(although he could have done without his character specifically verbalising the fact that he's simply a pastiche of every Robert De Niro and Al Pacino gangster that's beaten him to the big DIRECTOR
screen). While youngsters Joel
CLINTON SMITH
Edgerton (Sem) and Paula Arundell
CAST
(Cleo) are the most natural and
KYLIE MINOGUE, BEN M ENDELSOHN, SIMON LYNDON, DAVID FIELD, JOEL EDGERTON,
believable things in the mash.
PAULA AR UN DELL, NATHAN PAGE, NATHALIE
In the end, it all comes out feeling a
ROY, JUSTIN ROSNIAK, MATTHEW W ILKINSON,
lot like Starstruck (d. Armstrong 1982]
GHANDI MACINTYRE, DORIAN N'KONO
PRODUCERS
despite the producers obviously
EMILE SHERMAN AND BARTON SMITH
aiming at Pulp Fiction (d. Tarantino
DISTRIBUTOR
1994). If there's a "Drugs are bad"
REP
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
message in there - if that’s what
AUSTRALIA
Sample People is saying - then it sort
DURATION
of gets lost in the "Drugs are cool"
98 MINUTES
images which make up much of the -> What Sample People is trying to
film. Now, discussions about explicit
say to the world is ultimately as
drug-use in cinema are about as
confused as its cardboard characters.
boring as a psychedelic-scene-
It wants to be cutting edge, the
through-the-eyes-of-a-tripper (we get
modern face of Australian cinema, it
one of those here too], but surely no
wants to be beautiful, ugly, a comedy,
pusher in the world is going to be sad
a gritty drama, everything. But it ends
to see Kylie Minogue with a note
up not being much of anything at all.
jammed (literally) up her nose. Your
The elements which are supposed to shock or impress don't quite do the
business doesn’t get that sort of freeinteresting individual recordings (Kiley
Lush (Nathalie Roy) in spacesuit floats with decks
advertising every day.
job. It’s all too overwrought. "It's a
Gaffney doing Split Enz’s One Step
violent city," characters keep saying,
Ahead and The Mavis’s reviving Jim
urging us to believe this tale takes
Keays' bizarre Boy From The Stars).
place on "a magic day”. In the meanwhile, here, look at some more
The soundtrack sounds more suited to ; The rest of the ensemble of Sample People is a mismatch of stereotypes. a blue-light disco than a hardcore
shades of ultra-violet and infra-red.
modern nightclub.
And watch out for the slapstick:
So thank God for Ben Mendelsohn -
Whack! Bang! As funny as an iron bar
his camped-up, mischievous John
over the head.
easily steals the show. Not that the
(played by Ghandi Macintyre), the
laugh nervously, sweat as much as the
Even Sample People’s setting is
heavily-tattooed Kylie Minogue (Jess,
Indian proprietor of the kebab shop.
actors (all except a couple of the
confused. The background is Sydney's
the local gangster's in-house vixen]
He throws around proverbs such as:
characters are constantly covered in a
inner-city drug-infested underground
doesn't try her darnedest. But Kylie
“Decide what to serve and serve it
slight sheen of sweat for one reason
dance scene. But projected on to it are
was probably too busy trying to look
well." And: "You know, Len, milk is a
or another), well then, where was the
mostly two-dimensional near-cartoon
sultry in a drug-fucked way to notice
real mover. The customer will come
tension? It's just so bloody obvious so
figures that behave like they've just
she doesn't get many lines for a credits
for the milk but, seeing other
far out how all the story’s subplots
walked in off the history pages of
-topper (lines of dialogue, that is).
products, will also leave with the fizzy
would eventually meet up.
Australian TV soap, no matter how
Incidentally, even though they don't
pop.” Much like Apu from the Kwik-E-
So you sit there waiting for Sample
many drugs they're taking.
appear on screen together at any
Mart in The Simpsons, no?
The music doesn't fit either. The
point, this is the first time
Still, some of the actors manage to
People to surprise you. And it never does. •
People obviously had too many Misfortune (ABC) mini-series in 1985.
influences pushing and pulling at their thoughts while conceptualising this project. Maybe they should have
There's speeders, trippers, wankers,
listened to the character that shouts
Westies, roughs, dream boys, dream
out: "You're not in LA, bro."
I girls. There's even a local mystic: Phil
decision to record and remix classic
Mendelsohn and Minogue have
make something out of not-a-lot.
Australian songs in a pseudo club
worked together since The Henderson
Journeyman actor David Field plays it
style doesn't come off, despite some
Kids (Channel 10] and Fame And
straight and tough as the baddie TT
[40] CINEMA PAPERS.MAY 2000
The writers and producers of Sample
If their idea was to make the audience
D IN O S C A T E N A IS M U S IC E D IT O R O F T H E D A IL Y T E L E G R A P H A N D W R IT E S FO R U S R O L L IN G S T O N E A N D N E W M U S IC E X P R E S S .