If you've ever thought that in order to qualify as an Australian all you had to do was grow a pony-tail, spend the day bodyboarding down the beach and then wind down by drinking light beer at a BBQ while listening to The Offspring and Weezer, then this film tells you that you would be dead wrong! This grungy coming-of-age tale set in Melbourne, makes it clear that Australia is not ONLY populated by people who spend weekends listening to Counting Crows while tossing dwarves down bowling alleys - they have awkward teens and devil worshipping goths like we have as well. This story centres on four lost souls, including a couple of gearheads and a female Satanist who are drawn together in a fragile friendship - jealousies soon get in the way and, to cut a long story short, it all ends in tears. It's a fairly downbeat movie overall, with little hope or joy for the characters but they are well drawn and well-acted by the principals. It seems to have won awards, while not winning audiences which is often the way in movies such as this which don't prioritize being crowd pleasers.
11 Reviews
A brilliant vision of hell on earth
$TEVE McD3 May 2000
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.
its intense - intensely boring
travis_brooks27 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
You'd think that a movie with this much sex, violence, high speed racing, and yes even satanic sacrifice would tend to be a little more interesting than it actually is. This movie could have used a good deal more editing, if it had 40 minutes trimmed down from its bulky 1:42 it might just be a good movie. The film is full of stretched out spans of time where the only thing happening is meaningful silent stares for dramatic effect, an effect that somewhat loses the drama if its happening in almost every scene. The movie also has a sort of excessive stylishness about its visual appearance (dramatic colors and lighting, predictably unpredictable camera angles, puddles everywhere, etc) that just tends to enhance the sense that the actual plot of the film is just boring crap.
The only part of the movie i really enjoyed was at the end when everyone starts getting killed off. I knew that if things kept going down this predictable route eventually enough characters would be dead so this tedious film would be forced to finally end.
The only part of the movie i really enjoyed was at the end when everyone starts getting killed off. I knew that if things kept going down this predictable route eventually enough characters would be dead so this tedious film would be forced to finally end.
Brilliant portrayal of rev heads in Australian Suburbs
stewien21 September 2001
This movie gives a pretty good feeling about what's like for a rev head growing up in the lower socio-economic suburbs in Australian cities. There's Joe, who is a bit of a loser, and lives with his Migrant father who has lost his marbles, and there's Daisy - a guy who is the winner character in this movie - that was a race car driver in another state in Australia, but came back after an incident that you will find out about in the movie. These two characters meet at a grocery packing warehouse where they both work, and form a friendship based on the fact that they both drive old Australian built Chrysler cars - Joe a beat up station wagon with home made mods, and daisy a grungy modified charger with off the shelf performance parts. This movie has many facets - it has romance of a sort, lots of jealousy, racial tension, witchcraft/ satanism, real human drama, some really tense action, and a story line and a quality of acting that allows the audience to emphasize fully with the colorful characters. The car action isn't a huge part of the movie, but the quality of it is up there with Ronin, and The Fast and The Furious. Well worth a look in my opinion.
No real skin shed here
videorama-759-85939111 February 2014
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.
Powerful use of Arthurian themes in a modern setting
somebozo9439 March 2005
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.
Blue the colour of sadness, depression and doom follows Joe like a shadow from which he can not escape.
shenanton7 July 2010
The story concerns a group of disenfranchised youth in Melbourne. Joe, who lives with his insane father, gets a job at a wholesale warehouse where he meets Dazey, the local playboy, and Savina, a Satan-worshipping shoplifter. Joe, Savina, Dazey and Rosalyn, Dazey's girlfriend, are inextricably bound in a love, lust, obsession, insanity, death, guns and street drag racers.
Director Geoffrey Wright is one of the 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. This is a disturbing film and not for the morally squeamish. The fact that the director dared to cast actors who are NOT the Matt Dillon or Brad Pitts of this world makes the characters of this film so believable. Even though Dazey is cast as "Matt Dillon" of this film it is quiet clear that he is a big fish in a very small pond. Remember this is not a story of the super cool and tough guys at the top, this is a story of the guys at the bottom. So relative to the situation and surroundings I would say that the characters are perfectly cast. Dazey might have been tougher but that would have made him too stereotyped and I feel that he is more of a playboy then a fighter.
This film was totally unexpected, on the surface it is another simple story of youth gone wrong, but behind all these gritty characters and realistic dialogue is a deep complex story line dealing with many themes. The filming and editing techniques help to explore these themes resulting in an Cult Australian hit. Granted this film is not for everyone. Many people will miss the complexity of this file and end up simply judging the story superficially or they will not enjoy the setting of impoverished youth in Melbourne.
The sounds and images of Metal Skin remained with me for many days after first viewing, and would return unbidden like dream fragments in the weeks that followed. The bleakness of the environment inhabited by Metal Skin's characters is emphasised by the almost complete lack of sunlight in the film; daytime scenes are shot against unforgiving grey skies, or at twilight, or in the rain. Industrial, dockside or suburban scenes are de-saturated of colour, with occasional flashes of maroon or lime green in the characters' clothing the only break in this monotony. Much of the film is shot at night to emphasise the characters' separation from the mainstream and lack of interaction with "normal" city life; as their night work at the supermarket indicates, they are not even full members of the economy, but are marginal even here. Incessant and intrusive sound and visual editing and confounding time shifts, work to disorient the viewer and constantly put you on edge and into their world.
Another prominent theme is of this Melbourne underworld, a world that is off balance, a place where the darker parts of the human mind are never far off. We are made to see, hear and feel this world. The director desire to document the marginalised, the outcast, the fringe-dwellers of society does not extend to offer hope, solutions, where there are none.
Blue the colour of sadness, depression, gloom and doom follows Joe like a shadow from which he can not escape. It may be debated but for me the primary theme of this film was psychological. How the characters are affected by the presence of lack love in their lives. What happens when they reach breaking point. Relationships between fathers and sons, friends, and lovers are all examined. The psychological theme is also examined from the point of view of control. We see how the characters try to affect control on the world around and fail miserably while unintentionally setting chains of events in motion with ramifications for all those around them. The characters are trapped by there very nature, they can not change, and it is there failure to change and there failure to see and understand the world as it is, that inevitably leads to there fate.
Director Geoffrey Wright is one of the 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. This is a disturbing film and not for the morally squeamish. The fact that the director dared to cast actors who are NOT the Matt Dillon or Brad Pitts of this world makes the characters of this film so believable. Even though Dazey is cast as "Matt Dillon" of this film it is quiet clear that he is a big fish in a very small pond. Remember this is not a story of the super cool and tough guys at the top, this is a story of the guys at the bottom. So relative to the situation and surroundings I would say that the characters are perfectly cast. Dazey might have been tougher but that would have made him too stereotyped and I feel that he is more of a playboy then a fighter.
This film was totally unexpected, on the surface it is another simple story of youth gone wrong, but behind all these gritty characters and realistic dialogue is a deep complex story line dealing with many themes. The filming and editing techniques help to explore these themes resulting in an Cult Australian hit. Granted this film is not for everyone. Many people will miss the complexity of this file and end up simply judging the story superficially or they will not enjoy the setting of impoverished youth in Melbourne.
The sounds and images of Metal Skin remained with me for many days after first viewing, and would return unbidden like dream fragments in the weeks that followed. The bleakness of the environment inhabited by Metal Skin's characters is emphasised by the almost complete lack of sunlight in the film; daytime scenes are shot against unforgiving grey skies, or at twilight, or in the rain. Industrial, dockside or suburban scenes are de-saturated of colour, with occasional flashes of maroon or lime green in the characters' clothing the only break in this monotony. Much of the film is shot at night to emphasise the characters' separation from the mainstream and lack of interaction with "normal" city life; as their night work at the supermarket indicates, they are not even full members of the economy, but are marginal even here. Incessant and intrusive sound and visual editing and confounding time shifts, work to disorient the viewer and constantly put you on edge and into their world.
Another prominent theme is of this Melbourne underworld, a world that is off balance, a place where the darker parts of the human mind are never far off. We are made to see, hear and feel this world. The director desire to document the marginalised, the outcast, the fringe-dwellers of society does not extend to offer hope, solutions, where there are none.
Blue the colour of sadness, depression, gloom and doom follows Joe like a shadow from which he can not escape. It may be debated but for me the primary theme of this film was psychological. How the characters are affected by the presence of lack love in their lives. What happens when they reach breaking point. Relationships between fathers and sons, friends, and lovers are all examined. The psychological theme is also examined from the point of view of control. We see how the characters try to affect control on the world around and fail miserably while unintentionally setting chains of events in motion with ramifications for all those around them. The characters are trapped by there very nature, they can not change, and it is there failure to change and there failure to see and understand the world as it is, that inevitably leads to there fate.
Strong Story.
Nemesis427 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This is a brilliant film for the most part. A solid ensemble performance among the young people involved, with the two female leads being of note. They nailed it, and manifested, via direct symbolism and energy, most of the heavy lifting with regards to the insanity (Savina) and pain (Roslyn) which all ensemble characters bore, to varying degrees.
With strong script, direction, sound, and score, this takes us into some dark places. A few sequences are incredibly memorable, like the first Dazey race, the disturbing montage before the old mans murder, and scenes like the rail-yard drags and dazey's friend's party.
For me the ending area let it down a bit, much like it did in Geoffrey Wright's opus 'Romper Stomper'. It might have to do with not justifying Joe's flip out well enough. The murder spree is loosely understandable, but I didn't feel enough emotional energy had gathered to render his actions believable.
Perhaps if they'd incorporated his dad's murder into the finale of the brilliant montage which concludes itself just a few too many long beats 'before' the actual kill shot, Joe's murderous flip-out would have been more believable. The montage delivers an effective and immediate energy build which could have been utilised in the moment to fully justify the snap into insanity. Much like in 'Natural Born Killers', where the kill shot of the Indian elder is located within the end of the rattlesnake montage. The high energy at the point of climax narratively justifies it.
The car chase at the end felt superfluous for the male characters, but worked well for Roslyn's character. However these end issues are my only gripe. It might just be me! Thanks to all involved for creating the great film :)
With strong script, direction, sound, and score, this takes us into some dark places. A few sequences are incredibly memorable, like the first Dazey race, the disturbing montage before the old mans murder, and scenes like the rail-yard drags and dazey's friend's party.
For me the ending area let it down a bit, much like it did in Geoffrey Wright's opus 'Romper Stomper'. It might have to do with not justifying Joe's flip out well enough. The murder spree is loosely understandable, but I didn't feel enough emotional energy had gathered to render his actions believable.
Perhaps if they'd incorporated his dad's murder into the finale of the brilliant montage which concludes itself just a few too many long beats 'before' the actual kill shot, Joe's murderous flip-out would have been more believable. The montage delivers an effective and immediate energy build which could have been utilised in the moment to fully justify the snap into insanity. Much like in 'Natural Born Killers', where the kill shot of the Indian elder is located within the end of the rattlesnake montage. The high energy at the point of climax narratively justifies it.
The car chase at the end felt superfluous for the male characters, but worked well for Roslyn's character. However these end issues are my only gripe. It might just be me! Thanks to all involved for creating the great film :)
An extremely potent and uncompromising celluloid descent into the adolescent abyss
Woodyanders30 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Feverishly stylized Aussie tyro director Geoffrey Wright's second feature after the harrowing skinhead nerve-frier "Romper Stomper" offers another similarly bleak and depressing portrait of bitter, disaffected, barely hanging onto the dirt-poor last rung of the social ladder working class Melbourne youths who turn to illegal hot rod street car racing to inject some desperately needed excitement and fulfillment into their otherwise severely gloomy and dispiriting no-hoper lives. A peculiar and increasingly self-combustive triangle relationship develops between four messed-up kids -- antsy grocery store stockboy Joe, who lives in wretched squalor with his nutso dad; freaky aspiring witch/Satanist Savina, who's saddled with a shrill, pathetic religious kook mother; surly, cocksure, self-absorbed ace stock car driver Dazey and his fed-up, long-suffering girlfriend Roslyn -- which leads to much angst, death, suffering, emotional turmoil and a harshly damaging betrayal of love and loyalty for all concerned.
The basic subject matter seems deceptively banal and pedestrian, but thankfully Wright's raw, fiercely manic and visceral shoot-the-fireworks flashy style, combined with first-rate edgy and intense performances, swift, lively, constantly on the move vertiginous cinematography, an unflinchingly grim and nihilistic tone, an extraordinarily wired, dangerous and go-for-broke exciting last reel chase between a stock car and a muscle car, and a furiously well-sustained, aggressively pumped-up and adrenalized forward-ho narrative momentum that's ironically contrasted with the lead characters' dead-end flight towards premature self-destruction transcend the relative mundaneness of the material and elevate this exhilarating white-knuckler to the status of the genuinely awesome. Celluloid descents into the nightmarishly confusing and frightfully uncertain dark-as-pitch amorality of the adolescent abyss don't come any more unsettling or engrossing than this savagely unsentimental, but often painfully heart-wrenching winner.
The basic subject matter seems deceptively banal and pedestrian, but thankfully Wright's raw, fiercely manic and visceral shoot-the-fireworks flashy style, combined with first-rate edgy and intense performances, swift, lively, constantly on the move vertiginous cinematography, an unflinchingly grim and nihilistic tone, an extraordinarily wired, dangerous and go-for-broke exciting last reel chase between a stock car and a muscle car, and a furiously well-sustained, aggressively pumped-up and adrenalized forward-ho narrative momentum that's ironically contrasted with the lead characters' dead-end flight towards premature self-destruction transcend the relative mundaneness of the material and elevate this exhilarating white-knuckler to the status of the genuinely awesome. Celluloid descents into the nightmarishly confusing and frightfully uncertain dark-as-pitch amorality of the adolescent abyss don't come any more unsettling or engrossing than this savagely unsentimental, but often painfully heart-wrenching winner.
Insanity runs rampant amongst disenfranchised youth in director Wright's film.
Miyu7 March 1999
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.
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.
Intense drag racing drama burning with raging honesty
Mattydee7425 May 2001
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
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