Mitchell Butel Movies
- 2003
Australian filmmaker Jonathan Teplitzky directs the crime comedy Gettin' Square. Barry Wirth (Sam Worthington) is an ex-con who just wants to stay on the right side of the law. David Wenham plays Johnny "Spit" Spitieri, a zany, lovable drug addict who knew Barry in prison. They both get paroled by officer Annie Flynn (Freya Stafford) and plan to play it straight this time. They get jobs at the Texas Rose, a restaurant owned by Darren Barrington (Timothy Spall), another ex-con trying to go straight. Barry, Spit, and Darren team up against the local gang boss Chicka Martin (Gary Sweet).Things get messed up when Darren's shifty accountant Warren Halliwell (Steven Tandy) finds himself the interest of the Criminal Investigation Commission. Gettin' Square was the opening film at the 2003 Brisbane Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sam Worthington, David Wenham, (more)
A young man fascinated with the workings of the world of banking forms an alliance with an unscrupulous corporate predator in this drama. Jim Doyle (David Wenham) developed an interest in finance while he was a young boy growing up in a small Australian town, and as an adult he and his partners have developed BTSE (Bank Training Simulation Experiment), a sophisticated computer program that can anticipate the ups and downs of the world's money markets. Jim's program attracts the interest of Simon O'Riley (Anthony LaPaglia), the head of a major Aussie financial services corporation, Centabank; O'Riley is looking to cut costs and increase profits, and he's convinced BTSE can help him do just that. However, O'Riley has other, more aggressive ways of boosting his bottom line; Centabank has been shutting down small-town branch offices that have been faithfully serving customers for decades, and has developed a new enthusiasm for foreclosing on loans from smaller customers having trouble making ends meet. Two such customers are Wayne and Diane Davis (Steve Rodgers and Mandy McElhinney), who obtained a loan to start their own business building houseboats; when the local economy went into a nosedive, the Davises found themselves under the thumb of Centabank, and the bank's hounding of the couple led to an unfortunate accident that took the life of their young son. Determined to make Centabank pay for their son's death, Wayne takes on the corporation with the help of Stephen (Mitchell Buell), an activist lawyer. Jim, meanwhile, becomes romantically involved with Michelle (Sibylla Budd), a Centabank employee, and through her gets a clearer idea of just what O'Riley is trying to do. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Wenham, Anthony LaPaglia, (more)
- 2000
The "surprise" ending of this made-for-TV sci/fi thriller will not surprise fans of the Matrix movies--nor those senior citizens who heard variations on the same plotline back in the days of such radio anthologies as X-Minus One and Dimension X.The film is set in the future, where the world has apparently reached perfection at last. Curiously, the modernistic trappings of the era rub shoulders with such decidedly "retro" elements as drive-in movies and rock-n-roll bars, but no one questions this dichotomy. No one, that is, except advertising executive Dale Hunter (Michael Muhney), who after surviving a car accident notices a few disturbing "glitches" in the world around him. As mentioned, practically everyone else is oblivious to such oddities, but Dale manages to find a kindred spirit in the form of a woman named Natalie (Jennifer Congram). Together, these two uncover evidence that their existence may not be an existence after all, but instead a all-encompassing illusion! Virtual Nightmare premiered April 14, 2000 on UPN. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Sex and the singles scene is a much explored and exploited subject in cinema, particularly in the 1990's. Strange Fits of Passion tries to avoid clichés in narrating a young woman's desperate crusade to lose her virginity. The result is a bittersweet fable in which the protagonist takes the viewer along on her journey through hilarious sexual and social misadventures as she struggles to discover the meaning of sex, love, and desire in a world which is post-modern and post-everything. The first film of actress and stage director Elise McCredie, Strange Fits of Passion was chosen for the International Critics' Week at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michela Noonan, Mitchell Butel, (more)
Alex Proyas (The Crow) directed this noir-styled futuristic thriller, scripted by Proyas, Lem Dobbs (Kafka), and David S. Goyer (The Puppet Masters). Separated from his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), amnesiac John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to learn he is wanted for a series of brutal killings -- but he can't remember if he did or didn't commit these murders. Indeed, most of his memories have completely vanished, and he becomes the focus of interest for both mad genius Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) and sympathetic detective Frank Bumstead (William Hurt). Attempting to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity, Murdoch encounters a group of ominous beings known as the Strangers, shadow-like figures who have a collective memory and possess the ability to stop time and alter physical reality through a process called The Tuning. Focusing their minds, they are able to change the size and shape of the material world. Murdoch manages to stay a step ahead of his adversaries as he slowly jigsaws together the puzzle of his past-bittersweet memories of his childhood, his love for Emma, and the key to the murders -- while following a labyrinth leading to the Strangers' Underworld, a set inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Rufus Sewell commented on the Underworld: "When Alex first sent me the sketches for that set, I was more excited than I had been when I read the script. The Underworld was truly remarkable -- a little bit scary, very thrilling, and full of hundreds of bald people." At the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, where 50 sets were built, three months were spent constructing the set for the Underworld, the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. The production design by George Liddle (Rapa Nui) and Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Space: Above and Beyond) is a composite of different styles and eras, combining the look of 1940s Manhattan with German Expressionism. The music is by Trevor Jones (G.I. Jane). The film's dedication reads: "In Memory of Dennis Potter with gratitude and admiration." ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
