Burke & Wills (2005, Oliver Torr and Matthew Zeremis)
A portrait of two young men: Burke, who begins the film as a somewhat aloof but mostly ok guy, and wills, a layabout. Wills is forced to move out of his girlfriend's house by her mother and moves in with Burke.
Burke is quiet as Wills talks about his life, dreams, and ideas. He responds only in limited exchanges and does the same at his job. Wills finds a job (after a great interview scene) and starts to get himself together as he tries to reunite with his girlfriend.
Burke, who we can tell is schizophrenic if we know the signs, does well until his grandmother dies. This triggers the more severe symptoms and his consequent devolution that culminates in his rape of Wills' girlfriend and suicide. Wills finds him after these events are relayed to him by her, sees Burke bleeding, and leaves him to die.
The early parts of the film can be quite humourous, while the later bits are rather twisting. They did very well at showing that schizophrenics aren't always symptomatic and that those symptoms, once evident, can be pretty terrible; also that they can be set off by any significant stressor.
I saw the man who performed the music for the film perform at the Statement Lounge between films. He was alright, and some of the songs had rather clever lyrics.
No. 2 (2006, Toa Fraser)
A grandmother's desire to name a successor before her death leads to a party that reunites a family at odds.
After much turmoil, the party goes off. Rather than just her grandchildren, Nana Maria, gets a party with her children, grandchildren and their boy/girl friends, and great grandchildren. They manage, after much frustration and effort, to all come together and have a good time and feast just like the parties Nana Maria remembers from her youth.
Devon puts this in the category of "ethnic family coming together for significant event and dealing with various problems because of it" (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding). While I don't agree completely, it does quickly become clear where the movie is most likely going next.
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