Prisoner Queen

I have read about this film and have wanted to see it for awhile, so I was pleased to see it finally come out on DVD. The story is set in the mid 1990's, about a vivacious out spoken actress who is diagnosed with cancer and her son who works as a waiter. What starts off as a simple story, Prisoner Queen, draws you into a strange warped fantasy world and somehow makes you feel as though you've actually entered into late night TV yourself. Praise must go to the lead actors, Jude Kuring and Tim Burns. Are they actually mother and son in real life? It feels like they are? Kuring looks like she is actually undergoing chemotherapy and the scenes in the hospital almost feels like you are watching a documentary. The whole cast are quite commendable and a complete freakshow. It's a very funny movie, filled with a lot of heart breaking moments and both Kuring and Burns are hilarious. If you remember the 90's, and forgotten a lot of it, Prisoner Queen will remind you quite accurately. It really is quite a snapshot of that era, especially if you are from Melbourne. I ha to laugh at a scene where an old lady is car jacked by a drug crazed 90's club chick, the old lady reaches for her mobile, which is three times the size of today's smart phones. Prisoner Queen is an impressive piece of film-making and is brilliant due to it's unique aspects and the fact that for 90 minutes you have gone back to another time that doesn't seem that long ago but indeed so far removed from our lives now.

Offbeat black comedy of sorts stars Burns as a quirky, over-imaginative barista whose ageing former actress mother (Kuring, formerly 'Noeline' of the TV series 'Prisoner') discovers she has cancer leading him into an existential crisis.

There's some fun, somewhat macabre conflict between Burns and his selfish co-worker Stanton (who appears with her real-life mother Jill Forster in the next to last act), and then some poignant moments in which Kuring tours the cancer ward in which she's receiving treatment, sharing some lighthearted dialogue with an elderly patient in spite of their obvious struggles.

Former Mavis' lead singer Matt Thomas plays a transvestite in disconnected scenes whose context I didn't really understand, appearing whilst Burns - apparently in the midst of an acute emotional response to his mother's condition - aimlessly walks the city at night dressed in the prison guard costume worn by the officers who torment his mother's character in the aforementioned TV series.

It's all a bit baffling (surreal at times) and euphemistically, made on the scent of an oily rag which adds a certain underground quality which is both distracting and visually intriguing. Overall, it's quirky, kinky guerilla-style filmmaking bordering on home-movie which is at times endearing, although not entirely coherent.