Pop Culture #628
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Pop Culture #628

As 2015 draws to a close and the articles start popping up claiming that it’s been a bumper year for Australian film, one question remains: why are Australian comedy films so lame? And it has been a big year at the box office for Australian film, especially if you’re willing to stretch the definition of “Australian” just a little: Max Max: Fury Road was filmed in Africa with overseas actors in the leads, but thanks to the production side of things being based in Australia and Australian film it is, while at least with The Dressmaker there was just one overseas star (Kate Winslet) in the lead. And penguin-protecting dog movie Oddball was an all-local production right down to the Warrnambool locations. And while overseas films still raked in pretty much all the money from Australian cinemas – and that’s even before Star Wars comes out today and turns every cinema in the land into some kind of vortex pulling all the money from your pockets – those three hits (plus a handful of well-performing arthouse efforts like Holding the Man) have been enough to turn around years of grim foreboding about the future of the Australian film industry. But still, there is one hefty dark cloud on the scene: where are all the decent comedies? Once upon a time, which would be every single time Australian film has gone through a healthy patch, it’s been comedy that’s been leading the way. That’s because comedy has two elements that are very handy indeed when it comes to making money from an Australian film: they’re cheap, and they don’t face much competition from overseas.
Sure, we get plenty of comedy films from the US (the UK, not so much), but they’re usually big, loud things with big stars. Traditionally Australian comedy films have done well without stars and without big scenes just so long as they connect with Australians – think The Castle, or Crackerjack, or Kenny, or even Muriel’s Wedding. This year saw four Australian comedy films (The Dressmaker, Manny Lewis, Now Add Honey and the Lawrence Leuing- scripted, quasi-autobiographical, limited-run effort Sucker) which is a pretty good number considering the genre’s been considered toxic since the boom in the early ’00s. Of these, The Dressmaker is the least “comedy” – it’s more like part of the quirky tradition going back to films like Priscilla, which probably explains both the lavish costuming and the big box office. It’s also the least viable model moving forward, as fancy duds and overseas stars aren’t cheap, let alone a guarantee of success as the numerous flops fronted by biggish names have shown. Sucker isn’t much of a laugh-getter either, being more of a coming-of-age tale involving a con-artist – it’s the kind of film that’s so lightweight you’d wonder why you had to leave the house to see it, which is why it’s only getting a short run before going direct to DVD. That just leaves the other two, which are both traditional Aussie comedies – one based around a successful stand-up, the other from a tried and tested television team branching out.
Unfortunately, neither were much good. But unless we keep plugging away making these kind of films – the ones everyone rolls their eyes at because they’re not as flashy or cool as the rest – Australian film is going to end up redefined as “any American film with an Australian in it”.
Written by Anthony Morris