Jessica Napier Movies
- 1995
The daily, 30-minute Australian soap opera Echo Point was set in the fictional town of the same title. Created by John Edwards, Sandra Levy, and Christopher Lee (not the horror film actor), the series divided its time equally between the "young" and "old" characters, whose individual trials and tribulations somehow always managed to converge. The cast included onetime child star Sean Scully (Almost Angels, The Prince and the Pauper) and the ubiquitous Rowena Wallace. A Southern Star production, the 130-episode Echo Point was seen on Australia's Ten Network from June 5, 1995 to December of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A middle-aged disc jockey becomes romantically entangled with a pair of sisters in this quirky Australian comedy. Vicki-Ann Hurley (Rebecca Frith) and her younger sister Dimity (Miranda Otto) are both feeling stagnant in the tiny outback town of Sunray, and they welcome the distraction provided by the arrival of Ken Sherry (George Shevtsov), a formerly popular radio personality fallen on hard times. Despite his present circumstance, the burnt-out Sherry retains an aura of faded prestige that attracts both sisters. Vicki-Ann sets out to seduce the disc jockey, but it is Dimity who first draws Sherry's attention, setting the stage for a conflict between the sisters. First-time filmmaker Shirley Barrett plays this conflict not for romantic melodrama but for comedy, focusing on how Vicki-Ann and Dimity adapt to their experiences with the mysterious Sherry, whose enigmatic demeanor may hide a deeper secret. Barrett plays out this triangle against a detailed portrait of a failing town, emphasizing the distinctive local color and oddball characters in a manner that should appeal most to those with a taste for the unusual. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miranda Otto, Rebecca Frith, (more)
The Australian coastal community of Blackrock goes into an uproar after the badly beaten, gang-raped corpse of a 15-year-old girl is discovered after an all-night beach party goes out of control. As the moral outrage heats up, the sole witness to the crime, 17-year-old surfer Jared Kirby (who organized the shindig to celebrate the return of surfing guru Ricko) is left with the wrenching decision whether or not to rat on his friends. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Molly Ringwald stars in this Australian Scream-like horror flick that lodges a tongue in the cheek as much as a knife in the gut. The film opens in 1988 when director Hilary Jacobs (Australian uber-icon Kylie Minogue) is working on a slasher movie called "Hot Blooded" starring plucky American icon Vanessa Turnbull (Ringwald) as a teen who is being chased by a psycho with a mask and some wicked cutlery. After the climactic scene is shot, Jacobs shouts "Cut!" and then harangues the actor playing the killer. That night, the actor stabs the director and almost offs Turnbull. The film is never completed, and when a male director who takes over the project ends up dead too, "Hot Blooded" achieves a hallowed status in student film legend. Fast forward to the present -- Jacobs' assistant director Lossman (Geoff Revell) teaches at a film school and tells his favorite students -- Raffy Carruthers (Jessica Napier) and Hester Ryan (Sarah Kants) -- of his experiences on the doomed set. Raffy, who is itching to be the next Jane Campion, sets out to finish the notorious flick. She enlists Hester as a producer, assembles a crew of fellow students and manages to get Vanessa Turnbull, who hasn't worked much lately, to revisit her role as the film's main character. Of course, as soon as shooting commences, the killing begins anew. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Molly Ringwald, Jessica Napier, (more)
- 2000
The romantic misadventures of a group of twenty-something Australians sets the stage for this independent comedy. Dean (Sam Lewis) is a guy fascinated by horror and schlock movies who works at a video store. He's just been dropped by his girlfriend Heather (Lara Cox) following an embarrassing incident involving one of her stuffed animals, and is now sharing an apartment with his friend Ian (Justin Smith) and Jade (Jessica Napier), a fellow film buff that Dean used to date. Dean offers Jade some sage advice as she tries to break off with her current boyfriend, while he looks for a new girlfriend of his own. May (Abi Tucker), a cute goth girl who rents at Dean's video store, seems like a good prospect at first, but he's still having trouble getting over Heather. Dean eventually finds himself looking for love over the Internet, while Ian uses the romantic travails of himself and his friends as fodder for his stand-up act; now all he has to do is work up the courage to actually perform in front of an audience. Angst was the first feature from filmmaker Daniel Nettheim, and was featured at the 2000 Melbourne Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Lewis, Jessica Napier, (more)
Six characters go in search of meaningless pleasure over the course of one night in Brisbane. At a fast-food pizza joint called Speedie, chef Dom (Sullivan Stapleton) kicks things off by trashing the place, sticking the body of a dead cat in the oven, and behaving in a less-than-genial manner. Misha (Ryan Johnson) boasts to co-workers that he had sex with his last pizza delivery customer; when his colleagues don't believe him, he runs off to the apartment of Sophie (Jessica Napier) and goes about seducing her. Meanwhile, fellow deliverers Robert (Brendan Cowell) and Erin (Kellie Jones) are best friends, but Erin, unknown to Robert, would like to be more. Their manager Katie (Haley McElhinney) amuses herself by having sex with someone wearing a Mr. Speedie mask, and Stacey (Megan Dorman) occasionally works at Speedie but prefers to spend most of her time hanging out with thugs. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sullivan Stapleton, Ryan Johnson, (more)
This second feature from Boyfriends' directors Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger explores intertwined relationships in a sleepy seaside resort in the U.K., broken up into three segments. The film centers around the funeral of Stuart (David Coffey), the gay partner of Nick (Tom Hollander), who owns a local restaurant. Stuart's brother-in-law Dan (Bill Nighy) is a depressive farmer who lives with his wife Judy (Ellie Haddington) and becomes smitten with a French woman named Corinne (Clementine Celarie), a local florist. As Dan and Judy attempt to settle Stuart's estate, Dan gives into having an affair with Corinne -- but then ends up cheating on her with an amorous stranger (Sally Hurst). Meanwhile, Nick offers Stuart's straight best friend Tim (Douglas Henshall) a place to stay. Nick is furthermore disrupted by the advances of Charlie (Sukie Smith), a free-spirited woman who takes a liking to Nick and introduces him to hetero intercourse. The final section of the film centers on Tim who, after being abroad for several years, has a dalliance with shop owner Leah (Josephine Butler), who happens to be the former girlfriend of his adopted brother David (Stuart Laing). Also featured in the film are Dominic Hall, June Barrie, and Peter Symonds. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Henshall, Tom Hollander, (more)
The Alice concerns a group of strangers who converge on the town of Alice Springs in order to enjoy a solar eclipse. Soon events forever change the lives of those who chose to visit the small town. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erik Thomson, Caitlin McDougall, (more)
The direct-to-video picture Safety in Numbers satirizes the "reality TV" fad of the early nineties and pays homage to the slasher genre. The central story involves the cast members of an (apocryphal) television series called Survivor Island, that strands several contestants on a deserted island and pits them against one another in a "survival of the fittest" contest. As the story opens, the cast members from one season gather for a filmed "reunion special" that will return them to the island locale of the series, but are mystified to find an empty island with a decimated beach house, where one of the walls warns, "You will die." Reading this as a sly prank perpetrated by the television crew, the former contestants decide to be good sports, by holing up on the island for a night - but awaken to discover that their yacht is missing. More troublingly, the castaways sense an unseen menace, lurking in the jungle and waiting to pick off the innocents, one by one. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
When a motorcycle-riding stuntman offers his soul to Mephistopheles in order to save the life of the one he loves most, he is forced to play host to a powerful supernatural entity whose flaming skull visage strikes fear into the heart of his enemies in this feature-film version of the long-running comic series. By day, Johnny Blaze (actor and comic-book devotee Nicolas Cage) is one of the world's best-known stuntmen, but when the sun goes down and he is in the presence of evil, the death-defying daredevil bursts into flames to become the indestructible, motorcycle-riding antihero known to the world as the Ghost Rider. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, (more)
