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The Magician Director: Scott Ryan Rated: MA Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas 
This marvellous new film is essentially an Australian remake of Remy
Belvaux's 1992 Cannes selected, Belgian film 'Man Bites Dog', which
had the distinction of being the only comedy to be banned by Australian
censors. In pseudo documentary style, with rough edits and many hand-held
sequences, a film maker tags along with a killer who is actually a
fun guy to be around most of the time. He loves his family, is smart
and thoughtful, and gives discourses on various aspects of life and
death. Then, the next thing you know, he's blowing someone's brains
out. Ryan, like Devaux, is writer, director and actor in his debut 'mock-umentary'. Set in Melbourne, 'The Magician' has film student, Max (Massimiliano Andrighetto) making a doco about an underworld hitman, Ray (Ryan). Max accompanies and films Ray on a range of escapades as Ray plies his trade, "Giving his victims the bad news", as he puts it. This film is not as concerned with gangland murders as it is with exploring masculine interactions and blokes' morality. Scott Ryan playfully teases out a range of Aussie male attitudes to topics including homophobia, family values, drug laws and football. The small cast of mid-twenties male characters chatter in situations that would be banal if it weren't for the murderous main-game. One target and the hitman, Ray, discuss what extra sauces they'll get cameraman Max to order from the fast-food restaurant as they all head for the inevitable bushland shallow grave. It's a road-movie and a buddy-movie, too. The acting is superb, creating common-garden Aussie men that we all know. Kane Mason and Ben Walker are note-perfectly natural, while writer-director Scott Ryan in the lead role as 'The Magician' (he makes people disappear) is a fast-talking smart-arse, only a little larger-than-life 'character', in the Chopper Reid mould. Ryan the storyteller creates a great mood and sustains the fun as the story unfolds. While the 'snuff' film-within-the-film stuff is far too hot for Max to show publicly, the plan, it transpires is to only release his sensational footage when Ray is dead. Ray explains the situation directly to-camera in his own words this way. "If you're seeing this film, it means that I'm no longer with us, sort of thing." Obviously ad-libbed a little, the sharp script really works, and any residual weight from the deep darkness of the subject matter is lifted by the inclusion of 'bloopers' with the final credits. It's simple and derivative in concept but clever in its writing and sensibly imaginative in its non-sequential editing. By necessity the production is very sparing with music but it's well chosen and applied, ending with Spectrum's I'll be Gone. Reminiscent of Andrew Dominik's 'Chopper' in glamourising criminality, exploration of the complicity of documentary makers and audiences echo the more brutal 'Man Bites Dog' and the marvellous pitch-black films of Michael Haneke ('Funny Games', 'Benny's Video'). Ryan's humour is not so dark, and much more constant, making the result a stunning, irreverent, honest and hilarious winner. Bound to start life as an indie hit, 'The Magician' is an outrageous killer comedy that will have a long life as a cult classic.  |
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