Friends, Foes and Fireworks

2018, 720p

Johnny's comments:

Friends, Foes & Fireworks is a drama set in St. Kilda in Melbourne on New Year's Eve where Fiona (Lara Deam) decides to invite all her friends to spend the night together but it's going to be a bumpy night. Newly successful actress Lucinda (Whitney Duff) brings her new British boyfriend Taron (Daniel Hill) and new breasts much to the annoyance of Summer (Asleen Mauthoor) who has a major crush on her but has never told Lucinda her feelings. Zoe (Jess Riley) is a young actress ready to impress but she's terrible but Taron thinks she's fine and once known actress now acting coach Sofia (Genya Mik) bites her tongue. The group leave Fiona's apartment and go to the park where Fiona admits to seeing her ex-boyfriend at the supermarket and he was happy which made her unexpectedly happy. Summer accidentally lets out that Sofia is pregnant but she is probably going to have an abortion. When the clock strikes midnight, Summer kisses Lucinda and freaks her out as Lucinda is not interested in women. Sofia finally tells Zoe what she thought about her monologue and Zoe goes off in a huff. Taron goes after Zoe and they kiss. Sofia tells Fiona who the father of her child is, Fiona's ex, and she is fine with it. Summer finally catches up with Lucinda and they find common ground.

Fairly simple drama, a bit of a soap opera and at 75 minutes, there isn't enough time to be boring. The characters are fairly well drawn with enough information given about each character to give them some rounding even with most of the characters being actresses in different part of careers. Nothing much to the movie but an OK watch.

Lara Deam film clip (collages below)

Standing Up For Sunny

2019, 1080hd

Johnny's comments:

Standing Up For Sunny is a romantic comedy where Travis (RJ Mitte from Breaking Bad), who has cerebral palsy and works a menial job at the university doing groundskeeping, gets mocked by some of the students, so he gets in his car and drives at them. The dean (Radha Mitchell) tells him to get help for his anger but he steams off home and finds a blind man, Gordo (Italia Hunt) in his house, now living there because Travis can't afford the place by himself. Travis is now more angry than he was so he goes to the local pub with Gordo in tow where he sees Sunny (Philippa Northeast) on stage doing stand-up comedy. When Sunny is heckled by some arsehole, Travis comes to her aid with a withering attack leaving her boss/lover/mentor Mikey (Sam Reid) is impressed with his attack and hires Travis to help keep Sunny focused for when she does get heckled or off track and to work at the bar with Sunny and her sister Felicity (Ella Scott Lynch). Mikey is priming Sunny to join him on his morning radio show but Sunny is interested in being a mechanic as she is an apprentice for Mario (Sal Sharah). She introduces him to Travis and his 30 year-old shitheap of a car. Sunny opens up to Travis about her problems including being bulimic. At a performance with talent scouts for radio watching, Sunny goes off Mikey's script and uses her personal issues to riff off and it ends up going better than expected and she gets a chance to be on radio with Mikey. Sunny spends more time with Travis and they end up falling for one another, much to the chagrin of Felicity who wants her to be Mikey's lover/protege. At an unsigned stand-up comedy night, Sunny gets sick and Travis improvises quickly and takes her spot wearing a bag on his head to calm himself and ends up being pretty funny and goes through to the next round. Outside, Travis is beaten up by the earlier heckler and his friends and Sunny cleans him up and they begin a relationship. Mario dies from heart issues and Travis spies Sunny cuddling up to Mikey and Travis isn't happy about this and they split up. At the comedy showdown judged by Barry Humphries, Travis loses it at Mikey and ends up having a seizure with Sunny helping him out but she still isn't convinced she should be with him. Barry Humphries gives Travis a wildcard entry to the comedy show and he uses it to profess his love for Sunny in his own odd way.

Second movie directed by Steve Vidler, 20-odd years after the incendiary Blackrock. This movie is very different. OK movie where it's pretty obvious how everything is going to turn out but the central couple are charming enough to make it watchable. There are issues such as the character of Gordo who seems to be forced onto Travis and the audience as a wacky side-kick when he's not really necessary and only turns up when Travis is very angry, so he ends up copping a whole lot of abuse from Travis which feels very odd. No idea what the point of Radha Mitchell's character is as she's barely in it and at first she seems like his boss but later exchanges make it look like she's his sister or guardian but it's never made clear. But the movie hinges on the central relationship and that's where the movie is at its best. Mitte has manic energy which he channels well and Northeast is always well, sunny and upbeat despite her character's issues and they both work well together.

Definitely a bit of a surprise to see some very brief nudity from Philippa Northeast in the movie, definitely wasn't expecting it as I thought it was just a nice romantic comedy with nothing really sexual but here we are and probably why I took a few weeks to get around to watching it. Interestingly, there's a body double credited for her on IMDB but it certainly looks like Philippa in that scene. Hmmm...

Philippa Northeast film clip (collages below)

(Or body double, as noted above)