Richard Moir Movies

In part, filmmaker Stephan Elliott (best known for The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert) made this black, surrealistic and subversive comedy to bid farewell to Australian cultural traditions (i.e. excessive beer drinking, racism and sexism) that are rapidly disappearing due to the increasing infiltration of urban sophistication and political correctness into even the county's most remote regions. Unfortunately, Elliot's outrageous tribute to past 'traditions' is presented with such vulgar abandon that many Australians are sure to be offended, not tickled, even though Elliot did try to tone down the mean spirit of the original script which was first titled 'Big Red.' The story centers on Teddy, a fugitive con-artist who has fled New York and gone into the Australian outback. His troubles begin when he is picked up at a lonely gas station by the blonde and brassy Angie who quickly seduces him and then knocks him out cold. Teddy awakens to find himself in the dusty town of Woop Woop. Surrounded by steep cliffs, the town, which was built near a now-defunct asbestos mine, is ruled by Angie's father Daddy-O, who is as much a warden as he is a local leader, deciding when and who will enter and leave Woop Woop. A weird place that is supported by a kangaroo-meat dog-food factory, it is populated by beer-swilling rednecks, crude eccentrics (and a giant kangaroo named Big Red) who find endless entertainment listening to Oscar & Hammerstein musicals (the town's ramshackle drive-in runs The Sound of Music and South Pacific continuously). Teddy quickly discovers that he is in effect the burg's newest prisoner and is expected to constantly service the sexually insatiable Angie. Not willing to remain a captive, Teddy begins planning his escape. The story's surrealism comes from Elliot's deliberately inappropriate use of musical numbers to punctuate events. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Isabelle Eberhardt dramatizes the tragic true story of the iconoclastic Swiss-born writer, who gained notoriety for both her lifestyle and her work in North Africa at the turn of the twentieth century. Eberhardt (Mathilda May) began dressing as a man and converted to Islam in her teens. As the film opens, she returns from the African desert to tend to her ailing father in Geneva. After his death, the wife of the Marquis de Mores summons her to Paris. The Marquis has gone missing in North Africa, because of Eberhardt's familiarity with the region, his wife pays her to go and track her husband down. Eberhardt settles in Algiers, where, hindered by the French authorities, she quickly gives up the search for de Mores, assuming that he's dead. She stays in North Africa, journeys frequently into the desert, and writes about her experiences for publisher Victor Barrucand (Claude Villers). The hard drinking Eberhardt meets Slimene (Tcheky Karyo of The Patriot), a Foreign Legion soldier, and falls in love with him. Through him, she makes contact with the secretive Sufi brotherhood of Qadriya. As she witnesses the abuses of the French colonists, her writings grow more political in nature and she starts to get more attention. One French military officer, Comte (Richard Moire) imprisons and abuses her. When an Arab swordsman viciously attacks her, Eberhardt holds Comte responsible. He eventually arranges for her deportation. But the resilient Eberhardt returns to North Africa, against Slimene's wishes. There, another French officer, Major Lyautey (Peter O'Toole) befriends her. He seems a decent man, but when he asks her to report to him on Arab groups hostile to the French, she wrestles with her conscience. Australian director Ian Pringle would later go on to produce Romper Stomper, starring Russell Crowe. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Wendy Hughes plays a gorgeous nurse tending to emotionally disturbed Australian soldiers during WWII. Private Gary Sweet seems to be the most well-adjusted of the patients, which Hughes finds attractive. The fly in the ointment is jealous, maladjusted-patient Richard Moir. His campaign of cruelty, calculated to humiliate and unhinge Sweet, serves only to draw Sweet closer to Hughes. His own love for Hughes unrequited, Moir kills himself. Hughes is then abruptly deserted by Sweet, who feels responsible for Moir's death. Despite all her good intentions and her heartfelt compassion, Hughes is left alone upon war's end. Indecent Obsession is based on a work by popular Australian novelist Colleen McCullough (Tim, The Thorn Birds). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heatwave is the mildly interesting story of a woman's attempt to stop a redevelopment plot which she thought was the cover-up for fraud and other criminal activity. Kate (Judy Davis), through her own efforts, manages to find some evidence to support her claims and also have a romance. Davis gives an energetic performance as the crusading woman, but the script lacks a convincing plot or characters. While it has some good moments, Heatwave is primarily notable because it was one of the earlier efforts of Australian director Phillip Noyce, who went on to make the very exciting Dead Calm. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Set among denizens of the film business, this story chronicles the move back to Australia from London by a couple of ambitious career-folk; photographer/cameraman Will Daniels (Richard Mohr) and his girlfriend Josephine (Sue Smithers), a script-reader. They have all sorts of notions about films as high-art, and they show nothing but scorn for "sold-out commercial film directors." They put their principles into action by filming their own sincere little art-film, "I Ching on a Double Bed," in their flat. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Mike (Terry Serio) is an attractive, sexually appealing factory worker and Fox (Richard Moir) is his racing nemesis. Both are after the same woman, Julie (Debbie Conway), dueling it out on the road and in personal encounters. Julie and Mike (whom she favors) go to an odd blind man named Rebel to get some help in winning the races -- blind or not, he still seems to know the most about cars -- and maybe he will make the difference in the competition with Fox. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In The Odd Angry Shot director Tom Jeffrey provides a cathartic Australian answer to Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter. Australia's participation in the Vietnam War was as much of an alienating and soul-searching experience for Australians as for Americans, and Jeffrey's frank portrayal of a group of Australian volunteers casts the war in a different light from the perspective of a Cimino or Oliver Stone. The story concerns a corp of Australian elite soldiers -- the Special Air Service troops (the equivalent of the United States' Special Forces group) -- and the elite group's more pragmatic and hopeful attitudes -- whiling away the time in mindless diversions and cracking jokes. Then one of their own is killed and their feelings about the war suddenly change. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this Australian drama, an alcoholic becomes so desperate to dry out that he voluntarily checks himself into a mental ward. Things get sticky when he has trouble getting along with one of his male nurses and ends up being held there against his will for being "uncooperative." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide