Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I'm once again at Santa Barbara Film Festival and taking in some movies as I eagerly await some of the star-studded tributes that are on deck. The big one, for me, is gonna be tonight as they sit down and do a “This Is Your Life” style tribute to Michael Keaton. Can't wait for that one.
In the meantime I've seen a handful of movies, most of them I haven't much cared for, but tonight I finally saw one I felt like I had something to say about. Kill Me Three Times is an Aussie crime comedy drama neo-noir mashup that owes and obvious and loving debt to Tarantino.
I suppose it's weird to be nostalgic for those post-Pulp Fiction indie ripoffs, but I can't deny that part of my enjoyment of this film came from being reminded of that exciting, if repetitive, time in indie cinema. The obvious parallels to draw from Pulp is the fractured narrative choice, but on a tonal and musical level you can feel the Tarantino influence as well.
Simon Pegg anchors this flick in a way that proves he's one of the best onscreen personalities we have working today. He plays an English assassin in Australia and while he's not the main character he certainly is the lynchpin of this universe filled with greed, intimidation and murder.
Pegg gives it all he's got (sorry, couldn't resist), but that shouldn't be a surprise. I don't think I've ever seen him half-ass a performance and this role gives him a lot to chew on. What's crazy is that he doesn't play his character super serious, so you don't get that awkward thing when inherently funny actors demand to be taken super seriously. You don't have to worry here because Pegg brings all his charm and energy to the table, except unlike the people he's most known for playing this character will happily shoot you in the head and laugh about it.
Leave it to Pegg to play a dick in a story full of assholes yet still be the most sympathetic person in the movie.
This small Australian town seems overflowing with ruthless shitheels. There's only two innocents in the story and they're not all that innocent. One's a lughead mechanic (played by eldest Hemsworth brother Luke) who happens to be in love with a local mobster's wife, the other quasi-innocent of the story played by Alice Braga. Still, they're cheaters and schemers... they just want to get out and go live happily ever after, so you like 'em more.
The real dirty birdies of this story are Callan Mulvey as the bar owning violent husband ready to kill his wife instead of seeing her with another man and Teresa Palmer as the femme fatale wife of a dentist with a gambling problem. Sullivan Stapleton plays her in-over-his-head dimwitted husband who does some cruel things, but really is just a puppet for Palmer, who can flip a switch between seduction and ice cold nastiness at will.
Everybody has their own awful crimes that just so happen to overlap in a way that could have come off confusing, but was actually pretty well laid out by screenwriter James McFarland and director Kriv Stenders. The pacing is a bit off, but it moves fast enough to have kept my interest.
It also happens to actually look like a real movie and I can't tell you how important good cinematography, camerawork and framing is to winning me over in a film festival setting where most indies are just focused on trying to get their stories told in whatever haphazard way they can. Maybe outside of this setting the sharp photography of Geoffrey Simpson (Shine) wouldn't impress as much, but after a slew of ugly/basic digital photography it felt like a breath of fresh air to see someone put any sort of effort into making their movie cinematic.
Before I log off I want to bring up how great it was seeing Bryan Brown on screen again. He plays a crooked cop named Bruce who is perhaps the most frightening person in the whole film. It felt right that one of the most Australian actors ever was a shadow looming over this Aussie neo-noir.
I don't think Kill Me Three Times is the kind of movie that kicks your ass so hard you have to show it to 25 friends, but it is a solid well-put-together film that has enough violence, bad language and fun characters to make it stand out from the noise of the indie film world at the moment. Great cast, perfectly rotten characters and an interesting tonal balance that I think they land. I dug this one a lot.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
