User Reviews

Life with Ashley is the story of a girl (Ashley) and her quest to woo a boy by putting on a party and inviting him to come, and then spend the entire night trying to "do him". Her perspective on life is very immature and unique, she does not hold back in front of the multiple cameras, and is able to say what she is thinking before thinking about what she was going to say… constantly. This movie was shot on multiple HD hand-held cameras, using a mix of personal shots as well as 3rd and first person, at times the cutting between these shots seemed to rush some great moments and ruined many of the jokes in the film, but if you were able to grasp on to some of the humour in this, it is truly funny.

Has its own feel about it, although rawly shot and edited, it did have its own sort of weird appeal, the characters were honest and it is a very real perspective of a normal suburban upbringing, and your general summer week. I think it's great. The characters in this film seemed to come out of the woodwork and some of them possibly could have used a bit more development, but i cant believe the broad range of characters in this film (it had it all). At times it was frustrating because nothing was left to your imagination, the filming was intrusive and uncompromising. Any 17 year old that is able to film a week of her life without and feelings of self consciousness has more guts than me. See it.

How can I put this; well I haven't seen anything like this before(please excuse my ill fittingly clichéd statement for such a novel film). Even though one could cite quite a number of quality films that are derivative of the film maker's youth I have not seen a film that is the youth's experience in totality. Most film makers prior to LWA have attempted to reenact something that has become intangible to them, on the other hand Chris Butler, the producer of this piece is enveloped in the teenage experience. He is both capturing the situation of youth and being a product of it at the same time. That is not to say though this is just a collection of meandering home videos that any Gen Y could patch together on a weekend. It is immeasurably more than that as Chris and Ashley are natural story tellers, sensing how to excite and titillate both the viewer and the participants that are caught up in their filmed hijinks.

Form-wise, the film shifts from the camera being a catalyst of action (the pair film a music video to help launch Ashley's singing career) to it being a fly on the wall (Ashley and Mother become caught up in heated argument about an empty lolly packet, which turns their attention away from the fact that they are being filmed.) This conflated style feels natural and it is enjoyable to watch.

Flaunting about with acts of derring-do, the naive film makers at the time may not have read the collected works of Oscar Wilde but they have an affinity with him even so. Someone once said that ancient Greek art was the greatest period. This is because the Greeks turned to nature for inspiration whereas, generally speaking artists after this period turned to Greek art, a derivative of nature for their inspiration. The audacity to turn to nature with their own unique perspective, instead of copying from other film makers has rewarded them with an endearing and poignant work of cinema.