Reviews (19)

Adorable, light hearted comedy
A day in the life of five Austrailian college students, each plowing through parts of their lives. This is a short movie and very light -- nothing deep to digest. Radha Mitchell, from High Art (another wonderful film!!) plays Danni, and since she is one of my favourites, I couldn't miss it. I highly recommend this film to anyone that wants to smile at the misadventures or quirks of early twentysomething life.

quirky quirky, funny funny
this is one of the few successful attempts at trying to capture the vitality, the heart-break, the ecstacy and the madness of college life and campus romances. this is about the desperate and hurried search of adolescents, on the brink of adulthood, for meaningful romances and fulfilling careers. the terrible reality of their tribulations and the utter pettiness of their failures, the monstrosities of their triumphs and the fleetingness of their celebrations.

debutante director emma kate croghan captures all this beautifully in putting together a few days in the lives of group of friends. the shoe-string budget of $37,000, provides for the warmth and credibility of the characters and their situations. clearly this is a movie that would have been a disaster with a million dollar budget.

the characters are portrayed extremely realistically by the fresh actors and each of the characters shines through with their ability to convey the humor of their plights.

all in all, a delightful movie that does not tax the viewer much, but takes one along for a voyeuristic look into campus lives. this might not be one of the three best movies of my life (watch the movie to understand the significance of top three movies) but it is one of the top 5 English language movies of the 90s, whose central theme is love.

5. chasing amy 4. as good as it gets 3. love and other catastrophes 2. before sunrise 1. high fidelity

a delightful 9 out of 10

college life made funny..................
the scenes where Frances O'Connor is walking back and forth across campus from department to department, trying to get her transfer slip signed by the appropriate people in the appropriate sequence is still so funny in it's realism i laugh every time. instead of gaining 10 pounds as a freshman i lost 30 because of all the leg-work college demands in their paper work.

add into the mix of this wonderfully enjoyable movie are the searches for true love (always good for a laugh), hiding from thesis supervisors, and trying to find suitable living conditions. Matt Day is great, as always, in his role as the campus geek who's got a crush on the coffee-shop girl, talking to himself in the mirror "be confident, i'm confident, i'm oozing confidence, confidence coming out of every pore...."

a great movie to watch with your old college buddies!

run of the mill
this movie is insubstantial. it knows its insubstantial. it tells a cliched story with characters who are all skin-deep portraits of college students. there is nothing wrong with any of this- as long as it's charming and witty in execution-- It's not.

Truth be told, there are enjoyable moments to be found. The directing isn't too choppy for an indie film made on a small budget in a week. And the acting is pretty dang good with three of the leads going on to be major stars (Frances O'Connor, Radha Mitchell, and Matthew Day). But this movie is just too uneven with scenes that go nowhere, comic situations that aren't funny, or moments of serendipity that ring plastic

It's no surprise that the director of this never went onto direct another movie.

The story is about a group of Australian college students who have trouble with love. There's a lesbian couple that's currently broken up. A girl who's in love with a gigolo. And a sensitive med student who's in love with that girl.

The ending is pretty illogical, with everything ending tidily even though most of it doesn't make sense.

The movie has its occasional charm. But this movie doesn't attempt to make any kind of statement, be it through making interesting characters or communicating some kind of message.

Rent it if you have to, but I would not waste my money on this.

Being a Film Student...
I am a film student in California and I completely identify with this Australian movie. The hilarious and bittersweet moments are well-told by the first-time writer and director and actors, especially Matt Day(Michael), Frances O'Connor(Mia) and Radha Mitchell(Dani). They all did an amazing job with the resources that they had for this independent film. I recommend this to anyone who is living through or have lived through college life. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good laugh, great soundtrack, well worth a look.
A film in the mould of "This Years Love" and "Peters Friends", Strange Planet follows the ups and downs in a year of the lives of six twentysomethings living in Sydney, Australia.

It is a film that delves into the insecurities, hopes and dreams of the young professional set. But it avoids the temptation to become maudlin and weepy, remaining upbeat at all times. One character, Ewan, collapses into depression, but after watching the movie Taxi Driver, assumes DeNiro's role with hilarious consequences.

In another potentially weepie moment one of the girls dumps her married boyfriend at a costume party where his dracula outfit is a perfect counterpoint to his hangdog expression as he gets the push.

The girls are all beautiful, the boys handsome but mildly pathetic, which is just about right for the movie. The characters are a little forced but they aren't overdone, so they work. We have a girl who is sleeping her way to a career, her slightly manic compulsive friend who can't get her life toghether after being dumped and their more frumpy but wild mad hatter alternative friend. Does that sound a bit like Rachel, Monica and Phoebe from friends?

The guys are a science freak who is desperate to be married, a workaholic lawyer who's girlfriend dumped him for another girl, and the disenchanted lawyer who becomes a taxi driver and novelist. There are bound to be similarities drawn between these and the characters in friends, but they are likely to be forced.

The end of the movie is rounded off nicely with a perfect conjunction of all the disparate elements and characters in a typical Austrialian beach celebration of the New Year.

Excellent, well worth a look. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Stays with you
This is one of those movies that stays with you and always reminds me of the universality of the human experience. I saw this movie many years ago and I never forgot it. Every now and then I still think about it. The story of a young man's self discovery and his experiences growing up in the church, leaving the church and losing the love of his life, against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis and the end of the world outlook of fundamentalist Christianity. I can relate to this all too well. I also could relate well to the overall British feel of the film, living in an ex-colony myself.

It intermingled humour with melancholy and its classification as a comedy surprised me. On the whole, I found it be nostalgic and sad - but I like that. The dialogue is witty and sharp, it has a lot of atmosphere, and the use of music is excellent - not the usual American 60's period pieces that are used in most films these days. "Fullness of form" - a line from the movie that always stays with me, even though I'm still trying to understand its profundity. Overall one of the best movies I've seen - haven't seen another like it since. Maybe I need to watch more Australian movies. Wish that I could get a copy to keep. ... Read more