Not Quite Hollywood
Director: Mark Hartley
Rating: MA
Running time: 103 minutes
Distributor: Madman

The movement in Australian cinema collectively and retrospectively referred to as "Ozploitation" has been, up until now, a much-maligned one. It has only been since the cinematic release earlier this year of Mark Hartley's outrageous piece of fanboy documentary 'Not Quite Hollywood' that the movement has been examined in a light which. While not necessarily more serious, is not entirely derisory either. Existing primarily thanks to the help of the world's biggest (or, at the very least, most vocal) fanboy, Quentin Tarantino, 'Not Quite Hollywood' manages to be a fun, yet meticulous and often hilarious look at a questionable point in the heritage of Australia's national cinema.

Tracing a lineage of Australian "entertainment" cinema from early sex comedies such as 'Alvin Purple' and 'Stork' to horror spectacles such as 'Patrick' and 'Razorback' before concluding with the excesses of 'Mad Max', 'Stone' and 'The Man From Hong Kong', 'Not Quite Hollywood' utilises in-depth interviews from a veritable "who's who" of Australian cinema, both old and new. Of particular note is Bob Ellis, a critic with a fairly low opinion of... well, just about everything. The presence of Dennis Hopper is also rather entertaining, his rather dry observations about his behaviour on the set of 'Mad Dog Morgan' contrasting nicely with the respective file footage.

Obviously there's Quentin Tarantino too, and lots of him. However, he manages to reel his shtick in a bit and not be too gratingly irritating. It's his enthusiasm for the source material, and the obvious enthusiasm of all of those involved, that makes this documentary something a bit special. No one interviewed tries to read too much into these movies - they're all aware that they're purveyors of schlock, not art - and they're (mostly) pretty proud of their achievements.
Mark Hartley brings a strong sense of visual style to proceedings, often echoing the era from which most of these films were spawned. The visuals offer a nice counterpoint to what could otherwise have been quite dry subject material. Instead, like the discussed movies, 'Not Quite Hollywood' is a bright, vibrant, brash and incessantly fun piece of documentary cinema. Already it seems to be re-sparking interest in this lost and underrated sub-genre of Australian cinema which, like it or not, is an intrinsic part of our artistic heritage.
Interviews with genre contemporaries such as Leigh Whannell ('Saw') and Greg Mclean ('Wolf Creek', 'Rogue') suggest that a love of Australian genre cinema is making a long-awaited comeback. Whether or not this filters through to mainstream success remains to be seen, but it at least gives a sense of hope that Australian national cinema won't remain obsessed with narcissistic navel-gazing and overwrought "dramas", and might actually make some entertaining content.

In the end, that's what the movies featured in 'Not Quite Hollywood' are all about - not artistic merit nor critical acclaim, but pleasing and entertaining an audience, and while that shouldn't be everything that there is to cinema, there's certainly room in Australia for just a little bit.

Patrick Lang