap, The climax of the film fizzes out before it really becomes hysterically funny, (again, the budget is inadequate), and there are far too many clichés in here (the chicken suit for one) for it to display the talents of cast and crew. Reading the credits, the film has been given support from some of the businesses that ALWAYS support newcomers and the industry should thank these people from the bottom of their hearts (if they had one) for their kindness. Greg's directing is, at this early stage in his career, somewhat heavy-handed, and his judgements about where a script can take the story are not always logical, but at least he has made a film. With a heap of overall tightening up and a few more laughs, this could play well on SBS's short film timeslot. Garth Petridis has some charisma and it's a mockumentary that never quite ramps up enough to pull the viewer in.