Sample People
Directed by Clinton Smith.
Starring Kylie Minogue, Ben Mendelsohn, Simon Lyndon and
David Field.
The title, Sample People, refers to its ensemble cast, a snapshot of contemporary Australian suburban youth-culture (the exception is Phil (Gandhi MacIntyre), an aging Indian kebab shop owner whose role is as the vehicle for earthy oriental apophthegmata). It also refers to the music that epitomises the unifying theme of night-clubbing, drugs and seediness. The film consists of the criss-crossing narratives (I hesitate to use the word ‘plot’) of these hip youths’ lives. It is set in Sydney but shot mainly in Adelaide.
The director and production team had little or no experience in film. One of their intentions was to produce a contrast to the dark and brooding trend of Australian cinema, aiming to give the subject matter a more up-beat style. The producer (Emile Sherman) also claims the film breaks new ground in showing Australia’s multi-culturalism. This is fine as far as it goes, but the non-Anglo-Saxon characters might as well have been. Multi-ethnic it is, multi-cultural it ain’t.
The ensemble cast, including several newies, gives a strong performance. Perhaps the most memorable individuals are Justin Rosniak as Joey, a wannabe rebel who becomes increasingly erratic and violent in his pathetic desperation to be taken seriously, and Ben Mendelsohn as the camp parasite John (an amusing but ultimately superfluous character). Top-billed Kylie Minogue is not impressive, trying and failing to be sultry and intense.
One striking feature of this film is its inventive camera work and visuals, such as the use of layered light effects during a drugged-out picnic scene. These are not necessarily original but are quite effective. Strangely, these don’t appear in the second half of the film. This patchiness could be due to the 11 minute-cut-down-to-3-minute promo the production team shot to show potential investors.
With its many-tiered narratives, themes of drugs etc, this film is basically a cross between Two Hands and Go. It does not break any new ground. The question is, therefore, how well it presents and interprets its material. The visual effects could have been memorable if they had been sustained but their sudden disappearance left the feeling that they were self-conscious and contrived.
An opportunity to do something different was certainly missed. I’m not convinced that all the characters were substantial enough to justify their place. Sample People is ultimately uneven, unoriginal, and several characters and threads would not be missed if left out. However, there is enough humour, interest and some fairly intense individual scenes to make it respectably watchable.
Guy Olding
