Feeling Sexy

The visual skills of Australian painter Davida Allen are well employed in this tidily-constructed shortish film, set in the early 1970s, of a young Queensland painter, Vicki, played by Susie Porter in her first leading role, who is struggling with the conflicting demands of bohemia and suburbia.

Presumably because it is autobiographically-based, despite its largely whimsical, and towards its end, almost too cute, style, it feels a lot more substantial than its short run-time would suggest thanks to Allen's economical storytelling, no doubt influenced by her experiences as a representational painter (i.e someone who needs to "tell a story" within the limited space of the canvas). In what is largely a two-hander, Tamblyn Lord plays Vicki's square, dependable-but-oh-so-boring husband with self-sacrificing accuracy whilst Porter has since gone on to be a stalwart of Australian film.

 

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