Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 10 of Scream 3 (0:32:46-0:35:31)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 10 of Scream 3
Length: 3mins 15secs
Primary Characters: Detective Kincaid, Detective Wallace, Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, Roman Bridger and Jennifer Jolie
Pop Culture References:

• Hannibal Lector and Se7en (examples of similar scenarios given)
• Jane Pauley (Dt Wallace jokes about her)

More of the whodunnit aspect of Scream 3, here. The other two definitely had this aspect, but in line with Scream 3 being a riff on older horror films rather than the slashers of the first two entries, the mystery angle is far more prominent here. The franchise was always a bit better because of this angle, but if they were going to do that then I wish they'd made the mystery solving scenes a bit more punchier, like the Randy death scene in Scream 2 or better integrated into the horror genre like all of Gale's snooping throughout Scream.

"The old killer playing with the cops routine. Very Hannibal Lecter, very Se7en."
"Doesn't the killer come after the cops in those movies?"
"Usually one cop makes it... and one cop doesn't. Usually."
Another reason to dislike the Adam Brody/Anthony Anderson characters in Scream 4 is that the very reason for their existence was already actually utilised in Scream 3. They were there to provide the comic dialogue about cops who are one week away from retirement dying and all that, but did everyone just forget that they were in Scream 3 doing the same? Maybe Kevin Williamson wrote that scene of Scream 4 and hadn't actually even watched Scream 3 because he felt bitter about how it all went? Just like he apparently did with Scream 4. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, more blood in this long shot of Sarah Darling's crime scene that there actually was in the scene itself. I guess she fell on a lot of glass?

I love that Dewey and Gale just show up at a crime scene and somehow get inside when not even Detective Wallace is aware that they (well, Gale Weathers, at least) is working with Detective Kincaid. Whoever let them in is doing some sloppy security detail!

"The produces told us that there are three different versions of the script. Something about wanting to keep the ending off of the internet."
I definitely think Scream 3 (and later Scream 4) went too far into the self-referential territory. At least for less obsessive fans. Like I've noted already, the films that Scream 3 appears to be referencing most are its own franchise with far less nods to Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and so forth. A line like this one only works for people who have followed the Scream franchise well enough to know the stories about how the Scream 2 screenplay was leaked online and that the film had to be rejiggered as a result. So, while lines like this amuse people like myself, most viewers were probably like "haha! the internet! :/"

Peter Deming is the director of photography on Scream. According to this shot he is also the director of photography of Stab. He likes his Ghosty slasher flicks! Plus, further on from what I was saying up above about Scream 3 taking after older, less slasher-bred horror films, the font used is like some Creature from the Black Lagoon style typeface. Which seems odd for the movie within the movie, but makes sense for Craven and his crew having a bit of fun on the set of Scream 3.

Meanwhile, how amazing is Parker Posey's expression here. Gawd, she's amazing in this movie.

She renders me speechless (er, wordless? typeless?) sometimes, honestly.

In a moment of accidental actorly goofiness, I somehow managed to inadvertently catch Scott Foley looking directing into the camera during this speech about how innocent he is that he didn't really call Sarah Darling before she was killed. I'm going to take this is a subliminal way of clueing the audience in on who the killer is (er, Roman Bridger) and not just Scott Foley being a big dumb dummy.

Have I mentioned I don't like Scott Foley in this movie and think he's a dope? Yeah. Like, all the killers have their own way of masking the fact that they are indeed the killer. Roman Bridger's is to whine himself into looking innocent, apparently. Where everyone else seems to be having a bit of fun with the whole thing, Roman just sits around moping and whingeing. Even the reveal sequence is more of his crying, but we'll get to that later, obviously.

Wow. I didn't realise I felt so harshly about this topic until I typed it down just now. The more you know...

"God, Roman. Remind me not to sleep with him again."
She is a goddess.

GODDESS!

She deserves a Las Vegas show starring Cristal Connors, that's how much of a goddess she is!

Scream:
Intro, Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14. Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, End Credits

Scream 3
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 9 of Scream 3 (0:29:57-0:32:45)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 9 of Scream 3
Length: 2mins 48secs
Primary Characters: Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, Jennifer Jolie and Steven Stone (Patrick Warburton)
Pop Culture References:

• Nancy Drew (Jennifer calls Gale this)
• Julia Roberts, Salmon Rushdie and Posh Spice (all former clients of Steven Stone)

It's like an establishing shot out of The Closer. Wes was getting a bit lazy, wasn't he? I do like that they brought back Marco Beltrami's excellent score from the original. It's so distinctive for this kind of movie, don't you think?

The great thing about Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie is that within minutes of her first appearing on screen - it's 30 minutes in and she's barely had more than a couple of minutes - she is such a full character. We know her everything. Despite the fact that she's costumed to look so utterly trashy, you can sense that's her character. I can picture Jennifer Jolie on red carpets and being mercilessly fugged, while also coming off as somewhat charming. I actually think her character is modeled a little bit on Drew Barrymore, which just adds to the fun.

"You see this Dewey? I haven't had one of these in a year and a half. Someone's gonna pay for this!"
I certainly hope that wasn't Ehren Kruger's attempt at making Jennifer Jolie a viable red herring! Like, 'see how mean she can get! grrr!' of course, the whole smoking thing would have then been her fault, so...

"You! Like I'm ever gonna win an award playing you!"
I love the way Parker Posey does these weird movements and body contortions. Like I said just up there, it's all part of the character, it's so lived in and fresh. You don't have a character like this in a slasher movie unless they're a big obnoxious idiot, but Jennifer is just so endearing and playful I can't help but love her. I love the way Gale can't even hide the fact that she think's Jennifer is a big ol' loon. But, speaking of Gale and Jennifer... as I've been writing up this scene, I've had this song stuck in my head! I think it's apt, don't you?


Amazing.

"Cotton Weary, Sarah Darling... don't you get it?"
"Someone's killing them in the order that they die in the movie!"
I like that in the ensuing conversation, Gale ask's "who dies third?", which continues on with Sarah Darling's "girl that gets killed second" stuff and it's like everybody just forgets that there are two opening victims. Christine was just collateral damage, I suppose.

It's for scenes like this that I love the Scream franchise. Other films would cut this more character building sequence out, but these films have always been more about the characters so that you feel a bit more about them when they bite the dust. Sure, sometimes we don't feel a thing (hello Tyson and Tom), but more times than not, it works.

"I get killed in Stab 3?"
To be honest, getting killed third does seem like an very un-glamourous way to go. Very unfitting of one of the franchise's defining characters. You'd think, even in the fake world of Stab 3, that she would make it to the end. Or, like a later Stab 3 script change infers, she's the killer. Wow, this is all getting a bit confusing!

I kinda love this big, goofy grin on Dewey's face as he talks about how he's Jennifer's "rock". Reminds me of the "She's with me!" grin from the original that was so adorable.

He calls him "Dew Drop"! Meanwhile, I suggest you read the comments of this Scream to Scream entry for a bit of backstory regarding the character of Warburton's "Steven Stone" and who was originally meant to play him.

"Your resume reads like the obituaries."

This is so very true. Why would Woodsboro hire him again in Scream 4?

Scream:
Intro, Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14. Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, End Credits

Scream 3
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 8 of Scream 3 (0:27:37-0:29:56)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 8 of Scream 3
Length: 2mins 19secs
Primary Characters: Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley
Pop Culture References:

• 60 Minutes 2 and Diane Sawyer

Time for some Gale and Dewey action! And by that I mean Gale and Dewey talking! And by that I mean who cares about Dewey, why isn't Jennifer Jolie there?

"Why would the police come to you?"
"Well I did write the definitive book on the Woodsboro murders."
Gale's complete and utter lack of humility is why I love her. It's like during the Randy death sequence of Scream 2 where she tells people on the phone that she is "Gale Weathers, author of The Woodsboro Murders!" Even if, as Scream 4 implies (and Scream 2 admitted - "He wasn't gutted, I made that up. His throat was slashed."), Gale made a bunch of stuff up, chopped and changed the events to suit her narrative and so forth.

I like this moment between these two, as they discuss why things didn't work out between them. "We tries, we're different", she says, much like Courteney and David in real life. "We used to say that was our strength", he replies. Aw. And now they're separated in real life, too. Still, I does actually do a good job of setting up the groundwork for their relationship in Scream 4, even if that is all one big accident.

"Dewey, you're not just here because of that second rate, K-Mart, straight-to-video version of me, are you?"
Oh, Gale. I love you so hard. Oh, also, there's a bunch of exposition in this scene, but it's Gale's hair that I find more extravagant and hard to fathom. Just... I... but... what? It makes no sense! And I remember this hairstyle from when she was on Friends, too, so I know it wasn't just some "this is what Hollywood entertainment reporters look like now" sorta make-up department stuff up. Also: ugly jewellery.

Scream:
Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14. Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, End Credits

Scream 3
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7

Review: Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas

Dir. Sarah Smith

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: G

Running Time: 97mins

Bah humbug!

Australia celebrates Christmas in the heart of summer and yet watching the latest animation from the esteemed Aardman Studios I couldn’t help but notice the chill. Arthur Christmas may look like a cute and inoffensive yuletide movie for the kids and their undemanding parents, but it eventually proves to be a thoroughly unpleasant experience. As I slunk into the back of my chair, my eyes peering out through the unnecessary 3D glasses at the hyperactive action unfolding on screen, there was little more I could ask for Christmas than for this exhausting cacophony of noise to end.


Read the rest at Trespass Magazine
I really am a Grinch sometimes. :/

Review: X

X

Dir. Jon Hewitt

Year: 2011

Rating: MA15+

Running Time: 85mins

The opening scene of risqué new Australian film X features a beautiful woman (Viva Bianca) in the driver’s seat of a car cruising through the upper-class suburbs of Sydney. She’s wearing a beautiful dress, her hair in a cute brunette bob and she is listening to French lessons on her car stereo system as she makes her way to something, somewhere. Perhaps she’s joining her fellow socialites for brunch, or attending an important business meeting. This being a Jon Hewitt film, you should already know that was never going to be the case. Instead, she’s on her way to perform for a group of wealthy clientele by removing her clothes and having sex with the equally good looking Giles (Darren Moss in an eye-opening debut) right there on the living room table in a room filled with antique furniture and expensive paintings on the wall. And all while the female voyeurs sip daintily from champagne flutes.


Read the rest at Onya Magazine

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 7 of Scream 3 (0:21:56-0:27:36)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 7 of Scream 3
Length: 5mins 40secs
Primary Characters: Sarah Darling, Roman Bridges (voice), Tyson Fox and Ghostface
Pop Culture References:

• Psycho and Vertigo (Sarah gets these two Hitchcock films confused)
• Scream 2 (Sarah is an obvious play on Sarah Michelle Gellar from Scream 2 and references to the making of Scream 2 are included)

I hope they change these establishing shots up!

I've long held the belief that Scream 3 can be read as a spoof of its own franchise. What better way to continue mocking the horror genre than to mock your own series of films that revitalised the very genre you were mocking in the first place?! It's moments like this that make me believe I'm right in a way. There's no reason for the filmmakers to throw in a scene of Sarah here being spooked by a mysterious noise in the middle of broad daylight, there's just not, and yet they have it there. The filmmakers just decided to turn their own frachise's MO up to 11 and put every single cliche in there, even when it was completely unnecessary.

"Stab 3. Jesus, I gotta get a new agent."
So, we come to the second chase sequence of the movie. Scream 3 slicks closer to the Scream blueprint here with scene 7 here coming at exactly the same time in proceedings as it did in the original, unlike Scream 2 that featured far more talk and didn't get around to "the chick who gets killed second" until the 29 minute mark of scene 9.

I've said it before and I'll continue to say it, the cinematography of the Scream franchise is always really wonderfully framed. Always used in a great way to get the viewer into the space of a scene. Think of the way Drew Barrymore looked standing in front of those big glass patio doors or the way the above-angle shots of Randy in the park provided that sense of menace. I always like how characters are framed to show any manner of places in which the killer could be hiding. Like in this shot, for instance, we have an open door right in front of Sarah or the long passageway with doors opening up on either side into rooms that could easily hide the killer. He could quite literally be anywhere.

After working on Scream 3, cinematographer Peter Deming went and made Mulholland Drive with David Lynch, which worked the LA movie world in a far different, but even scarier, manner.

"Fuck you very much."
Why didn't this catchphrase, er, catch on? Oh, that's right... it's stupid. Although, in 2011 that line probably sounds like poetry to some people.

So, I see headshots for "Jennifer Jolie", "Cotton Weary", "Tyson Fox", "Sarah Darling" and "Tom Prinze". The one for Cotton is obviously a prop since there's no way that would actually be Liev Schreiber's headshot, but the others all look legitimate and real. Do you reckon they are? Who are the others, too? Scream 3 extras? Crew who got headshots taken as a joke and used in the movie as set decoration?

Okay, so, when I went to go see Shark Night 3D I inadvertently witnessed the trailer for that new Adam Sandler movie Jack & Jill. It looks really bad. Really, really bad. There's one bit where Sandler, dressed as a woman for some reason, kicks a football (or something - I am not going to YouTube to watch it and find out exactly) and it hits Al Pacino's Oscar, which then shatters into hundreds of little pieces. I don't think Academy Awards are that fragile, to be honest. Same goes for this award, whatever it is. What is this trophy made of if it falls apart the moment it gets dropped on the ground. I'm surprised it made it out of the ceremony unharmed if that's the case (especially given some of the stories we hear about award show after parties!)

"Since I've got you on the phone, let's talk about your character."
"What character? I'm Candy, the chick who gets killed second, I'm only in two scenes."
The meta is off the chart! Jenny McCarthy who is only in two scenes of Scream 3 and gets killed second (third technically, but second death scene) playing a character in Stab 3 who is in only two scenes and gets killed second who is obviously modeled on the actress who was only in two scenes of Scream 2 and got killed second (third technically, but second death scene).

Wait, what?

"Ring ring. Hello."
"Hello."
"Who is this?"
"Who's this?"
"It's Candy. Hang on, let me put on some clothes."
Hah. Amazing. I adore the way she says "ring ring" for some peculiar reason.

"I don't understand why I have to start the scene in the shower. The whole shower thing's been done; Vertigo, hello!"
Oh Candy. I actually like Jenny McCarthy in Scream 3. She's obviously playing off of her own dumb blonde routine - but future movies like, say, Dirty Love, prove she may be aware of her image but not willing to do anything about it - and I think she looks great, too, I just have a bit of an issue with the behind the scenes metamorphosis of her character. The story goes that Sarah Michelle Gellar was a bit too hands on for Wes Craven's liking and spend much of her time on set giving Wes "ideas" for how her scene could play out. Having worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer had apparently given her ideas on stunts and the like. Craven was probably glad she got cast as CiCi and not someone who got to stick around longer.

So, apparently Sarah Darling is highly influenced by Sarah Michelle Gellar and makes me wonder what Smidge thought of Scream 3 if she ever did see it.

"Candy. Is that like candy cane or candy apple?"
"Come on, who is this? I think you have the wrong number."
"But you know my favourite name?"
"I'm hanging up right now."
"It's Sarah."
"Roman, that's not the line."
"It is in my script."

"Has there been another god-damned rewrite? How the fuck are we supposed to learn our lines when there's a new script every 15 minutes?"

"It's not just a new script, it's a new movie."
"What? What movie?"
"My movie..."
*click*
"... And it's called Sarah Gets Skewered Like a Fucking Pig."

"Still in character... Sarah?"
Okay, so, a few things about this exchange:

Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Dir. Lynne Ramsay

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: MA15+

Running Time: 112mins

The boy at the centre of Lynne Ramsey’s first film in nine years is a slip of a thing. A skinny 15-year-old boy named Kevin, played here by Ezra Miller, whose tight shirts hug his lithe frame in a way that his mothers arms never did. The scant amount of scenes featuring this boy interacting with those who aren’t his family see him as somebody who goes generally unnoticed, unwilling to rock the boat with anyone who isn’t his long-suffering (and often insufferable) mother. Was Kevin born bad or were his actions, dutifully played out in Ramsay and Rory Stewart Kinnear’s unconventional and non-linear adaptation of Lionel Shriver novel, the result of a childhood being raised by a mother who saw him as little more than the reason she had to leave the big city. It’s the nature versus nurture debate and like the similarly themed (albeit, complete different) Elephant, the answer is probably a hearty shrug and flip of the hands, but the manner with which Ramsay has handled the material is the more inspiring accomplishment than anything resembling a resolution.

We Need to Talk About Kevin opens with a dizzying overload of sensory envelope pushing. What feels like a solid half an hour of little more than criss-crossing images from the life of Tilda Swinton’s brash Eva Khatchadourian, layered with an intricate and fragmented kaleidoscope sound design that paints a vivid and architectural image of this woman’s life before, during, and after the worst moment of her life. The bold, striking red of a visit to the La Tomatina festival in Valencia oozes into the flashing neon red of a police car’s headlights, which then flows into the imagery of Eva scraping dried red paint from the façade of her rickety house. Screams, chants and cheers merge on the soundtrack alongside Jonny Greenwood’s musical score before twisting into a stunning moment of revelation as Eva stands with her baby in a pram right next to a jackhammer at a construction sight, barely able to drown out the never-ending sound of her wailing child. Swinton’s face binds all these images and ideas together and it’s such a heady, intoxicating swell of emotions and feelings that it’s actually disappointing when Ramsay has to get down to actually telling the story that, ahem, she needs to talk about.

I was having trouble making heads or tails of the second half of this movie when a friend suggested that Swinton’s character is actually just a really unreliable storyteller. Was Kevin really that terrible of a child? Was her husband – John C Reilly as Franklin – really as cowardly and noncommittal as he appears or is it merely a figment of Eva’s unwell mind? Either way, I suspect an audience member’s reaction to the film as a whole will rely heavily on wheather they find these characters at all tolerable. Unfortunately Kevin becomes little more than a sociopathic Jason Voorhees with only one mode and a seemingly never-ceasing desire to inflict pain. Franklin on the other hand seems like such a whitewashed character that it’s almost as if there’s nothing even there for Reilly to perform.

The film’s best moments, outside of that exemplary opening gambit of a collage, are when it navigates the prickly aspects of Eva’s rotating world. The way a co-worker berates her under his breath at a Christmas party when she refuses to dance with him; her fierce determination to be normal as she waves across the street to a neighbour; the itchy skin she experiences when a wheelchair-bound student crosses her path and he proves to be the most sympathetic of all. Swinton is mesmerising to watch and her aghast facial expressions are some of her finest work. We Need to Talk About Kevin really does work best with Kevin is on the outer, a force that encroaches upon the lives of this world, but never really comes to be. It’s like when Hannibal Lector was so maniacally terrifying when seen briefly in Silence of the Lambs, and yet became a carnival freak show when given the increased camera time in Hannibal. Kevin is a forceful, powerful character on paper more than he is in flesh and blood. In flesh and blood he’s annoying and drags the film down no matter his age (played by Jasper Newell at age 8, and Rocky Duer as an infant).

We Need to Talk About Kevin is, like its UK quad posters suggest, some sort of radicalised horror movie. A demon child story in arthouse clothing with a villain as wise-cracking as Freddy Krueger and unrelentingly clunky as Michael Myers with Tilda’s Eva his tortured "final girl". Lynne Ramsay here is always doing interesting things with the medium and that certainly makes for involving filmgoing even when the characters and their actions are frustrating beyond belief. As it plays out in frenetic bursts, I admired its audacity, but just wished that somebody had indeed talked to Kevin rather than merely about him. B-

Review: The Tall Man

The Tall Man

Dir. Tony Krawitz

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: M15+

Running Time: 80mins

It can be hard for a documentary to be interesting on both an intellectual and technical level. It is especially hard when dealing with a subject such as that explored by The Tall Man, which features mostly talking head style interviews, stock police video and television news footage. Director Tony Krawitz (award winning short feature Jewboy) has done just that though with this evocative and thorough documentary that is just as tense and tightly wound as any Hollywood thriller. With the help of sun-drenched cinematography by Germain McMicking that perfectly juxtaposes the poverty-stricken Aboriginal community with the tropical postcard scenery of Palm Island on which it’s set, as well as intricate, finely tuned sound design, The Tall Man weaves a gripping tale that covers race, class, politics and even love with a filmmaking skill that belies its origins. It’s one of the finest Australian films of the year.

Read the rest at Onya Magazine

Review: Fighting Fear

Fighting Fear

Dir. Macario De Souza

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: M15+

Running Time: 85mins

The worlds of mixed martial arts and competitive big wave surfing come together in wildly melodramatic and frequently homo-erotic ways in Macario De Souza’s Fighting Fear. Coming from one of the co-director’s of Bra Boys and featuring a couple of that high-grossing documentary’s featured personalities, you surely already know what you’re getting into and we more or less get it. Whether that’s a good thing or not is ultimately up to you. To say that there are a lot of biffo, bonza, brooding, brawling, bogan blokes in Fighting Fear is an understatement, but their so-called larrikin charm quickly wears out its welcome. It’s easy to grow tired of these leather-skinned, thick-necked, scruffy-faced surfer dudes talking about “taking chances”, “confronting death” and, yes, “fighting fear” as they try and catch the ultimate wave or swing the proverbial killer right hook.

De Souza’s film was never going to be an evenly balanced portrait of the lives of Mark Mathews and Richie “Van” Vaculik – he is their friend after all – but the obvious manner with which he goes about sprinkling his film with odious platitudes is startling. It’s disconcerting when Fighting Fear spends more time stroking sympathy for Vaculik’s thuggish character (he rushes to be by the bedside of his ex-girlfriend’s cancer-stricken mother) than recognising that he, um, ya know, tried to beat a guy to a bloody pulp. That they have tried to make amends is commendable, but by pushing the film’s legitimately interesting subject matter to the side in favour of repetitive like whoa look at him surf that big wave moments is frustrating and tiresome.

Beginning with rather naff childhood re-enactments – not to mention the ridiculous torn photograph imagery that elicited stifled laughs out of my friend and I – Fighting Fear sadly goes nowhere unexpected. Written with all the finesse of a child editing a Wikipedia entry and narrated with monotone dullness by its heroes, this documentary is rarely enlightening enough about anything other than the ever-changing length of Vaculik’s chest hair. Occasional narrated by Joel Edgerton (in a nice bout of cross-promotion with the mixed martial arts themed Warrior) with barely an ounce of self-awareness – these men are labelled “heroes” and “super-human larrikins” – it’s as if it’s all just one big circle jerk that somebody got projected onto a cinema screen.

I guess because they’re such true blue blokes – they surf with an inflatable crocodile to commemorate the death of Steve Irwin, I am not making that up! – I’m meant to dismiss their roguish nature, but I can’t. Especially when they’re as dull as this. Many of the men that pop up throughout Fighting Fear may be good looking if you’re into that sort of look (hey, I certainly am), any appear is quickly erased the moment they speak.

Perhaps if the film had any interest in really investigating why they became that way, rather than blithely papering over it with weak excuses (divorce!) and glossy camerawork I could forgive some of its less obvious faults. The surfing footage is impressive, that’s a fact, but by the time an excessive epilogue pops up at film’s end it has long since lost its novelty value. Much like the media in general, Fighting Fear just glazes over the bad times in the mad rush to hail sporting personalities as the closest thing to the second coming of Jesus Christ we’re ever likely to see. By all means, I’m sure the story of Mathews and Vaculik would make a great tale for these guys to tell their mates as they sit around a barbecue in their quieter years, but as a feature length documentary it lacks the pizzazz and the spunk required to be anything more than a glorified slice of misguided idol worship masquerading as cinema. D