Review of Suburban Mayhem (2006) by Jim C — 06 Jun 2007

Another crappy Aussie movie. What the hell's up with the Australian film industry these days? Can't you guys make anything decent (not that Hollywood is perfect, mind you).

Anyway, this film tells the story of Katrina Skinner, a 19 year-old girl with a baby, a brother in jail for murder, no mother and a dad that's desperately trying to control her. But Katrina is all about sex, stealing, drugs and mayhem. And that's where this movie fails. It's actually put together pretty well, but the protagonist is someone that we simply can't care about. We can't even care enough about her to like her as an anti-hero. She's just a spoiled bitch that will do whatever she has to to get what she wants. And what she wants is her father dead so that she can use her inheritance for her brother's appeal. So she talks a dim-witted boyfriend into doing the deed. Nice girl, no?

This movie is trash, but, as I said, it's pretty well done. Imagine a lower-case Spike Jonze making a "loving portrait" of Aileen Wuornos and you'll get the idea.