Saw this last night, knowing nothing about it and without any great expectations, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a romcom written and directed by none other than WA resident Ben Elton, with a great script, lots of laughs and a great cast, including Deborah Mailman, Michael Caton, John Waters, Magda Szubanski, and Rebecca Breeds, an actress I guarantee you’ll fall in love with (even if you’re a woman, if Mrs thep is any guide).
The trailer inevitably plays up the feelgood element, but but the movie’s got quite an edge to it too. It was a great couple of hours. Bonus: it’s got theremin playing in it!
Chances of it making it to Blighty are pretty slim, probably… but you never know.
Thanks Mike. Good cast, Elton no slouch, will look into it.
Elton no slouch? I thought he had been cast out into the wilderness years ago, for somehow losing it comedywise.
Well, he lives in WA, if that’s what you mean by wilderness. I’ve paid him no attention whatsoever for years, but I still enjoyed the movie.
Will keep my eye open for this movie. It may get to Sweden one day.
Had no idea that Elton had relocated to Oz. A quick wiki reveals that he is married to Aussie bass player Sophie Gare and they have three kids.
I should read Hello more often.
It’ll probably go the arthouse route outside Oz.
@kaisfatdad Yes indeed !
Anything sitcom wise Elton did post Blackadder was a bit of a trial. Be nice to think he’s got his mojo back.
I enjoyed Thin Blue Line. Hardly a classic, but it had some great lines. i did wonder however if it wasn’t deliberately pastiche. Almost like there was a knowingness to its echoes of 70s sitcoms. Or if it was it ‘just’ a sitcom and I was reading too much into it.
Hasn’t reached Oz, but Upstart Crow is supposed to be good. Plenty on YouTube – fairly obvious Blackadder tradition, you might say.
I enjoyed Upstart Crow.
I liked The Thin Blue Line as well. It was clearly an affectionate tribute of sorts to Dads Army and similar Perry/Croft type character-based sitcoms. I think it mis-fired on the casting front* a bit (Perry and Croft didn’t always get this right either) but there were some very good moments and clever storylines.
*the James Dreyfus character needed to be more of a gormless but well-meaning type (Godber/Rodney/inbetweener Neil/Pike). This character was annoyingly hyperactive, childish and too stupid. It’s important for the character to be a little bit credible as someone that would just about qualify, on a good day, to be a police constable.
Well there was that tonight show thingy down here that lasted .. was it a week before getting the chop ?
“Live From Planet Earth”, lasted 3 episodes. I think I lasted less than 10 minutes of the first episode.
I haven’t yet seen this movie but i’m pretty keen to, if only to try and find the middle course between Mike’s enthusiastic review and the contrary view maintained by almost every Australian critic. There’s definitely something going here since this is, in my experience, somewhat unique – Aussie critics are usually patriotically positive about home grown produce, (to the point where renowned pundit Margaret Pomeranz habitually awarded Aussie films an extra point in her rating system, ‘by way of encouragement’.
It could be straight out Elton enmity of course and I’ve heard whispers of industry chagrin due to ‘Three Summers’ receiving extensive AFF backing denied lesser known directors, so I’m looking forward to seeing for myself.
Here’s a local review which is pretty typical of the general assessment.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/movies/review-three-summers-is-the-australian-film-that-will-make-you-pretend-youre-from-new-zealand/news-story/0274e6767adfc0b86ad92bdd1ec8b239
Wow, what an exceptionally mean-spirited review! Definitely something going on there. Elton is actually an Oz citizen and has lived here for 30 years – although he’s hedged his bets and retained UK citizenship, which would probably piss some people off, and it would probably suit them to write him off as a mouthy Brit coming over here and tilting at cherished Aussie traditions. He has always annoyed people, of course, including me – I haven’t given him a moment’s thought in years, ever since I read one of his novels and thought, this guy needs a good editor.
Probably you’ll like it less than I did (as I said, it was as much a pleasant surprise as anything) but more than he did. That wouldn’t be hard.
And as for funding, judging by the number of logos in the credits, he pulled in funding from all over. But the simple answer to that is he had a project that funding bodies felt like funding. People who miss out on funding are always bitter and twisted about those who don’t: it’s the law.
Well, despite my gloomy predictions, I’ve just clocked that Three Summers has turned up on BBC iPlayer. So give it a go, folks!
While you’re on iPlayer, give This Beautiful Fantastic a go. Quirky, whimsical little movie that came and went without causing much of a ripple, with Tom Wilkinson in full curmudgeon mode. I loved it.