Reviews

Bra Boys is a fascinating exploration of the Maroubra surf scene, or more correctly the boys of the Maroubra surf scene (there is no room for the female in this landscape) particularly focusing on the Abberton brothers.

Coming from hardened backgrounds and neglectful parents, the brothers rose up to form a clan of fraternal solidarity with the Maroubra local boys as well as strong reputations as world class surfers of big waves.

While the subject matter is fascinating and there's almost enough material here for 3 documentaries, the fact that the film is written, directed and produced by Sunny Abberton causes a problem. A documentary like this needs a certain objectivity which never happens.

This becomes a real problem for the film when it explores the incidents surrounding the murder of Anthony Hines and the involvement of Jai and Koby Abberton. The film avoids some very important facts here that end up frustrating its audience and also lessening its impact. It's hard to engage with a story when you can feel that you're given a highly manipulated version of the events whether that be the melodramatic horror music that accompanies any photo of Hines or the glossing over of Kai's actions and Koby's statement to the police. While the boys make reference to a certain street code of silence, this doesn't fly so well in a documentary. An objective eye could have helped ask the questions and provide the information that the film really needed to at this moment. The real story of this documentary seems to be lurking at the edges, hidden under the forced attempts to prove their reckless invincibility and unbreakable commitment to their comrades.

While it's true that the boys are often misrepresented by the media's one sided view, they're not doing themselves any favors by taking a one sided view themselves. After watching this documentary, you would almost walk away believing that the Abbertons should be praised for their actions involving Hines and single-handedly soothed the Cronulla riots.

They're keen to play up their tough home life and upbringing. Not so willing to disclose that Koby now pulls in $250,000 a year sponsorships.

Besides the Abberton grandmother who opens her home to the local boys, women are almost completely missing from this film.

And despite the tattoo that claims he is his "brother's keeper", Koby is visibly absent from his brother's trial verdict where he will discover whether he faces a 30 year imprisonment.

Although it isn't connected to the Abbertons, the drug ties to the Bra Boys probably deserved a bit more screen time rather than the disjointed opening 30 minutes of weird historical narration and bad animation. It also could have served to make more sense of the events surrounding Anthony Hines.

The Abbertons have led an amazing life and the hope they offer the local boys through the Bra Boys and their surfing achievements IS commendable and worthy of praise. But they should trust their audiences enough to let them be the judge of that rather than trying to manipulate their opinions.

Modernizations of Shakespeare are always a tricky affair. Ones that use the plot but not the dialogue (ie. West Side Story and O) tend to fare better than those that attempt the dialogue as well. Only Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet really shine in the latter category.

So, it's with no small amount of ambition that director Geoffrey Wright transports Macbeth from the Scottish moors to the Docklands of contemporary Melbourne. Macbeth and Macduff are drug-trading mobsters working under the command of crime boss, Duncan. Lady Macbeth is the trophy wife with a coke habit. So does it work?

Almost.

It gets off to a rather messy beginning with short, fragmented scenes inundated with characters and some blink-or-you'll-miss-it backstory. The film doesn't really hit its stride until Macbeth and his Lady invite Duncan to their house and the blood starts to flow. By this point, however, my attention was already beginning to wane and judgement was already being passed.

One of the major problems of the film is that what makes Macbeth so great on stage simply doesn't translate to film. Even Polanski's version never quite gets there. There are too many secondary characters that are too similar and they distract you from the main story – Macbeth and his ambition – a part of the film that gets surprisingly little screen time and never really develops any momentum or psychological crediblity.

Little snippets of scenes and character come across the screen so quickly and seem to have so little relevance that it becomes quite a frustrating watch. What should be an exciting, adrenaline pumping film (such as Wright's earlier film, Romper Stomper) becomes bogged down and the finale is anti-climactic and has no emotional resonance. One begins to wonder why they bothered to modernise the play or even tell it at all. The theme of murder begets murder doesn't really shine through and Macbeth never seems that ambitious nor do we see much difference in his circumstance as he begins his bloody rise. Maybe the film should have taken a few more chances or liberties with the text– why you'd include the line "merciful heavens" after the announcement of one character's murder and not expect the audience to laugh is beyond me. At the very least, some deeper thought needed to be given to the modernising of the text. It seems a little too much like it's just been run through the "REPLACE" feature on Microsoft Word. Replace swords with guns. Witches with schoolgirls. Dread with campy hissing.

Sam Worthington brings his typical Aussie masculinity to the role and once he gets warmed up, does quite a fine job even though he has to compete with some rather odd costumes including a paisley leisure suit and a leather kilt that drew more than few titters from the audience. Victoria Hill as Lady Macbeth is also quite believable and her "come you spirits" monologue, delivered in voice over as she walks down the driveway to greet Duncan, is one of the film's finer moments. The actors who really shine are the ones you least expect though – The Molloy brothers as Macbeth's semi-loyal henchmen nail it while Louis Corbett in the almost silent role of Macduff's son has a quiet intensity that much of the film sorely needs.

Stylistically, the film shines. It's probably the best use of HD I've seen so far with great colours and a strong, confident approach to the design – think Scarface goes to Moulin Rouge as directed by Mario Bava. And one should applaud the film for its ambition. It's nice to see an Australian film really take some risks and try something different. But ultimately it's a hollow, unengaging experience that seems to be trying too hard to shock its audience and ends up boring them instead. Maybe they should play it alongside Book of Revelation as two films that should have rocked us but didn't. Disappointing.

I went into this film with some bizarre expectations. I had been told it was completely shocking and devastating. I had also been told it was terrible and embarrassing.

I didn't think it was either.

I didn't get angry - shocked - embarrassed. I was just bored.

Ana Kokkinos is undoubtedly a great director with a strong vision and that really shines through in this film with bold visuals and a very confident approach to the story. Unfortunately there's not a great deal of story to take a confident approach to.

The first few scenes are gripping and the tension builds really beautifully so you're wondering what has happened to The Dancer. What did he experience? Why? How will it change him? It evokes the feeling of films such as Death In Venice, Don't Look Now and The Comfort of Strangers (hmm.. all Venetian..). I was hooked.

But when it is finally revealed, I found it fairly anti-climactic and rather pointless. Those expecting to be shocked by graphic sex or violence probably won't be. This isn't Romance, Irreversible or even Head On for that matter. There are moments of powerplay in the rape/ abduction scenes that are truly great - when he is forced to masturbate and mentions what goes through a man's mind when he closes his eyes being one clear example - but the problem is, they leave you wanting more which the film just doesn't deliver. It doesn't quite reach the role reversal thrills that film such as Hard Candy or Death & The Maiden deliver. There are endless possibilities raised by the idea of 3 women abducting a man for their pleasure. This may be part of the problem. Swamped with endless possibilities, it seems like they chose not to go with any of them.

Once we know what happened to The Dancer, the film stumbles. It falls into that great Australian trend of minimalism and subtlety that just leaves audiences wondering what the **** is going on and why anybody should care. You can call it an "exploration" or a "meditation" (and I imagine the same people who used those words positively in their reviews of Japanese Story and Somersault will probably dredge them up again for this film... and I expect the words "emotional truth" will be thrown around at the same time) or whatever you want but frankly, I think it's just poor storytelling. It seems to shy away from the real drama within the story. If you're going to make a film about emotional truth, don't claim to be a story. Call it Japanese Emotional Truth. Or Emotional Truth of Revelation. Or Girl Gets Laid In Jindabyne. Let's call a spade a spade.

It doesn't really explore the consequences of what happens for The Dancer. There's about 10 minutes of plot spread out over an hour and by the time something actually happens, I for one was completely disengaged and beyond caring. The film also stops just when it looks like it's actually going to explore the issues it's raised.

It's bitterly disappointing because I thought Head On was definitely one of the greatest Australian films of the last 10 years and I thought the subject matter of this film could have gone in so many different exciting directions. I never expected it to be boring.