Suburban Wildlife

I felt so immersed in the statelessness of youth in suburban life, perfectly captured with the cinematography & authentic performances. There was something very natural about each scene, I was waiting for the cringy moments which often take me out of Australia cinema, but they never happened. The film confidently holds you in its grasp, very clear on its intention and immersing you into the dynamics of the friendship group and their day-to-day surrounds. I was caught off guard at how emotional I felt at the end. A very subtle yet complex film and an absolutely remarkable achievement considering the almost non-existent budget.

If you think filming a whole bunch of people walking around doing mundane things or everyday things is interesting then watch this bad film. A bunch of late teens walking around, taking drugs and there is NO story. No emotion, nothing compelling, nothing interesting, nothing entertaining and definitely no heart. There is no struggle or even a goal for the so called protagonists. I've never seen so many shots of houses, trees, birds, planes etc to fill in a film that has no story or purpose. There is NO vision here, a Director should understand storytelling. You cant shoot a bunch of stuff and try an and be arty farty and expect people to understand it. Gender bending, confusion, winging teens. Basic dialogue and characters are walking around with no motivation, no goal. People don't want to watch nothing. The acting is passable but mediocre, the most interesting actor is the middle eastern actress, who is by far the best actress and great to look at. 1 star for effort.

Absolutely no plot with nothing of note in either the acting or the filming itself. No way to empathise or gain insight into any of the characters who are two dimensional and some really poor acting, but given the lack of plot guess they had not much to embellish upon.

Non-plot is they get drunk and off their heads wander around with lots of 'atmospheric' shots of nothing with a non-inspiring sound track. Spacey but not in a good way. In fact the plot would be vastly improved if they had been abducted by aliens.

Spent the whole film waiting for something to happen. If it was trying to be atmospheric or capturing the moment it's failed miserably. Do NOT bother - honestly... and I love films.

A film that keeps you watching till the end because we have been there.

Brilliantly made movie at all levels, from script to acting to all levels of production. Considering how pathetic movies with multi-million-dollar budgets have been of late, the fact that Suburban Wildlife was made on little more than a handful of coins is great testament to what can be achieved if you assemble people with passion.

If this is any indication of Imogen McCluskey's talents, she'll go far - perhaps even to Peter Jackson's levels if she gets recognised by "the powers that be."