#CallumGault – Oz Indie Cinema

David Black reviews the Aussie indie movie, “Marital Problems”

I’ve just finished watching a quirky, Aussie indie movie called “Marital Problems.” The description on the IMDB is “On the eve of his eviction, Ian’s home becomes invaded by Clarke, an unscrupulous gardener who recounts the events of his failed marriage in attempt to bring closure to Ian’s prior engagement that failed to go the distance.”

The movie poster itself looks pretty mainstream, but this film is so off the wall that neither the poster nor the description really do this movie justice. At times, it reminds me of “Alice in Wonderland” in the way that we meet some crazy characters along the way who end up giving us deep insights into life. All the while, most of this occurs within the most Australian of settings where 3 guys sit around drinking beer and talking crap.

Callum Gault as Ian. Photo by Lone Viking

Our main character, Ian, is played by Callum Gault. Callum has been acting since his school days and it shows. He brings a gritty realism to this role of a man who is tired and broken, and just trying to understand. He does a fantastic job of keeping it believable when the situations are often absurd.

Nick Capper as Clarke. Photo by Lone Viking

Nick Capper plays the role of Clarke, our “unscrupulous gardener”. Nick has an extensive history in stand-up comedy and been in quite a few TV series, such as “Bruce” and “Phrankurtville.” There are times when he has you roaring with laughter and other times that you just cringe. Callum and Nick make a great team and the synergy shows more as the film progresses.

Neil Goldsmith plays the handyman, McManus. He is more of the straight guy, or at least as straight as you can be in such a strange movie. Without Neil’s performance, the sheer craziness of Ian and Clarke might have become a bit too far fetched. Neil manages to pull off the role of being the average Aussie bloke convincingly when the situations are far from being normal. He even manages that when his own actions are a bit on the crazy side.

Of course, there can be no movie about marital problems without the female love interest. Completing our four main cast is Aleis Duffy. Prior to this, she appeared in the TV comedy, “Henry Haus.” Her performances in both productions show her to be versatile and I’ll be looking out for her in any future shows she is in. For now, I can’t say any more about her in this role without giving away important elements of the story line.

Aleis Duffy. Photo by Lone Viking

One thing that struck me with this movie was the amazing choices of colour palette for different scenes. I realise that colourists don’t usually get a look in when it comes to reviews but this really did stand out and enhance the feel of the movie greatly. This was the work of the DOP, Mark Kenfield. I’m not sure if he also chose some of the cutaway shots, but these were also well done. When moving from one main scene to another, the choice of little scenes, such as rain drops hitting puddles, or fast moving city scapes at night, really give this movie its own unique feel.

Another thing, that might go unnoticed by many, are the cameos within the movie by the crew. The director, Dia Taylor appears as an animal shelter employee. The producer and screenwriter, Julian Barbor (also known as Jay Edward), is there as a writer. And in vibe with the strangeness of the story, Jay told me that what he was writing in the scene, is the actual scene you are watching.

All up, the movie will appeal to those who love strange Aussie independent movies. I’m more a lover of Ozploitation, horror and sci fi, so it wasn’t quite my cup of tea. It was worth breaking myself out of my comfort zone to watch this though. Partly because I recognised so many friends in it, but mainly because it has pathos, deep insights on life and strong characters.

Marital Problems will be showing next at the 18^th Melbourne Undeground Film Festival, October 28 – November 23 2017 http://www.muff.com.au/

And is currently doing the film festival circuit. More details can be found on their official facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/MaritalProblemsMovie/

David Black shares seven recent interviews he did with some amazing Aussie talent!

Hi everyone. The main purpose of Oz Indie Cinema is to promote our local indie movie industry, but that hasn’t made me shy away from looking at various issues affecting the business. Articles such as the ones I did on extras, crew and gender bias were very popular, very much to my surprise. You, the readers, have determined that this is a niche blog, and I’ve found that articles which touch upon the big Hollywood productions end up going down like a lead balloon. It seems that very few here want to read another story on the stuff that’s been done to death on the big mainstream sites.

Today, I have a serious issue to cover and I hope that it will be of interest to you. It involves unscrupulous journalists who offer to sell interviews to actors who are hungry for the publicity. Some approach Aussie actors because they know that in order to work in the USA that they must have a certain number of recent media outlets covering their work. It’s made Australia a favourite target for these predators.

I first heard about this when reading facebook updates by some of the bigger movie industry bloggers who’d found themselves embroiled in vicious online fights for speaking out against the practice. They were accused of preventing people from making a living. It wasn’t that long afterward that I found myself being approached on various social media platforms by people offering to cover my projects for a fee. Real journalists do not charge for articles. They chase up stories that they feel are news worthy and present them to the public.

I decided that the best way to counter this practice for our local industry was to do the same sorts of articles for upcoming actors for free. I had an account on a blog that I’d almost forgotten about and it was time to put it to good use. It seemed a low risk place to do what I thought were going to be formularised, cheesecake articles – bunged out quickly and of very little value other than vanity for the interviewees.

It seems that I was wrong about the platform and the value of these articles and I’m glad to admit that. In the process of doing these stories, I discovered some amazing Aussie talent. I first thought that I was just interviewing back ground extras of little experience but this certainly wasn’t the case. Some had done far more than I have in the industry and I got to share their amazing experiences.

In the process, I also found that the blog site itself was not just some crappy outlet. The articles published actually did make it to the front page and got quite a good number of views. They’d built a fair sized audience and I was lucky to be able to get a decent amount of views from their hard work.

So here I am, tail between my legs for having at first doubted the actors and the platform, but excited to present to you the first seven fantastic interviews I did with some amazing, upcoming Aussie actors on creators.co .

So …. Here are our magnificent seven!