Review of The Boys Are Back (2009) by Neonite — 14 Jun 2011

I was really looking forward to this movie. I thought it would be a refreshingly intelligent, progressive and emotionally real depiction of single fatherhood. It was almost. I think unfortunately the Australian film industry gets in the way of itself in terms of a genuine, un-cliched human story.

The kind of human realism and emotional depth required to really engage the viewer tend to be outshone by the persistent pandering to our own cliched ideals about men, women and the picturesque landscapes we inhabit.

I guess the AF industry isn't big or mature enough yet to include those self-obsessed 'Aussie culture' films - with a whole bunch of other movies that transcend them emotionally and conceptually, and really speak to people as a whole [including Australians].

Although this movie is really quite beautifully produced and includes an evocative soundtrack that communicates much of the emotion, the great moments are still weighed down by almost embarrassing unsophistication in terms of male-female relationships and confused gender hostility typically found in Australian movies.

Apparently we don't understand love, we don't like real human connections, in fact we don't like men and women appearing to get along or relate whatsoever. We like them to be angry aliens on each other's planet.

Otherwise it interfers with our entrenched lazy ideals about who we are and who we are not, that save us from any real emotional development that might one day be reflected in our films and put us on par with other countries.

The movie starts with a gratingly ridiculous and base couple banter, followed by a very moving and well edited treatment of death in a family, and yet the movie innapropriately raps up with a faintly victorious declaration that the three 'boys' have managed to succeed in living without women, including their recently dead one.

Although based on a memoir, this is still a story snapped up wittingly or otherwise for being about a loveable incompetent male and the irritating competent females who orbit around him, and they all don't get each other and they all fight a lot and yet utterly accept it as their natural lot in life.

Yaaaawn. And in true urban spirit, they'll all live self-righteously ever after.