The Five Weirdest Forgotten Classics Of Australian Cinema
When we do weird, we do pretty bloody weird.
Bonus Round: Two Classic Australian Shorts You Need To See
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Cherith by Shirley Barrett (1988)
A deadset classic about a bewildered, terrified person trying to pretend everything is fine with varying levels of failure, while really dying inside, and trapped in a super-religious, super-suburban family in the 1980s. Laconic and satisfyingly whack.
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Bangers by Andrew Upton (1999)
Another one about a quietly terrified person trying and failing to pretend everything is fine, this time by now-renowned theatre director Andrew Upton, whose dynamic, tightly-wound theatrical sensibility makes itself clear with a sharp, crystal-clear character study. Features Cate Blanchett as a house-bound woman slowly unravelling in the kind of claustrophobic red-brick Sydney flat you’ve seen a million times or worse, rented in desperation in your early twenties.
WATCH THEM: It’s tough. If you live in Canberra, go hang out at the National Film and Sound Archive and watch them there. If you don’t, lobby your VOD service to stock more quality local films.
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Bonus Bonus Round: Other Notable Options
Dogs in Space is a Pure Shit-style shambles about sex and punk rock and partying, starring Michael Hutchence. Bad Boy Bubby is a blackly funny, dramatically-heightened oddball drama about a young man raised in squalor and sexual slavery. His mum imprisons him until early adulthood and tells him the outside world’s air is deathly contaminated. Then he escapes and joins a rock band. Watch only if you’re feeling emotionally fortified. And if you haven’t seen Phillip Noyce’s super-tight thriller, Dead Calm, then what are you doing with your life?
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Lauren Carroll Harris is a writer and an artist. She does research at UNSW on the Australian film industry and distribution. Her forthcoming publication, ‘Not at a Cinema Near You: Australia’s Film Distribution Problem’, is out through Currency House on November 1.