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H231 Australian Cinema: Critical Review
Tutor: Sharon Delmege
Michelle Gardner

Film Credits
Cast:
Shaun – Kane McNay
Jen – Nell Feeney
Darren – Brett Tucker
Sam – Brett Swain
Tanya – Maxie Rickard
Joanne – Sarah Naumoff

Credits:
Director: Vincent Giarrusso
Writer: Vincent Giarrusso
Producer: Fiona Eagger
Sound Design: Phillip Brophy
Music: Glenn Bennie and Vincent Giarrusso

Mallboy was released by Twenty 20 Productions, in association with the Australian Film Commission in January of 2000. Despite this release date, box office figures are unavailable.

Bibliography:
Giarrusso, Vince et al (2000) Mallboy Australian Film Commission and Twenty 20 Productions.
Cinesonic Journal (2000) Cinesonic: Experiencing the Soundtrack Mallboy: Fiona Eagger, Vincent Giarrusso and Philip Brophy in Conversation, Cinesonic Publications.
Hawker, Philippa (2001) The Age Newspaper Review: Mallboy, Thursday 25 January, theage.com.au.
Wilson, Jake (2001) Senses Of Cinema: An Online Journal www.senseofcinema.com/contents/01/12/mallboy.html, Jake Wilson Copy Write.
Spencer, Megan (2000) Triple J Review: Mallboy, abc.net.au/triplej/reviews.
Media Release (1999) Australian Film Commission Announces Fourth Million Dollar Movie www.afc.gov.au/news/media/medrel/1jul99.html, July 1st.
· O'Regan, Tom (1998) Beyond Australian film? Australian cinema in the 1990's www.mcc.murdoch.edu.au/readingroom/film.

Online Presence:
In the case of Mallboy, the online resources were probably the most fruitful search available. Print and radio reviews, in addition to many interviews with key people, were easiest to find on the net, offering a comprehensive back catalogue. Because it was a comparatively small Australian film, literature in "hard copy" for it was sparse, with only a few interviews and clippings available. The Internet made available often obscure releases and had accessible reviews that were used in the following essay. Perhaps the only withdrawal was that the web literature in general was sometimes repetitive and often left holes in the information blanket. Information such as box office figures were strangely unavailable for this film online (and offline), and hence, this information had to be left out.
Collection of Information:
My initial search within journals and newspapers bore little fruit, with only a few journals covering Mallboy and newspapers difficult to locate. I soon discovered it was easier to consult the newspapers website, and then search their digital database. Much of the information I collected was from the Internet, with many journals also having online alternatives. I searched different word combinations, including "Mallboy Film Review" and "Mallboy Media Releases", to gain greater information coverage. After time, however, you start finding the same options and similar sites, which limits your search options.

Critical Review

At first glance the film Mallboy could be seen as more of the same. The gritty realist film set somewhere in Australian suburbia had already been done long before Mallboy was made. On the surface, the events that mark climatic points in the film seem merely domestic, not important enough to become pivotal to the somewhat sparse plot. Yet the reality of the film itself brings tension, and the characters interactions can make you want to scream. And despite the films initial "plainness", the film unfolds with a surprising complexity, forcing the audience to consider the complexity of the film.
The opening scene is important in this film, setting a tone and suggesting what is to come. We see a framed shot of an escalator in a mall, a mall we come to know almost intimately through the movie. Amid the people walking in front and down the other side of the escalator, we see a lone figure in his early teens making the slow journey upwards. This is Shaun (Kane McNay), the character who becomes a kind of watcher for us, allowing us to see the coming events through his senses. One of the first things we notice in this shot is his expression: completely deadpan to the point of no emotional reaction. We come to find out that this is a trademark of his, dulling almost all of what would otherwise be frustrating of painful experiences to him.
After being introduced to Shaun, the mall and the three friends he hangs around with at the mall, we meet his family, a set of classically awful women, who shout, smoke and drink through the majority of their day. Yet we find it hard to just categorise them as a single, lower class cultural stereotype. Jake Wilson, a writer for the journal Senses Of Cinema says, "…we are not detached enough from them to feel comfortably superior."[1] Shaun's mum, Jen (Nell Feeney), is a particularly vivid character, swinging "…unpredictably between snappish burnout and little girl fragility." This is perfectly exemplified in her first ugly scenes as she drunkenly yells to Shaun to clean "…the shit in the lounge room…", and then later apologises, all her previous anger forgotten.
And it is in Shaun's home where we meet Darren, a relatively uncool social worker who wants to convince Shaun to live in a unit away from his family. Darren's uninvited entrance into the house, and the family's flat denial of knowledge of Shaun's whereabouts adds further tension to the story.
"Have you seen Shaun?"
"I just told ya. Nah."
From his very first scene, Darren is portrayed as a bit of a dag, yet he represents an avenue that would lead Shaun away from his family and potentially to a better life. It is this avenue that Shaun is afraid of and the rest of his family wants nothing to do with.
And so our view of the story unfolds – through Shaun's eyes – as we begin to understand the nature of his life. He dodges school to go to the mall with his friends, sells and smokes pot and hides from his youth worker, Darren. His world is small, covering only as far as he can walk within the sprawling "burbs". Triple J's Megan Spencer, who reviewed the film when it came out, wrote
"…Mallboy's physical setting is the land of frayed nature-strips and housing commission houses which dominate this part of the Melbourne landscape."[2]
In contrast to other Australian films of the 90's that attempt an international appeal this film makes no such pretence. The film is unashamedly Melbourne in it's setting, filmed as the landscape is in reality, from the Northland Shopping Mall to the Darebin Creek he crosses on his way home. This life that is Shaun's way of surviving, is changed over the course of the three days that the film is set. The Age reviewed the film when it became available for general release, and author Phillippa Hawker stated that we were limited, "…to some degree by the extent of Shaun's understanding of the world"[3]. Yet it is only through his eyes that we realise the significance of the events, not only in general, but more importantly, to Shaun.
The film really kicks off when Jen requests that Shaun's father, Sam (Brett Swain) comes home for a welcoming because the kids are "dying to see their old man again". Sam has recently been released from prison and is living with his girlfriend nearby. Jen organises a party, inviting friends and family to a gathering that seems to be proceeding with drug-induced success until Sam arrives…with his girlfriend[4]. Sam's comment of "That's enough Jen" and her reply, of, "How the fuck would you know what is enough?" suggests a deeper tension than merely the presence of his girlfriend, Pamela. Stubbornly oblivious to the noticeable upset of Jen, Sam's arrival chain starts a series of events that ends the party in disaster.
There is a fantastic scene at the party where Jen begins an apparent "high school reunion" dance to a Suzi Quatro song, "Can The Can". Described by Jake Wilson as a "celebration of bogan culture,"[5] the song is – as Shaun comments to his friends – "The same lame dance she does every party". The suggestion here (rather than her being an obsessive fan of 70's female power rock) is that Jen is not having fun, rather she is going through the motions of fun.
This pre-empting is later reinforced when the tension between Jen and Pam is recognised in a catfight, one that goes on and on and we are forced to watch with disturbing interest until eventually Sam half-heartedly stops them. The evening is further soured when one of Shaun's friends, who had just helped Jen drunkenly get up and over to the couch, is discovered kissing the woman who literally could be his mother. Here again, no-one does anything about it until Shaun comes to discover them. Things appear to be getting out of control and Shaun finds he has very little power to change them.
Events are climaxing, and the mall is no longer the haven it once was for Shaun. He returns to it, only to find his friend and punch him for getting with his mum. His sort-of girlfriend, Sue, runs after him, asking, "What the fuck do you want from me?" His answer, "Nothing, nothing from you", shows how abruptly he has cut his ties. He's deadpan, and he pretends he doesn't feel the emotion behind the exchange, as their break-up signifies he's leaving their group and what they stands for.
In the next scene, we see him running, ostensibly to escape the mall, his friends and Darren who has also spotted him. Yet additionally, the imagery is used to suggest he is running from is life, attempting to find an alternative to the situation he finds himself in. Yet it appears his running is never fast enough – despite the recurring wide shots that show he is actually travelling quite quickly – nor can it get him far enough away from the small world he knows.
From the mall, he runs to his dad's, seeking a support and steadiness that his mother is unable to give him. Both Shaun and Jen have, for different reasons, sought a strength from Sam, effectively needing him to be a better man than he is. On Shaun's arrival, he witnesses his dad strike the woman he supposedly loves, and soon after realises Sam is heavily involved in petty crime. From his father's point of view, he doesn't know how to deal with a son he barely knows, and gives him money, telling Shaun, "don't come round here no more."
On Shaun's return to Jen's house, we are made to understand that this rejection is the one incident he lets break through the barrier of indifference and we see him cry, a vast difference to his normal un-emotion. In a movie where so many of the characters spend their time dulling and ignoring their emotions, it is ironic that the incident where Shaun let's his emotions show results from a man who's hardly even been part of his life and was described by one of his mothers friends as a "fucking cunt." But while we, the viewers can see that his father is a bad man, Sam has been the only man Shaun has been able to look up to. His frequent absences meant that both he and his mum could pretend that Sam was the man they wanted him to be. As a result, Sam's rejection of Shaun is a shattering of probably the last illusion Shaun had left. He cries in the comfort of his mother, arguably the one intimate scene in the whole movie, of the two characters who genuinely love each other, even though this love hurts them.
The moment is cut short when Shaun's pregnant sister experiences severe contractions and needs to be taken to the hospital immediately. Despite this scenes relative seriousness, it's also damn funny, as this disaster of a family manage to muddle their way to the hospital. One daughter informs Jen that the other started getting contractions last night during Sale of the Century, while Jen's sister asks if anyone called the hospital. The following dialogue –
"What for?
"To tell them we were coming."
"Well, I can't think of everything."
- is classic, showing how even in this time of emergency, this family still show a brilliant lack of communication. It also reminds us that despite the "heavy" issues this film covers, there's also a lot of humour in it that makes us laugh at the "humanness" of these characters. We aren't particularly separate from them because we can identify with their experiences. In the Australian Film Commission media release for this film, it stated
"Mallboy will be a film…with a subversive sense of humour akin to the US animation programs South Park and The Simpson's,"[6]
yet it fails to achieve the one-liners or bizarre situations that these shows attempt to perfect. In this scene, which exemplifies the humour within the film, it is more about the characters themselves, a dark humour showing their interactions.
The final events – occurring shortly after the pregnancy scenes – relate to Shaun's journey to the unit Darren wants him to stay at. He and his mother make this final journey together, walking the many blocks to the unit.
"How much further, Shaunie?"
"I thought you knew where to go."
"It's your fucking unit…have you got a ciggie?"
Their eventual arrival appears to be further away from Jen's house than we've seen before, the physical distance reinforcing Shaun's departure from the world he knows. Shaun knows that he'll have to leave his mother, the person who has always relied on him to look after her, and alter the way he lives his life. He is to be left at a place where he has no friends or family, although by this stage, he knows that offers him very little to go back for. This unit, despite being a place Shaun has feared and refused to return to, is situated within the plot as Shaun's only hope from turning out like his dad. He loves his mum, but knows also that staying with her risks his own wellbeing. Jen knows this also, and eventually accepts a cup of coffee off one of the helpers at the unit. Shaun, too, in this final scene, smiles tentatively at the innocent prospect of go-cart racing with the others at the unit, and we are left with the hope that Shaun's life will finally begin to improve.
A last vital aspect of this film is the soundtrack. Much of the sounds within the film are nothing more than natural ambience. The mall sounds like a mall should, and any sound effects used are minimal. Vince Giarrusso – writer and director of Mallboy – is a founding member of long-playing Melbourne band The Underground Lovers, so music obviously plays a fundamental role in his life, and as a result, in the movie. In an interview concerning the film, Giarrusso stated,
"I hear melodies all the time. When I was writing the script for Mallboy, there were certain recurring melodies that would play in my head….The music for Mallboy was composed by Glen Bennie (another primary UL member) and me in the same way we compose music for our records."[7]
In addition to the Suzi Quatro song already discussed, the majority of the music is composed of Underground Lovers songs, a style that suites this film perfectly. However, the music also plays a more subtle role within this film. Shaun's life of the mall, his family, his friends is portrayed almost as a beat running through his daily circuit. Much of Shaun's experiences are also portrayed in a dreamy half reality that only works because of the music within these scenes. The soundtrack as a whole is so effective because of it's simplicity, using realistic sounds to reinforce the reality of the plot.
The choice of Kane McNay to play Shaun within this film is a choice to be commended. Jake Wilson writes,
"If he wasn't already well-known for his role in the TV series Seachange, you might assume that Giarrusso had pulled him off the street in the traditional neo-realist manner: you can spot kids like Shaun in any shopping centre in Melbourne, wearing the same Nike and Adidas gear and practiced vacant look."[8]
His character in Seachange – the work he was known for before this film – was Rupert, a young, relatively good-natured teenager. In this film, we see McNay take up the challenge and arguably succeed in a much more demanding role as the lead. This film showcases the flexibility of McNay as an actor, his character hitting off Nell Feeney's character superbly.
The film Mallboy holds many different experiences for people. Set in suburban Melbourne – although potentially this could be any mall – Mallboy speaks the language of reality for these teenagers. In it's attempt to capture this small, claustrophobic world through the eyes of Shaun, it results in a sometimes vivid, sometimes frustrating series of events. On the surface, these appear purely as a "day in the life" cut of these people, yet underlying this is a whole complexity of emotions, emotions that we share as we are drawn into their world. Created primarily for the mid-sized English language cinema of Australian screens, Mallboy could be considered as only attempting to sell to an Australian audience. Yet this film has had successes overseas, because the issues are so universal, even though the setting is not, and it is these themes that speak through to the audience.

[1] Wilson, Jake (2001) Senses Of Cinema: An Online Journal www.senseofcinema.com/contents/01/12/mallboy.html, Jake Wilson Copy Write.
[2]Spencer, Megan (2000) Triple J Review: Mallboy, abc.net.au/triplej/reviews.
[3]Hawker, Philippa (2001) The Age Newspaper Review: Mallboy, Thursday 25 January, theage.com.au.
[4] What a dickhead.
[5] Wilson, Jake (2001) Senses Of Cinema: An Online Journal www.senseofcinema.com/contents/01/12/mallboy.html, Jake Wilson Copy Write.
[6] Media Release (1999) Australian Film Commission Announces Fourth Million Dollar Movie www.afc.gov.au/news/media/medrel/1jul99.html, July 1st.
[7] Cinesonic Journal (2000) Cinesonic: Experiencing the Soundtrack Mallboy: Fiona Eagger, Vincent Giarrusso and Philip Brophy in Conversation, Cinesonic Publications.
[8] Wilson, Jake (2001) Senses Of Cinema: An Online Journal www.senseofcinema.com/contents/01/12/mallboy.html, Jake Wilson Copy Write. Sorry for the long quote.