Beanbioca As Good As It Gets
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
rebekah-copas When a teenagers, in the early 1980's, one friend spent a few weeks convincing the rest of us, that her mother's best friend made a movie for herself and her sisters, as surrogate daughters. Before she had me convinced, the film clip of one of the songs was on Countdown, the most watched Australian pop music show of those years. And it didn't sink in what a big thing this film is, until my friend said that Gillian Armstrong also directed "My Brilliant Career". I would have loved this film anyway, without knowing my friend and her sisters needed this much love in their world. "Starstruck" is like 'Rocky Horror Picture Show', meets 'The Princess Bride', and they hit the sack right away before a first date. It is testament to Gillian Armstrong's ability as a director, and producer, that such an ambitious script gets the treatment it deserved, despite the obviously low budget. Yet somehow, the low budget just served to make it feel all the more Australian, as though it all happened just over every Aussie's back fence. The light is unmistakably Australian, and contrasts are exaggerated somewhat by the red, blue, yellow color scheme on set. Definitely worthy of joining the lists of what student film makers need to see, for the value of how to treat the script with respect to the writer's concept.
cass3765 I was fortunate to be standing in a cinema in Sydney city when Gillian Armstrong approached a group of us kids and asked if we would like to see a preview of a new Aussie movie. We didn't know who Gillian Armstrong was we were about 16 at the time. We arranged time and day with her and attended the raw cut of Starstruck. Wow, what a night that was. There was about 15 of us and that was it. We loved it, we left excited and privileged that us teens got to see it before anyone else and gave Gillian a big thumbs up. When we left we were invited to the premier and after party. We met the cast and talked for a long time to come about our chance meeting. This is such a fun movie, great music, JO Kennedy and Ross O'Donovan were fantastic. Typical Aussie humour for the 80's. One of the best musicals of the time, clean, honest, well written, well directed and a wonderful change from the classic Australian period piece.
David E Romm The director of "My Brilliant Career", the Production Designer of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", a choreographer working without trained dancers, several script writers and many composers bring a low-budget post-punk vitality to Sydney Australia.As the commentary on the DVD mentions, the prints of Starstruck seem to have been severely cut in different releases, and this print has at least one song hacked out of the release I saw in 1982. Still, the bouncy energy survives. Teenage lust and ambition are tempered with working class family values. The homage to Richard Lester and gay Busby Berkeley routine are still hilarious, and the finale will have your toes a-tapping.
cujo-7 I LOVE this movie! I would be endlessly happy if this would be released in the US on DVD, and also a CD for the soundtrack which is amazing. I had my cousin in Australia buy me the LP years ago, but no longer have the means to play it. I did put a couple of the songs on a walking tape I made years ago, and I never got tired of them. The music is very catchy. I've never seen Jo Kennedy in anything since, which is surprising, because I thought she was quite good. This is a very fun movie, full of great performances and quirky characters.I think this was the start of my love for quirky Australian films. I really do hope to own it on DVD someday! Please! Someone. Someone who has some influence. Please! :-)
