Tracy Harvey Movies

This production of the Bard of Avalon's famous stage comedy is based on a successful Australian stage production from the mid-1980s. It is a story of love, shipwreck, disguises and mistaken identities, and relies for much of its wit (and believability) on the willing suspension of disbelief. This is, by all accounts, much more easily achieved in the live theater than on film, which is such an intensely visual and "realistic" medium. Thus, the mistaken identify of the twins Viola and Sebastian, the crux of the plot, becomes somewhat difficult to credit when the role is played by the impeccably feminine Gillian Jones -- despite which, Ms. Jones won great praise from the critics for her acting. Aside from that small complaint, this is a spirited and lively production which is set in a present-day never-never land, performed by some of the keenest thespians on any side of the globe. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Technical flaws abound in this "punk" movie about an imaginary, 21st-century ghetto in Melbourne, Australia created by white-color, middle-class suburbanites to contain all the wild and wooly nonconformists in their society. At the center of ghetto life is a pub that features Sarah (Maryanne Fahey) and Bear (Michael Bishop), by night slamming the suburbanites and by day carrying out covert operations on the outside as the daring Cisco and Pancho. In that guise, the Bear dons various personas, such as that of a government minister, and announces radical changes to the citizenry: children should henceforth be painted green, family cars should be buried, and as winter chills the air, citizens are to sleep with ducks. This send-up of the middle-class is uneven and patchy, with acting that is alternately good and bad and lip-synching that is a misnomer -- but at the same time, this haphazard fluctuation in quality seems to fit right in with the theme of the movie itself -- slick just would not capture the point of it all. Future Schlock is here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide