Newry Film Club: 4 June

Enjoy the collective experience of watching a film and chatting about it afterwards. Watching a film without discussing its merits is to enjoy only half the film experience.

Next offering ……………

Look Both Ways …. Showing at Newry Film Club (Arts Centre) 8.00 June 4^th 2008

 

        …  the plot ……………….

For Meryl (Clarke), life is a never-ending series of disasters waiting to happen. An illustrator of seascapes for a greetings card company that specialises in condolences, she can’t help but imagine these prospective catastrophes in vivid, abrupt daydreams. On the day she returns home to Adelaide after attending her father’s funeral, she witnesses a death on a nearby railway line.

Its this incident that brings her into contact with news photographer Nick (McInnes), and local journalist Andy (Hayes), both of whom are also questioning their attitudes to life. Andy, already dissatisfied with his job and lifestyle, has found out that his girlfriend Anna (Flanagan) is pregnant. Nick has just been diagnosed with cancer, and now faces the same health battles that his father eventually lost.

All this might make Australian drama Look Both Ways sound like a downbeat and morbid experience, but animator-turned-director Sarah Watt has crafted a genuinely charming drama that stares unflinchingly at some dark topics, but never forgets the importance of humanity and humour.
 
As Meryl and Nick find themselves falling into a hesitant relationship, and as Andy rails against the world, the film examines how they and the characters around them react to the twists and turns of fate.

The end result plays like a cross between Magnolia, ‘Six Feet Under’, and the early work of director Jane Campion (most notably An Angel At My Table and Sweetie).