b r a v e c r e a t u r e s

Now the common wisdom is that one does not dis-respect either the Australian film industry or ones own minority cinema. But given that the opening night film for this years Melbourne Queer Film Festival, “50 ways of saying fabulous” is both from New Zealand and, well, not very good, I feel vindicated in giving it a bit of a raspberry.Actually, since the president or co-convener or grand dame of Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF), or whatever they are calling that position now a day, is an old mate I probably should feel bad about being harsh - but I don’t*

Truth be told, the film is ok without being sensational. It is a faithful retelling of the book by Graham Atkins and shares many of the strengths and weaknesses of the original. In particular the story is missing a strong narrative drive. It moves from scene to scene without any real strong, binding story arc. It is in effect 50 vignettes in search of a narrative.

I remember when I read the book I started by really enjoying it, thinking it was really interesting and funny. But as each chapter progressed, a sense of sameness settled over the book each chapter was funny in a self contained kind of way, but they didn’t link into anything greater. It felt like the rambling reminiscences of an elderly relative on mild sedatives

The film captures this sense of meandering beautifully.

By moving to the screen, there was the opportunity to bring some of the hero character flights of fantasy to life. In the first 10 minutes that’s exactly what they did, and beautifully so. Cross dressing preteens in space, giant monster footballs, flying saucers and some really marvelous acting from the leads.

And then it stops, apart from one wet dream sequence that is more disappointing than anything for its poor execution.

All up I got teased with this wonderful fantasy set that had no follow through.

Sitting back and looking at the whole piece, it’s a cute enough coming of age story for a rural fag (autobiographical much) which has some sweet nostalgia if you went through it, but I think fails to connect if you didn’t live through it.

If it’s a quiet Sunday night in over winter, grab this as a B movie to watch with you beau on the sofa.

*sorry Tony