With so many Australian film makers getting their starts and making ends meet through producing 30 second commercials, it is probably not surprising that need to deliver a lot of message in a short space of time is going to spill over into our films.
Jonathan Teplitzky’s Burning Man not only does that with a rapid editing style but it also adds the fractured or non linear narrative approach that gave this reviewer, at least, that same sense he had when watching last year’s hype, Inception.
Set in Bondi, Burning Man is the tale of Tom (Matthew Goode), a British chef who responds to the loss of his wife, Sarah (Bojana Novakovic) to cancer with a recklessness that threatens everything else he still retains, including the relationship with his son, Oscar (Jack Heanly).
The film is also stylized with fulsome references to life’s essentials – sex, food, water, fire – including some opening scenes (one a car crash, the other with a prostitute) that will linger in your memory for some time. Those into titillation will not be disappointed.
In his interview with Kryztoff (Kryztoff Interview with Burning Man director and writer Jonathan Teplitzky) Teplitzky explains that the editing and fractured narrative style was a texture chosen to highlight the turmoil in which Tom has found his life. On that score, it works terrifically well. The risk rests with the potential trade off of degrading the audience’s ability to establish and maintain the desired levels of sympathy and emotion with the players. On that count, its results are somewhat more ambiguous.
But to be sure, this is bold Australian film making. The drama is laced with good humour and some beautiful imagery. Goode is good (though his constantly clean shaven appearance deprecated from his role of a man who operated non-stop through the night). Novakovic gives a very affecting performance while Essie Davis (Karen) and Rachel Griffiths (Miriam) do well to hold Tom and the film together. Heanly showed his performance in Animal Kingdom was no fluke.
The cinematography by Garry Phillips and music by Lisa Gerrard are also highlights.
Another strong and enjoyable film in an increasingly long line of excellent Australian films of the past few years. Go see it, but beware, be ready and a micro nap could kill the story for you in seconds.
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