Hey folks, Harry here with our intrepid Cannes reporter, Froggy... only this time he's previewing films destined for TORONTO, a place that I am not quite destined for.... sigh... perhaps next year. Anyways... THE DISH starring Sam Neill (soon destined to film JURASSIC PARK 3). I hope it is a good one... seems like it from what Froggy says... here ya go...
Greetings.
Froggy here (that drivel-laden fool from Cannes who swears that CROUCHING TIGER was sent from movie heaven), checking in with a bit of a heads up on a new film that's going to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival later in September. It's a new comedy, starring Sam Neill and Patrick Warbuton (from Seinfeld), called THE DISH.
The movie was made by Working Dog, a very successful Australian company of exTV comedians turned wunderkind producers, whose first film THE CASTLE was a massive hit in Australia and a complete dud everywhere else. I was in an extreme minority of locals that really loathed that film - I felt it was mean to its characters (a lower-income suburban family) and was alienated by the appallingly bad production values. There was a lot of concern as to whether the provincial humour of THE CASTLE would play overseas, and it sat on shelves for at least a year before MIRAMAX paid an absurd amount - millions - for the world rights after a couple of buzzy screenings at Sundance. Oops. It tanked everywhere outside Australia.
I'm not sure whether the Working Dog team have all been to film school in the interim, but to me THE DISH completely delivered. I had the distinct feeling that the filmmakers' desire to be more accessible to an international audience (and thus potential revenue) was very much behind THE DISH, which might sound strange given that the story is about another group of Australians.
So what exactly is THE DISH?
We've all seen and heard a multitude of stories about the U.S. Space Program. You might also think that the last thing the world needs is another tale about the Apollo 11 mission. You were wrong. THE DISH tells the true story of a very small - but integral - role that a country town in New South Wales served in the success of man's first walk on the moon.
It transpired that the time of day in which Neil Armstrong & team were due to make their first steps on the lunar surface would be at a time that made it impossible for U.S. satellite equipment to pick up the TV signals being broadcast from Apollo in deep space. As it happened, a receiving dish in the middle of a sheep paddock in Parkes, a small country Australian town, was in the best position to receive the signals, and bounce them back to TV satellites for the live broadcast being anticipated by billions around the globe.
THE DISH is the story of that team of Parkes locals (and the NASA staffer on hand to supervise), and it's a joy to watch their story. The film doesn't have a mean bone in its body - it's a charming, nostalgic tale of teamwork and community and as I sit here I can't quite remember a recent film that nailed the themes as successfully. Perhaps the nearest comparison of "feeling" that this movie gave me was WAKING NED DEVINE. It's not a "putting on a show" film like FULL MONTY, nor quite a struggle against major adversity tale. (The most dramatic moments in THE DISH relate to a small change in the weather.)
The joys of the film are in the small touches, and the large cast of characters who share in the event in small ways: the dim security guard who is fooled into thinking his walkie-talkie is linked directly to Neil Armstrong's; the affectionate relationship between the town mayor and his wife; their unimpressed protest-era teenage daughter, and the young gung-ho army reserve neighbour who has his sights on her; the head tech officer whose disdain for the blow-in American (Warbuton) takes a gentle turn; the town's amateur teen rock band whose moment of truth at a special welcome ceremony for the US Ambassador doesn't exactly go to plan; the lovestruck assistant whose lack of self-confidence is his only real enemy.
Sam Neill has, I think, never been properly appreciated as a great actor (check out his performance opposite Meryl Streep in A CRY IN THE DARK if you want to see him WORK), and I can only assume he does all those dreadful American telemovies for the money. I don't even want to think about BICENTENNIAL MAN. But in THE DISH he puts in a beautifully modulated, understated lead performance as the manager of the satellite station, holding everything together under the weight of the situation, especially as the magnitude of the world's expectations begins to become evident.
And then there's the event itself - we've all seen the footage of the moon landing a hundred times, but somehow seeing it through the fresh, wondrous eyes of the 1969 country town, electrified not only by what they're witnessing but also their unexpected participation in it, is a treat. Production values are all spot on, and the soundtrack of classics from the period enhance the spirit of the time very effectively (although someone else that I saw the movie with swore that every track was also in APOLLO 13. Go figure.).
All in all, THE DISH is a real gem that will be an automatic hit in Australia, but also deserves to be seen overseas. I have some concerns that it might be hard to initially motivate foreigners to see it, that it could come across as a little Aussie oddity that has no relevance. But if the audience response at the screening I saw is anything to go by, there well could be a bidding war amongst the U.S. indie distrib scouts at Toronto (possibly even a bolder, bigger studio like DREAMWORKS) because it's a massive word-of-mouther that is destined to succeed as long as the film's modesty doesn't work too much against it. Personally I think it's the sort of "little" film that, like SHINE and BILLY ELLIOT could, under the right treatment, even figure prominently in end of year crtiics lists and awards.
The other Aussie film to see at Toronto is the devastatingly hilarious
CHOPPER that I think was reviewed here on AICN last week. CHOPPER opened up
at No.1 at the local box office this week and couldn't be anymore different
to THE DISH. It's a serious, kickass crime flick - disturbing and funny in
equal measure. Warning - it's not for the squeamish - unlike Reservoir Dogs
CHOPPER is a movie that is not afraid to show you the ears actually getting
sliced < And for those of you are thinking it, this is not a plant. For once
Australia has produced two decent movies in the same year!
signing off
FROGGY
