There's this thing about Working Dog, that they made The Castle, which was amazing, so then any movie they make post The Castle, being quite good, or really enjoyable, gets a bit of a rubbishing from people who love The Castle and think that loyalty to one movie means smashing the next ones. The Castle casts a long shadow. The Dish was in that shadow. AQFB is still loaded with disappointed expectations before anyone sees it.
I won tickets to see it preview at the Ritz last week! So I took a new friend from church. We had a really good night, and I recommend the movie. It gets funnier as you warm up to it, so probably the most laughs were in the sequence during the end credits.
It's a movie in this genre of rom coms about guys. Like Notting Hill or Crazy Stupid Love. I shall call this genre: Ro-MAN-tic Comedies. Men try and figure out love and life etc. The premise is very timely because it's about a young man called Ben (Mr Gen Y) who has had everything come easy to him, has never had to stick at something long-term, and lives for himself. As a result of comparing himself to someone who has worked hard and made sacrifices and is doing something worthwhile with her life, he starts asking the big questions. There are so many clever moments. Like there's a bit where Ben and his dumbest mate are lounging with beers on the side of a lake watching a sunset over some mountains, and dumb mate pulls out his phone and takes a photo and shows Ben. Something so grand, casually snapped and admired on a phone. How symbolic. Trying so hard to live for fun, and coming away with nothing but a pathetic imitation of real life.
Only a couple of things annoyed me. Mainly, the age of this crisis is 27. Josh Lawson looks too old for 27 (he's apparently 31 so it's no worse than Glee I suppose). They all do. And I don't see why they had to make it 27 anyway, 31 would have been a little more believable. But maybe that's because I'm 27, and I suppose it is about Gen Yers. And also, in the end, the guy who gets everything easily doesn't have to learn enough about life to fall in love with a girl who ISN'T a gorgeous, well-educated blonde. I mean, he has to sort of DESERVE her, but he still gets Rachel Taylor.
Super enjoyable though. And because it's Working Dog, it's made from things I recognise. Melbournian men in jumpers and scarves. Models from DJs. Driving on the left. Minor Olympians with badly bleached hair. Alan Brough. Men who wear lycra and ride bikes.
And the soundtrack was good.
No comments:
Post a Comment