“If you have time to think about art, then you are privileged. Full stop.”
Another productive Monday from our guest: award-winning film critic Alex Heller-Nicholas. Alex put criticism into perspective as a means of taste, privilege and bias, audience, scale and detail, history, and context vs. opinion. More specifically, the human trait of “taste [as it] classifies the classifier”. Taste can become the trap for most critics as a review becomes an opinionated rant about a film without any analytical basis, but merely a reflection of that critic’s taste. Alex reminds us to constantly ask ourselves: why do people care about what I’m saying? It’s important for a critic to keep an open mind, speak confidently with self-awareness, and to trust your instinct to guide you but not govern you.
The next part of the workshop is to write a short review on the Australian short film I’m you, Dickhead and then read the reviews from others. It’s interesting to read the different perspectives people took but still conveyed the same message as you. Feel free to read mine below:
If you had the opportunity to travel back in time, where would go back to and what would do? One possibility is to convince your 10 year old self to master the guitar as a means of earning more action with the ladies – Richard, the main character of the short film I’m You, Dickhead does exactly that.
Yes, it’s one of those time travel narratives again, but its crude yet witty take on the sub-genre provides viewers with a refreshing take on the inevitable consequences of tampering with your past. Director Lucas Testro’s satire is with the exaggerated “futuristic” costuming and setting of the time travel institution combined with a nod to pop culture references from The Terminator to Transformers. Testro is aware of his target audience and with the help of the fast paced editing of Bill Irving and the tight to wide shot from Aaron Smith, he is able to condense such a complex topic into a ridiculously simple story.
Anthony Gooley’s portrays Richard accurately as the insecure boy-next-door “dickhead” – a character that everyone loves to hate as fast as his moustache continuously grow with his ego. Although, his reasons are absurd and superficial, the viewers can’t help but still empathise with his desperation and stupidity as it directs him into what he really wants – and plenty more.
If you’re a fan of time paradoxes filled with Aussie banter, then this is the film for you.