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The Plex (Film)
Rating: MA
Running Time: 90
Country: Australia
Director: Tim Boyle
Cast: John Boxer, Matt Doran
Distributor: Racing Team Productions
Film Worth: $9.50
Release Date: September 04, 2008
…a fully formed and often funny comedy…
Wearing its limitations like a badge of honour, the Aussie indie comedy The Plex uses a single shooting location and a handful of repertory actors to produce an insular tone which realistically approaches the gasping boredom and puerile frivolity of the service industry – in this case, a couple of guys working at a cinema multiplex. Its elocution of a specific type of mid-20s faux-nihilism is cringingly spot-on and, for the most part, it’s slightly too-broad ensemble cast holds up its end of the bargain with a series of effective turns.
In short, the film is about AJ (Matt Doran) and Zeke (Jason Crewes), ticket sellers and resident smart arses, as they encounter professional and romantic strains and, eventually, commit cathartic revenge. The fact that writer/director/producer Tim Boyle completes these modest missions without a whiff of cultural cringe or a cavalcade of amateurish in-jokes makes the film a modest success in its own right; that he pulls off a fully formed and often funny comedy is cause for celebration. Unfortunately, the film is also troublingly dated in some beats, as its pithy, rapid fire dialogue owes much to Kevin Smith’s mid-‘90s gems Clerks and Mallrats. Still, even that unpromising familiarity is generally rescued by its sheer proximity to the movie industry, which comes in the form of mid-level-actor and complete wanker Hollywood Sam (played by producer Brian Cobb), abused director/screenwriter Allan Smithee (Andrew Caryofyllis), whose movie (which is slated to premiere at the cinema where AJ and Zeke work) has been callously taken off him by an unscrupulous producer (who also, tellingly, added an extra exclamation point to the film’s title), and a handful of similarly cutting and clever movie biz characters which helps elevate the film above its modest base.