Suburban Mayhem

Apparently this film is nominated for several AFI awards including Best Actress for Emily Barclay. I can understand why - her performance is mesmerising and impressive given her public comments about the problems getting in character. The rest of the cast is very solid as well, and it was good to see Steve Bastoni on screen again, as he haven't been in much lately.

From the start, with a cheesy special effect and the killer soundtrack, you have to either accept the proposition put to you, or walk out there and then. I found the loudness of the music almost physical - it was as much a character as Katrina. Mick Harvey has done some wonderful film-score work before, on Australian Rules and Chopper, not to mention his time with Nick Cave and this one adds to his reputation.

Thinking of films in this genre, that I would compare Suburban Mayhem to, I'd have to go with Natural Born Killers as the top of the list. I don't think that this is quite in the same league as a work by Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino, but it's still very well done.