Yes, I know, I’m not supposed to write things like that in public. Unless I’m doing the whole YouTube anonymous trolling thing, and then apparently it’s ok.
But please, let me explain myself.
I have just watched the 1994 indie Australian film “Muriel’s Wedding” on Netflix. This movie breaks many rules. In fact, I think it breaks all the rules. Yet it all works, in a way that Hollywood films, with their rigid layers of studio oversight, never could.
Whatever genius drug writer/director P.J. Hogan was on when he made this film, I hope that somewhere there is a factory full of it, because we really need more of this stuff.
And Toni Colette, who was unknown at the time, is breathtaking. I can’t really think of any other cinematic performance to compare it to.
Just the ending alone, which I love to death, would get the movie nixed by any Hollywood studio executive. In my more ambitious moments, I like to think that one day I could make a film this completely brave and pitch perfect and insane.
That’s probably not going to happen. But what probably is going to happen is that a few of you will read this post, watch this film, and know exactly what I’m talking about.