The good documentaries educate. The greatest documentaries make you want to learn more about the subject matter at hand or, in this case, the subject matter that crashes through a house at 114 miles per hour, roles around naked in paint and then gets eaten by a giant killer boar.
‘Not Quite Holywood’ is a Rock N' Rolling rocket ride through decades of Australian exploitation cinema that most of the world never knew existed. Everything under the blistering hot desert sun gets its turn to burn: Sex Flicks, Horror Opuses and Action Extravaganzas split the movie in three and each get their share of love. It would have worked fine as a clip show, but the filmmakers have also corralled nearly everyone who was ever involved in the Aussie film industry and they’re ready to break out some ripping yarns. Most of the players have been out of the industry for so long that there’s nothing keeping them from dishing out the dirt. The actor got his arm burned and then punched the director in the face? Jimmy Wang Yu was the biggest jerk they had ever met? They tried to raise money for the film at the racetracks while it was still in production? It’s all covered and then some. I only wish that the documentary could have been THREE hours long, because there’s such a wealth of interesting people in front of the camera, reams of fantastic looking films to be covered and such a high level of stylish documentary editing (There were three editors!) and directorial craftsmanship on display. It’s only logistics that deem that some films can only get an only a few words dropped on them instead of the half hour they deserve. If you have no interest in seeing any of these films by the time the end credits roll: Please, leave your FILM JUNKIE badge at the door on your way out. We don’t want your kind here.
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