Kim Gyngell Movies
Three brothers who would argue that crime does pay have a hard time getting their fair share of the proceeds in this witty action thriller from Australia. Dale Twentyman (Guy Pearce) and his brothers, Mal (Damien Richardson) and Shane (Joel Edgerton), are serving time together in prison for robbery. Dale is the brains and the cool head of the group, Mal is the eager-to-please nice guy, and Shane is something of a loose cannon. Dale and his siblings are eager to get out of jail, and their lawyer, Frank Malone (Robert Taylor), has pulled a deal that could pare some time off their sentences, though the arrangement is strictly off the books. Mick Kelly (Vince Colosimo) and Jack O'Riordan (Paul Sonkkila) are a pair of crooked police detectives who have arranged with Malone to give the Twentyman brothers day passes from jail in order to pull bank robberies, with the siblings' share held in escrow until they're released. Dale thinks something a bit off in this operation, and his suspicions are confirmed when Malone tells the brothers after they're granted their early release that they won't get their money until they pull one last job -- an ambitious robbery at a Melbourne race track on the day of the nation's biggest horse race. Dale is convinced he smells a rat -- especially since he has good reason to suspect that Malone is having an affair with his wife, Carol (Rachel Griffiths). The Hard Word marked the directorial debut for writer/director Scott Roberts. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, (more)
- 2000
Australian stand up comedy and TV star Nick Giannopoulos makes his cinematic debut with this wacky comedy about slackers looking for sex. Steve Karamatsis (Giannopoulos) is a gainfully unemployed lay-about who has been called "Wogboy" since childhood thanks to his Greek lineage. He and his Italian buddy Frank (Vince Colosimo) model themselves after John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever ("the biggest wog of them all") and go cruising the local clubs for blonde beauties. Frank, who runs a pizza parlor, is particularly adept at the art of seduction. Later, when Steve's car is involved in a fender bender with a limo of the Federal Minister for Employment, Raelene Beagle-Thorpe (Geraldine Turner), Steve demands compensation even though the accident was clearly his fault. Instead, the minister sicks a tabloid TV reporter on him, hoping to expose him as a welfare cheat. The scheme backfires when Steve's beguiling charm and honesty wins over the reporter. Steve soon finds himself as the poster boy for Australia's unemployed. Trying to get the best spin on the situation, Beagle-Thorpe reluctantly hires Steve as an assistant alongside the comely and blonde Celia (Lucy Bell). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Colosimo
- 1996
- R
Australian college students struggle to deal with school, romance, and life in general in first-time director Emma-Kate Croghan's comedy. The film's focus falls on cinema studies major Mia (France O'Connor) and her roommate Alice (Alice Garner), both of whom find themselves in romantic flux. Alice is torn between the cocky Ari (Matthew Dyktynski) and the shy but loyal Michael (Matt Day), while Mia is in the midst of a messy break-up with her girlfriend Danni (Radha Mitchell). Further complicating Mia's life are her unfinished thesis (on the feminist implications of Doris Day films) and her struggles with the college administration, which provide the opportunity for gentle satire of academia and the frustrations of bureaucracy. The characters deal with their troubles through articulate, questioning dialogue, and Croghan punctuates the film with title screens featuring famous quotes and with attempts to liven up the relatively familiar story with occasional forays into art-film stylization. Most critics viewed the film as a promising debut, with likable characters and a charming romantic tone, if an inconsequential narrative. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Day, Matthew Dyktynski, (more)
- 1993
The Australian sketch comedy series Full Frontal was very much in the same vein as the earlier weekly Fast Forward, utilizing several of the same writers and performers. Though the satire was wide-ranging, the principal targets were the films, TV programs, talk shows, and musical specials carried by Australia's Seven Network, which also happened to be the home of this particular series. Talk about biting the proverbial hand. Over twenty hour-long episodes of Full Frontal were broadcast from 1993 to 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The third film written and directed by playwright David Mamet, this combination of crime drama and character study stars several of Mamet's stock players. Joe Mantegna stars as Bobby Gold, a detective with a gift for negotiation who, along with his partner Tim Sullivan (William H. Macy), accidentally stumbles upon a crime scene -- the murder of an elderly Jewish woman in her corner store. When it turns out that the victim was politically well-connected and Jewish, Bobby's superiors assign him the case because he's also Jewish. The problem is that Bobby isn't very religious and he resents being taken off a higher profile drug investigation involving a dealer, Randolph (Ving Rhames). Bobby's also highly skeptical when the murdered woman's family claims that her death was not a simple robbery but an anti-Semitic hate crime. As he gets deeper into his case, however, Bobby discovers that a larger conspiracy may be afoot, and he begins to question his own ethnic roots. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, (more)
- 1990
- R
What happens when baby-boom rock 'n rollers, having had their fleeting moment of fame and notoriety, grow up, get other jobs, and have children of their own? For one thing, if this movie is to be believed, they envy their children's musical abilities and, when the youngsters get involved in their own version of rebel-music, they re-create the famed "generation gap" all over again. Johnny (played by Australian actor John Waters) was a member of a 1960s band called the Chosen Ones and enjoyed the famed trinity of that era: sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. Now the middle-aged man is bored with his "straight" job and wants to see if he can't start a revival of his band's popularity, but his wife wants his career change to be more practical and suggests that they invest in a restaurant. At the same time, Johnny's much more talented son Paul is making waves in his own band. One highlight of this film is the surprisingly skillful music-making of the performers, none of them music pros. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Waters, Rebecca Gilling, (more)
- 1990
In this children's drama, Steven Wilson (Andrew Shephard) has been sent from his country home to stay with his grandmother Pearl (Pat Evison) in Melbourne. She earns her keep working in the boxoffice of a theater, and Steven spends most of his time with her at the theater. For the most part, he has delightful encounters with the actors and theater workers, but the theater owner is a charmless and mean old fellow who only very reluctantly allows him on the premises. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat Evison, Max Phipps, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this stylish and smart 1988 thriller, reporter Tom Stewart accidentally falls on the wrong side (not that he's ever on the right side) of the law during a psychotic killer's spree of murders. Stewart's no angel having already stolen money from a car wreck. At the center of the killings is Morris Martin, a schoolteacher on a rampage supposedly searching for his "dead" wife. As Martin's killings become progressively more violent and heat from the police increases, Stewart is forced to hunt Martin down himself, teaming up with crooked cop Ray Birch to do so. Stewart and Birch eventually corner Martin, but have no idea the mystery they'll uncover when they find him. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Friels, John Waters, (more)
- 1988
- R
You don't become a playwright, at least a successful one, without having more than your share of sensitivities. In fact, a goodly proportion of the artists in present-day L.A. are too sensitive for their own good, which causes no end of problems. For Tom, an Australian-born playwright who has "made good" in la-la-land, his success has resulted in serious strains in his relationship with his wife and daughter back in Melbourne, and with himself -- strains which he eases with a succession of mood-altering pills. When a fresh young actress in one of his productions falls for him, he is so emotionally battered that he finds her attentions confusing and unsettling. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Waters, Penelope Stewart, (more)
- 1987
A trio living in a seedy waterfront dive struggle to survive poverty and alienation in this low-budget drama. Gail (Sally McKenzie) works in a shoe factory and lives with Sid (Paul Chubb), a petty thief with a penchant for stolen electrical goods. Their neighbor Wallace (Kim Gyngell) is a cab driver who revels in making apple cider. He later tapes the conversations of his passengers, entertaining himself at home with the playbacks. Wallace is moved by the story of a passenger who tells her sad story of her childhood and being sold into prostitution by her father. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Gyngell, Paul Chubb, (more)
- 1987
Dot Bloom (Lyn Pierse) is a 32-year-old Jewish woman who contemplates whether she should choose a man to settle down with in this light romantic comedy. She aspires to be a serious writer while making a living writing for a popular soap opera. With her politically active mother off helping the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Dot's Aunt Esther (Ruth Yaffe) looks out for her favorite niece. She turns down her suggestion to date a gynecologist and hooks up with the boring, divorced attorney Karl (Kim Gyngell), an old college friend. Alistair (Bruce Spence) is a charming but shy computer devotee who asks her for a date via cyberspace, but she neglects to read her E-mail. Dot goes through a number of comedic circumstances as she experiences the unpredictability of the dating game. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynn Pierse, Kim Gyngell, (more)
- 1987
Christmas Visitor is an American/Australian coproduction geared for exposure on the Disney Channel pay-cable service. The scene is the Australian outback in the 1890s, where a drought threatens to wipe out a farming community. Holding out for a miracle, the farmers face a bleak Yuletide, until an ethereal stranger pays a visit. Christmas Visitor was directed by the "other" George Miller -- that is, the George Miller responsible for Man From Snowy River rather than Mad Max. In Australia, the film was telecast under the title Bushfire Moon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dee Wallace, John Waters, (more)
- 1987
- R
Ground Zero details a governmental cover-up as seen through the eyes of commercial photographer Colin Friels. Tipped off to the possibility that the death of his father was tied in with radioactive contamination, Friels runs into several official brick walls as he presses his investigation. At the root of everything is a hush-hush nuclear radiation test, conducted in Australia in the mid-1950s. With the help of a slightly-addled survivor (Donald Pleasence) of those tests, Friels uncovers the truth. Ground Zero was inspired by the real-life nuclear testings at Maralinga. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Friels, Jack Thompson, (more)
- 1986
Laura Branigan stars as Kate Lawrence in this insipid and cliche-ridden romantic comedy. Kate is a singer who longs to be taken seriously as an actress. Despite the misgivings of her agent, she flies to Melbourne to read for a part in a play. Kate gets the part but is grilled by film critic Robert Landau (Michael Aitkens) at a press conference. Hate for Robert turns to love until he writes an unflattering review of her performance in the play. When Kate lands a job in a Broadway play, she leaves Australia hoping never to see Robert again. He hops a plane to New York to surprise her after her performance, waiting backstage to announce his love for her. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Branigan, Michael Aitkens, (more)
- 1985
Cashing in on the release of Burke and Wills, this undistinguished comedy by Bob Weiss tries to turn the tragic crossing of Australia's desert in 1860 into fodder for humor, but it is tasteless fodder in the end. Robert O'Hara Burke (Gary McDonald) and William John Wills (Kim Gyngell) set out from Melbourne with a large caravan of supplies and people, intending to reach the northern coast and the Gulf of Carpenteria. Out of the 19 men who started the trek, only one returned alive. There are a few good performances delineating minor characters in this ostensibly dark comedy. One notable feature of the film is that a young Nicole Kidman plays Julia Matthews, a Melbourne singer who had a long affair with Burke. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Garry McDonald, Kim Gyngell, (more)
- 1980
- R
The Chain Reaction is an Australian-made drama about a nuclear accident and its effect on the workers of the plant. Oates (Patrick Ward) knows of the accident and the eventual effects it will have on the workers and the surrounding community, and he tries to tell them but the owners of the reactor try to have him eliminated before he can do so. The cast includes Mel Gibson in an uncredited role as a mechanic. Also released as Nuclear Run, this thriller, with an intelligent script by Ian Barry, is worth a view. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
