It's the same sort of unbearable, wretched character treatment as Muriel's Wedding and The Castle, although its principal character never achieves the same balance of being despicable and pathetic. Instead, it's difficult to decide which he should be. That is a predicament that doesn't get any help from the narrative structure of the film, which is overly long, staid, and conspicuously circular at times. The ending is somewhat flat, although it does suggest an inflection of romantic sadness that the misguided Joey seemed chronically unable to fathom throughout the rest of the film.
However, the film makes master use of the seemingly typical Australian film talent of finding the hypocrisies and shortcomings that make everyone human (as opposed to those that make people bad) and skewering them without any mercy. It exploits its flawed characters and is always laughing at them, no matter how seriously they're supposed to be taken. I usually find something of remarkable quality in most of the Australian cinema I see, although it inevitably causes me to groan and frown in a sense of uncomfortable embarrassment for the tragically bumbling characters and how the film's mean-spirited omniscience is roasting them alive.
However, the film makes master use of the seemingly typical Australian film talent of finding the hypocrisies and shortcomings that make everyone human (as opposed to those that make people bad) and skewering them without any mercy. It exploits its flawed characters and is always laughing at them, no matter how seriously they're supposed to be taken. I usually find something of remarkable quality in most of the Australian cinema I see, although it inevitably causes me to groan and frown in a sense of uncomfortable embarrassment for the tragically bumbling characters and how the film's mean-spirited omniscience is roasting them alive.
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