“It was funny when it tried to be but not very deep which it flirted with. If you’re a fan, you won’t be disappointed.”
Con Nats
3 Stars or Kylies
I really need to do more research before accepting movie review invites.
The first cue I was at the wrong movie was the long queue outside the Randwick Ritz with an average age of twenty-tres-cool crowd. The second was the promotion kids wanting to film audience members while strobing them before the start. If they neared me, I was going to tell them I was epileptic and to fornicate elsewhere, which is important. There is so much flashing lights in this, it is not safe for the afflicted.
The third was the long queues for pop corn and drinks. This was a young party audience.
A film about a rising pop star battling the forces of fame is an old one. This one features Charli xcx who is already famous and had the audience cheering the credits. She’s the brat girl, after all.
Fortunately, this is film that doesn’t take itself too seriously and Charli has a sense of humour. She’s from Essex. After opening with part of a pop clip, it starts with a meeting about extending the brat theme, and doing a concert film. Rosanna Arquette plays straight shooting label executive. Enter Johannes (Alexander Skarsgård doing his best Michael Bender impersonation) who wants to take over the staging. He is so convincing he is more infuriating than hilarious.
Charli is roped into branding a debit card, leaves mid-rehearsals when things get tense between her creative director Celeste (Hailey Gates) and Johannes. And after a surprise meeting with a Kyle Jenner at the Ibiza health resort, things start to go haywire.
This is actually an enjoyable mockumentary about the music industry with lots of laugh-out-loud moments and a bitter-sweet energy. It’s not quite Spinal Tap as there are lots of serious satirical bites and dramatic moments but the humour isn’t as sharp or constant. It seems a little confused as to what sort of film it wants to be and wants to say.
There is lots of excitement around director and co-writer Aidan Zamiri’s appointment. He’s worked with Charli previously and does video clips. Visually this is shot like one, the soundtrack is relevant but the script lacks the discipline it needs.
The ending doesn’t quite satisfy and it sounds like Charli is complaining and rubbishing the very thing she is chasing. Ridiculing the game, while playing it. Burning down brat summer while extending it.
Charli’s acting is very good, although she is playing herself. The support cast tend to fall into caricature. Charli’s support crew are not worthy of listing. Hailey Gates and Jamie Demetriou as manager Tim are worth commending. Arquette doesn’t have the chops to play comedy (and I wish she watched Dennis Quaid in The Substance). Skarsgård is funny in a cringey way.
I’m no fan, yet I didn’t regret sharing this viewing with this audience. It was funny when it tried to be but not very deep which it flirted with. If you’re a fan, you won’t be disappointed.
3 Kylies
Con Nats, On The Screen
