All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane

Director:	Louise Alston
Starring:	Charlotte Gregg, Matt Zeremes, Gyton Grantley, Cindy Nelson, Romany Lee, Sarah Kennedy, Ryan Johnson

Director:    Louise Alston
Starring:    Charlotte Gregg, Matt Zeremes, Gyton Grantley, Cindy Nelson, Romany Lee, Sarah Kennedy, Ryan Johnson

All Anthea’s (Charlotte Gregg) friends are leaving Brisbane, which is unsurprising when the Queensland capital is portrayed as it is in All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. It’s the Jim Soorley-era Brisbane that became a stagnant, tired cultural dead-end, not the new Campbell Newman era.

I left Brisbane last year myself, and watching this film made me realise it was a good decision. But then, I wasn’t part of the crowd the characters of this film are in. They’re the city dwellers, and if you’ve ever lived in Brisbane, you’ll know that there are two types of people in Brisbane: City folk and Valley folk. A loose Sydney comparison would be like Westies vs the Inner West/East crowd.

Brisbane is a vibrant city: there’s the Gallery of Modern Art, which nabbed an Australian exclusive Andy Warhol exhibition at the beginning of the year, The Powerhouse, the Judith Wright Centre, bars such as The Bowery, Alhambra Lounge and London Club and live music venues such as Ric’s, The Troubadour and The Zoo. Thing is, the characters in this film wouldn’t go to these places and are the people you try to avoid in Brisbane.

I point out these facts because if you’re going to make a film about Brisbane – one that blatantly uses the city’s locations as its core – you really do need to make it edgy, give the audience something to grab onto. All My Friends… is a film that could’ve been set ANYWHERE. If you take the shots of the Royal George and the West End bus out, it could be anywhere.

Anthea is a young lawyer who hates her job, and is still in love with an ex that left for overseas a while back. She has a tight relationship with Michael (Burke & Wills’ Matt Zeremes), the background of which is never properly explored, while her housemate is heading off to London and trying to convince Anthea to join her.

The acting and dialogue are awkward, Underbelly’s Ryan Johnson the only one to offer a proper laugh and offers the only proof we’re not watching an amateur production.

I’m not quite sure who the filmmakers are aiming All My Friends… at: film buffs aren’t going to enjoy its trivial ‘look at Brisbane on screen’ schtick and even the more casual filmgoer will see it’s completely clichéd. The characters in the film themselves wouldn’t see this film, being more inclined to catch Made of Honour or Saw III. And the Brisbane indie soundtrack is nice, but again, not likely what the characters would be listening to.

The script is also embarrassingly colloquial and quite immaturely written, and the blatant shots of Brisbane landmarks, while nice for the first few scenes, become gratuitous and tedious after a while.

For a film about my hometown I was hoping for so much – even just a little nostalgia – yet it left me more than glad I’m now in Sydney, which, by the way, is not necessarily where the money is…

WHEN: Released on DVD soon
MORE: accentfilm.com