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Australia 2002
Directed by
Evan Clarry
95 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2 stars

Blurred

Blurred is a ‘teenploitation’ flick by debut feature director, Clarry, concerning a gaggle of school leavers who head to Queensland’s Gold Coast for ‘schoolies week’ (apparently over 70,000 teenagers do this annual rite-of-passage). It did quite well at the box office, its $1.5 mill (for a $2.7 mill outlay) making it the 9th highest Australian film of the year but is limited in its appeal. In both style and content it was clearly made for an MTV audience although I imagine it would appeal to a younger set looking forward to their freedom than anyone who’s been there and done that. 

The film's characters and story are cloned from American teen movies and  features high jinx, hot babes, some angst, but mainly fun, all to the accompaniment of a pop soundtrack. The problem is not only that it is not nearly so amusing as its American models but that is so indebted to them. Australian kids may have grown up on a diet of American visual culture but they do have their own character, which is not evident here. The attempt to inject this via the blue-singleted Mark and Trev, who look like they walked off the set of an ‘ocker’ comedy does not balance the overall feeling of inauthenticity. Even for its target audience I’d imagine this would be a shortcoming. For anyone wanting something to engage their attention, in terms of insight or engagement the film will not deliver. The stage play by Stephen Davis, who co-wrote this with Kier Shorey, the third instalment of a trilogy, presumably did not suffer from this miscegenated treatment.

 

 

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