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THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS (2011)
D. JUSTIN KURZEL

IFC

1.85

This indie drama based on the true multiple murder case in Australia that came to be known as the “Bodies in the Barrels Murders” A case where one charismatic killer led several other blue collar people to kill with him.

The film is very careful to establish mood and character long before getting to any violence. The movie more or less follows teenager Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) as he makes his way through the very disturbing stress of his day to day life. The neighborhood he lives in is a complete shithole (Shades of GUMMO abound) and his mother is doing everything she can to raise four boys, of which he is the middle kid. Within the first five minutes of the movie she has unwisely left the three youngest boys home along with her then boyfriend from across the street. He proceeds to sexually abuse all three of them (the youngest kid seems to be mentally handicapped or has some sort of autism), taking nude pictures of them (the rest of the abuse left up to our imagination thank god). Mom finds out when the local transgendered Queen Davey has heard the rumors. Naturally the police do nothing about the abuse.

Into their lives comes John Bunting (Danial Henshaw in a frightening performance) who is wooing the now single mom. He is charming, he is a good cook, and he is good with the kids. He takes a particular liking to Jamie, taking him under his wing and teaching him to stand up for himself. At first it seems like John is justifiably upset about the pedophile living across the street and takes it upon himself and Jamie to run the man out of town. But soon it is obvious that John has a much more pathological lust for violence. His raging homophobia being one element of it, he sees no difference between a pedophile and any other local gay man, and has several rants to prove it. But when Davey vanishes, leaving a voicemail claiming to have run away, everything seems to suspicious. But by this point John has ingratiated himself into the family, and has Jamie under his wing. It is only a matter of time before much more violence rears its ugly head.

Originally just titled SNOWTOWN (after the small town where the actual bodies in the barrels where found) this film is a pressure cooker mood piece, that wraps you up in the complex and unsavory characters and before you know it, you can’t get away.  It is a film where violence happens suddenly, but lingers like burnt flesh. This movie is all about characters that just exude pain and frustration, and it is that overbearing sense of ugliness that makes the movie both so powerful and so hard to watch.The movie leaves a stain on your mood that will be hard to shake for a long time afterward.

Review © Andrew Copp

X marks the hookers

"X"

D. Jon Hewitt

IFC MIDNIGHT

2.35-1

This Australian lensed art/cum/crime flick directed by Jon Hewitt, is about a high priced call girl on her last night before flying the nest to Paris vs a teenage whore on her first night in the job. The two women end up working a job for a drug dealer who is killed by a rogue cop sending them in the run.

The movie tries to be gritty and street level in the depiction of a prostitutes life. But it never really is. This is a fantasy version of a whore's life complete with dirty old men asking for silly prices and rich drug dealers making the women come when eating them out. The crime element becomes increasingly silly and is hard to take seriously except for one head crushing scene clearly inspired by IRREVERSIBLE. The movie is about as edgy as JOHN LANDIS' 80's comedy movie INTO THE NIGHT, but not as funny or well made. 

What this movie DOES have going for it is some very impressive night time photography, and seedy location work. But outside of that, this is simply never as ugly, or shocking as the filmmakers clearly think it is.

watch for underground writer Jack Sargeant

And fellow Aussie director Richard Wolstencroft in cameo's during a strip club scene.

A well shot, well intended, but ultimately very silly movie. 

Review © Andrew Copp
 
 

Fascism and Fancy Pants

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE (1999)
D. Richard Wolstencroft
1.85


This ambitious 35mm feature from Australian underground filmmaker Wolstencroft is almost like a love letter to the work of Noise music artist Boyd Rice who also happens to star in the lead role. Rice's philosophies on fascism, racial aesthetics, cultural S+M and many other things are quite present throughout the narrative. This is a unpleasant and challenging movie, that in many ways is a breath of fresh air, even if it is trying to offend you.

Boyd Rice plays Daniel, a hitman who takes hi work very seriously. Irregardless if he is snuffing out political targets, or simply homeless people who are clogging up the Melbourne streets. Him and his two assistant buddies get a kick out of the existentialism of their work. Daniel has a live in girlfriend named Christy (the busty Lisa Hutchinson) who doubles as a dominatrix who has become bored with her work because she cannot take the clients to the ultimate edge that would be killing them. Daniel spends a lot of his free time watching documentaries about Hitler and the third Reich, ruminating about the Fetishism of the Nazi's and how the Fascism involved was something that should have been appreciated more for the sheer misanthropy and movement of will it took to achieve. He also spends much time philosophising about the S+M culture and societies need to be dominated and controlled. When he is not killing clients, he is having group sex with another couple, or debating the merits of violent movies with them. He finally gets another gig to kill an author named Morton Buggs whose erotic fiction us stirring up extreme fanaticism in the underground. Seems that is is more than just pornography but an extremely politicised tract that is causing quite a little rebellion in the way people think. As Daniel researches Buggs he starts to realize there are more questions out there than things he has clinged too, leading to a climax that is actually pretty clever.

The movie is awash in late nineties underground culture references, starting with the casting and philosophies of Boyd Rice who also does the impressive noise music score. But we also get references to Jim Goad's "Answer Me" zine as Rice wears a T-shirt that simply says "rape" on it, referencing the infamous Issue #4 of Answer Me aka The Rape issue that was banned. In case you don't get the reference Rice picks it up in a bookstore and comments on it. Morton Buggs book is called "Pure" a reference to Peter Sotos banned Zine of the same name that got him watched by the police and eventually arrested. With Bugg's somewhat modeled after Sotos it seems. The film itself fits securely within the "aesthetic terrorism" movement of the 1990's that spawned artists such as Marilyn Manson, Trevor Brown and many others.

The movie is a low budget affair with obvious limited resources. There is not a lot of camera movement making for a unfortunately static movie. The acting is also fairly dire in most cases. The only person rising to the occasion being Boyd Rice, while never being what you would call good, he is always compelling more because he is playing himself on screen. The director has a cameo as an investor in a bar that gets beat down and eventually killed. Lisa Hutchinson who plays the girlfriend is a great looking gal with a powerful set of 'lungs' but when ever she opens her mouth her acting nosedives several point. But she looks great in S+M fetish gear and that is probably why she was hired.

The movie is fairly hard to come by. It was released in a two disc set overseas at one point with the director's over feature films BLOODLUST but I believe that is long out of print now. Scour the used DVD places or grey market to try and find it.