About an Age

I watched this movie because it came up on my Amazon Prime and I love coming of age stories.

Yet there's almost nothing in here to warrant calling it a story. Besides the last 10 minutes. Even though there's no tension leading up to it. While the omission of the plot is somewhat the point here, it's still produced in an awfully boring way. Coming of age stories should be fun, this movie wasn't. Not one good joke, not one smart, memorable moment.

The pace is off, the acting is often wooden and lines sound they are being read, not delivered. Don't expect an uncovered gem with this one, it's just a film-student level picture that somehow arrived on a global platform like Amazon Prime.

Five teens on the cusp of adulthood spend a night drinking, playing games, spilling secrets and discussing their futures. For a first film this indie production was pretty good, the cinematography was great, the editing excellent and the performances were solid. A really nice coming of age film.

This is an uncommonly original new Australian film. Five teenage friends gather at a rural house to celebrate the end of the school week. The parents are away so the youngsters drink, flirt, play games and talk about their lives and futures. Eventually things turn darker when alcohol warps their judgment.

Despite the booze, tentative couplings and rustic setting, this story is never crass. The teens here are exploring ideas of ambition, independence, unfairness and philosophy, reflecting on their experiences and their hopes. It's often tense with the introduction of a gun in early scenes, and youthful romance is shown to have the uncertainty and dangers that we all know.

First time writer / directors Harley Hefford and Evan J Martin are consciously putting forward Australian experiences into the coming-of-age genre that is so dominated by films from the US in our culture. About An Age is telling it like it really is in unsensational and honest ways through a polished script. About the supposed best time of your life, which is really the worst for most.

The actors are a gifted young bunch with evenly fine performances from all of them in close ensemble; Daniel Cockburn, Rachel Lee, Eddie Orton are novices while Keith Purcell and Ashley Stocco have some experience. Fredricka Arthur as Laura, a latecomer to the party, is another newcomer who dazzles. They are all names we will look forward to hearing more from.

About An Age is all the better for being a modest production, and the fine result, beautifully filmed by Thom Neal, will nudge and niggle at our nostalgia, ringing true to teenage lives everywhere and every when.

Let's face it, if you sit down to watch this film hoping for a Hollywood blockbuster, you're going to be disappointed. It portrays five Australian teenagers (plus a sixth who appears later) who get together at a house where the parents are away for the weekend. They are all about to leave school and go on to work or further education.

So they do what you would expect: play games, sit on the roof, make a barbecue, drink alcohol and talk about their schooldays and the future.

To be honest, it could just as well be a stage play, but with film we get to see some attractive scenery in country Victoria. The acting is low-key but convincing. The ending is unsurprising but satisfying. I enjoyed this film.