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Herald Rating: * * *
Cast: Emily Barclay, Michael Dorman, Robert Morgan, Anthony Hayes
Director: Paul Goldman
Running time: 95 mins
Rating: R16
Screening: Village,
Rialto Verdict: A high-camp vehicle for Barclay's electrifying talent
If In My Father's Den provided a glimpse of Emily Barclay's acting prowess, Suburban Mayhem thrusts it into the spotlight. The Kiwi actress helms this Aussie black comedy about white-trash bad girl Katrina Skinner. She plots to kill her father for her inheritance - and to impress her brother, himself in jail for murder.
Katrina, 19, is much like the hurricane, a human storm who will obliterate all in her path, whether it's married men, suffering neighbours or "friends" who she convinces to break the law for her. First-time writer Alice Bell gives Katrina plenty of cutting prose but perhaps a little too much leeway. Everyone around her, whether it's devoted dad John, neglected daughter Bailee or hapless boyfriend Rusty, serves Katrina's purposes without so much as a roll of the eyes. If it wasn't for Barclay naturally injecting humour into what could have been a cliched study of slutty teen angst (she gets around in high boots, mini skirts and blood red lippy after all), the film might not have survived.
But it does, thanks also to its style rather than substance, particularly the bogan cars and a soundtrack that includes Magic Dirt's Adalita, Little Birdy and a score by Mick Harvey from the Bad Seeds. In the opening scene we meet Katrina as she is interviewed for a documentary about her murdered dad. That faux-doco style is interspersed throughout, adding to the film's surreal rhythm and tabloid feel. It's not quite as effective as Gus Van Sant's To Die For but the camera appears to be the only source of authority Katrina sits still for.
Problem is, when you're dealing with a subject as heavy as killing, you need a solid motive. Katrina's isn't explained with any great depth or credibility, and you're left wondering how on earth this bad girl, as magnetic as she is, got away with murder.
