LOVE AND OTHER CATASTROPHES
A film review by Peer Wandel Hansen
Copyright 1997 Peer Wandel Hansen
Rating (0-10) 8.5
Directed by Emma-Kate Croghan Written by Helen Bandis, Yael Bergman, Emma-Kate Croghan Cast: Alice Garner, Frances O'Conner, Matthew Day, Matthew Dyktynski, Radha Mitchell, Kym Gyngell and others Cinematography by Justin Brickle Running Time 82 minutes
This campus-story is situated around Melbourne University with a setting of confused students and their problems with school, sex, money and drugs. It is difficult to outline a plot but it all fit together, nice and easy. It is a fresh movie with an unknown but very talented cast. The atmosphere is sort of a mix between 'Trainspotting' (especially in the beginning) and 'Reality Bites'.
Michael (Matthew Day), a shy medical student, has difficulty getting along with his room-mates, they seem to party and smoking dope round the clock. Finally one morning he has had it with them, while Michael is brushing his teeth a guy rushes into the bathroom and vomit in the wash basin. Michael goes househunting for a room but no one seems interested to share their flat with a med. student. At the same time Alice (Alice Garner) and Mia (Frances O'Conner) is looking for a new room mate to their three-room apartment. Mia doesn't want her girlfriend Danni (Radha Mitchell) to have the vacant room, she has other plans with her professor Leach (Kym Gyngell). Michael learn about the vacant room from Ari (Matthew Dyktynski), a fellow student, part-time gigolo and a friend of Mia. During his inter- view for the apartment, Danni find she is not moving in with Mia and find another lover.
Alice has problems of her own. Her thesis on Doris Day as a feminist Warrior is long time overdue and she is always on the run from her guidance counsellor who want to see some results. She is also looking for a boyfriend but her standards is a bit high, she has not had any luck in three years. Ari seems to fit her demands but he can't quite comply to the honesty part, his part-time gigolo job is in the way and he is not that interested in Alice.
Mia decides to change department at the University, it is too painful to have professor Leach as a counsellor. He is oppose to the plan and Alice must fight the bureaucracy which is complicated by the sudden death of the doughnut-addicted Leach. By the help of Alice and Ari they break in to the late professor Leachs office and stamp the transfer form.
At the end Alice and Mia is throwing a big party. All the girls are attracted to Ari, Michael on the other hand feels like the odd man out and find refuge at the bathroom. At the end Alice meet Michael and she realise that he is the one. Mia confide to Danni that their breakup was a mistake and ask her to move in.
I found Love And Other Catastrophes both refreshing and fun. The cast are brilliant and director Emma-Kate Croghan manages to control all the sub-stories with a steady hand in this day-in-the-university-life story. The cast are unknown here in europe except for Matthew Day (Muriel's Wedding). My favourite is Mia as the self-centred lesbian with a crush on her mentor and is always getting into hopeless situations.
The movie is apparently made for only $50,000 and shot in two weeks, a masterpiece in my mind. It is a pity that it has not received a wider audience. In Denmark it has only been shown at the NatFilFestival a total of 6 times and is not planned for further distribution.
Peer Wandel Hansen - Copenhagen, Denmark
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