Identity thief: Jackie van Beek in ‘Audrey’.
AUDREY 1/2 (96 minutes) MA
The competition is exceptionally stiff yet Audrey might just be the worst Australian film of the year.
In this dire, off-key, self-consciously disgusting attempt at an edgy, amoral black sex comedy former TV star Ronnie (Jackie van Beek) tries getting back on track by assuming the identity of her comatose daughter Audrey (Josephine Blazier).
Her husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) also finds the tragedy liberating, setting free his true sexuality.
Repulsive, unfunny and wildly unfocused, this mess spends half its time establishing a raft of detestable characters, then expects us to care about them. No sale.
Vulgarity can be funny (John Waters, Mike Myers, Sacha Baron Cohen, Mel Brooks, etc) but director Natalie Bailey, working from a screenplay by Lou Sanz, strains to generate the comic energy required to render marital aids, anal sex, Christian porn and ugly nudity automatically hilarious. They ain’t.
In one notably off-putting scene, the family’s other teen daughter Norah (Hannah Diviney), who has cerebral palsy, being finger banged by Audrey’s boyfriend Max (Fraser Anderson) before being accused of committing “reverse rape”. Comedy gold.
Furthermore, and like so many recent Australian films, there’s no attention to plausibility or internal story logic in Audrey. Some examples…
…But first – here’s a spoiler alert, just in case you plan on paying good money for your non-refundable ticket to see Audrey.
With that done:
* In one of the film’s opening scenes Audrey catches her dad masturbating with a sex aid. Why is he doing this in an unlocked room early in the morning when the house is still full of people?
It’s a cringe-inducing moment that suggests the full title of the film should have been: Audrey or How To Lose an Audience in Less Than Five Minutes.
* Ronnie has remarkably little trouble assuming Audrey’s identity. Though Ronnie looks around 50, her comp card claims an age range of 13-25. It’s not funny, it’s stupid.
* Why does Audrey take to the roof where she has her accident? It’s unmotivated. Nothing beforehand signals she would do such a thing. The cut to this scene makes you go: “Huh? Why is this happening all of a sudden?”
That’s just three. There are stacks more, but life is too short.
Having seen and reviewed the film during MIFF, the opportunity to sit through the film a second time was perversely tempting, just in case some hidden comic genius missed the first time would reveal itself. No such luck. If anything, the viewing experience was even more excruciating.
For Pete’s sake, people. It’s 2024. How is the Australian film industry still making such dreck? Why is this quality crisis happening? Where are the people in the creative process whose job it is to say: “Stop! This is garbage!” and then scream: “Who is this movie for? Who is the audience? Why are we making this film?”
While the film is torture to watch, in fairness it need be pointed out that Jackie van Beek – who starred in and co-wrote the execrable 2022 “experimental” Kiwi comedy Nude Tuesday – did a very fine job adapting The Office for Australia, directing four episodes and writing three.
SASQUATCH SUNSET **1/2 (89 minutes) MA
In this dialogue-free oddity from David & Nathan Zellner (Kumiko), Jesse Eisenberg and cast mates disappear under prosthetic skins to play a clan of Sasquatches living undisturbed deep in the forest.
The first half plays like an over-extended comedy sketch with way more poo-poo, wee-wee and wanking than even these semi-evolved primates warrant.
It’s only when they happen upon signs of the bigger world in which they live do things really start to get interesting. If you’re after unusual arthouse fare, this anthropological comedy makes for an amusing, oddball diversion.