New U.S. Release

Garage Days

 (Australia)

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Basic plot is nothing more or less than an updating of those 1940s Garland-Rooney musicals like "Strike Up the Band." Freddy (Kick Gurry) and his mates are members of a garage band which gets occasional gigs in those pubs which haven't yet replaced live music with disc jockeys or poker machines. Freddy is the lead singer, his girlfriend, Tanya (Gurry's "Looking for Alibrandi" co-star, Pia Miranda), plays bass, Joe (Brett Stiller) is lead guitar and the substance-addicted Lucy (Chris Sadrinna) is the drummer. Bruno (a very amusing turn by Russell Dykstra) is their well-meaning but hopelessly inefficient manager.

Freddy and Tanya may make music together, but they are sexually discordant; in the film's wry opening sequence, the couple is having sex but Freddy is dreaming of fame and fortune and, as a result, failing to satisfy his partner. Throughout, Proyas undermines audience expectations; not only is the film's hero not so hot in bed, but when the band gets its first pub gig, the customers aren't the least bit interested in their music.

Meanwhile, Joe is secretly cheating on his sweet-natured girlfriend, Kate (Maya Stange), the group's unofficial songwriter, with the sultry Angie (Yvette Duncan), who gets her jollies by having sex on tombstones. Kate is increasingly drawn to Freddy. When they kiss for the first time, Proyas artfully combines humor (Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's in Love With You" on the soundtrack) and sizzling romance.

Freddy has a chance encounter with Sydney's No. 1 music manager, Shad Kern (Marton Csokas, the villain in "XXX"); when he realizes that Kern is having a fling with the girlfriend of a top recording star, Freddy doesn't hesitate to stoop to blackmail to get Kern to come to see the band perform.

However, he lacks the $1,200 needed to secure a venue. This urgent need for cash is the cue for some very funny scenes, culminating in an attempt to borrow from Tanya's well-to-do but disapproving parents (Anne Grigg, Gunther Berghofer). A dinner party for the parents ends in disaster because Lucy, trying to be helpful, has spiked the drinks with LSD. The astonished Tanya watching her out-of-it mom and dad lasciviously dancing and turning into snake-like creatures reps a highlight.

Throughout this very entertaining film, Proyas displays visual inventiveness and a lively sense of humor. Pic climaxes with the band performing before a huge audience at an open-air concert, a scene filmed at a real Sydney summer concert. Inner-Sydney is inventively photographed by d.p. Simon Duggan.

Proyas' musicians may be more enthusiastic than talented, but they're a likeable bunch. Gurry's rather confused hero is a well-rounded character; Stange is a talented beauty who makes Kate touchingly vulnerable; and Miranda confirms her talent as the wiry, demanding Tanya.

Camera (color), Simon Duggan; editor, Richard Learoyd; music, David McCormack, Andrew Lancaster, Antony Partos; production designer, Michael Philips; costume designer, Jackline Sassine; sound (Dolby Digital), Peter Grace; special effects, Tom Davies; visual effects, Animal Logic; associate producer, Adrienne Read; assistant director, John Martin; casting, Greg Apps. Reviewed at Director's Suite, Hoyts Cinema Complex, Fox Studios, Sydney, July 4, 2002. Running time: 105 MIN.