BOYTOWN


Australia, 2006, 90 minutes, Coloour.
Glenn Robbins, Mick Molloy, Lachy Hulme, Sally Phillips.
Directed by Kevin Carlin.

Here’s a how d’ye do. What is this film trying to do? On the one hand, it is a piece of Aussie nostalgia for the Boy Bands of the late 1980s and the 1990s. On the other, it is sending up the bands, the singers, the agents, the public, the songs and their lyrics (in the vein of the corniest country and western songs). This makes it sound like an either/or situation when the answer is probably a both/and.

The screenplay was written by brothers Richard and Mick Malloy and serves as a star vehicle for Mick (after several TV shows and the lawn bowls comedy, Crackerjack). It is also a star vehicle for that most durable of comedians (Fast Forward, Kath and Kim), Glenn Robbins. In fact, Robbins holds the film together.

Now happily married (to UK’s Sally Phillips), he has a yearning to reunite the band and re-live the glory days, even hoping for records and tours. He rounds up the motley group, one of whom is a lecturer on literature, another works on a building site, another stays at home with his mother and the last is a DJ beyond Woop Woop.

The plot goes according to formula – so we can enjoy following the steps we anticipate. Reluctance follows agreement, visits to the most obnoxious agent (Lachy Hulme) who has perfected the arts of two-timing and exploitation, tours, records, concerts, failure, an appeal to a middle-aged women (with songs like, It’s That Time of the Month, or Picking up the Kids from School), mix-ups in the past with strange consequences, feelings of betrayal so that the leader can go solo, truth finally outing and a feeling of achievement and contentment to finish up with.

But, it is still puzzling as to when one should feel nice and nostalgic and when one should be laughing at these silly shenanigans.