Mull

Don McLennan’s coming-of-age drama crams more social issues into its 90 minutes than most people would have the misfortune to experience in a lifetime.

“Mull” (Nadine Garner) is Phoebe Mullins, a teenager with a mother dying of Hodgkinson’s disease, a reformed alcoholic born-again Christian father (Bill Hunter), a gay brother (a relatively unusual presence in film of the time) dabbling in heroin and two trying younger siblings all packed into a crummy rented flat in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda. Then there are her yearnings for her brother’s boyfriend and the added burden of her pregnant Greek best friend (Mary Coustas). And if that's no enough add to the quota the troubles of a gay school teacher and his lover.

Based on a novel Mullaway by Bron Nicholls and laboriously adapted for the screen by Jon Stephens, the sheer quantity of problems appears to be  more than director McLennan can handle whilst the mixture of horrific '80s fashion (including full-blown mullets), a tinny synthesized soundtrack, set decoration that sits between Depression-era and contemporary naff, earnest overacting (miraculously, Garner won an AFI Best Actress award for her hard work) and Coustas's awful wog-Strine accent make for an experience that fails to elicit sympathy.

FYI: Australian jazz heroes, Vince Jones and Doug DeVries are seen briefly playing in a Fitzroy St. nightclub,

Available from: Umbrella Entertainment

 

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