Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds |
Australia • 1989 • 93m •
   • Directed by: Alex Proyas. • Starring: Michael Lake, Melissa Davis, Norman Boyd, Rhys Davis. • Music by: Peter Miller.     Brother and sister endure alone together in a post-apocalyptic Outback until the sudden arrival of a stranger.
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Review:
Let's also be clear that, on the whole, this film is not a masterpiece or anything.
The framing of shots, lighting, color, etc. - the visuals are as meticulous as one would expect from a recent film school grad. Languid and dreamlike, wide shots of bright flowing robes against the desert a la Tarsem Singh, but in an outback full of rust and dust. The DP really hit it out of the park.
Unfortunately, the film is as over-enamored with its own visual style - at the expense of pacing and story - as one would expect from a novice filmmaker. There is a plot but it's skeletal, serving mostly as a thin veil for the socialreligious allegory behind the conflicting worldviews of the two siblings. No one in the film is compelling as far as characters and acting is concerned, but the sister is the most annoying and incompetently-acted of the three by a long shot. The brother reminds me of the doctor from Dark City, while the lanky goth stranger is an Aussie Brandon Lee - they both do an OK job, with the brother doing most of the heavy lifting.
The ambient soundtrack is totally on-point about half the time, when it unobtrusively fills up space in the background. But in the other half, it ruins the film with a cloying three-chord theme in F#m - it's a sloppy attempt to imbue the proceedings with dramatic heft, which they don't otherwise have...or need.
Overall, it's worthwhile if you are in the mood for something like this, or if you are a Proyas fan. Don't expect anything transcendental, just quiet elegance with hints of brilliance: this is exactly the kind of debut that promises true greatness down the line.
Review by crownofsprats from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database