Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Rory Potter, Rasmus King, Yasmin Honeychurch, Dune Rats, Ruby Fields
Intro:
Raucously entertaining but also deeply thoughtful...
With his docos Bra Boys (the surprise smash which he co-directed with Sunny Abberton), Fighting Fear, and The Battle Of Cape Fear, young Aussie filmmaker Macario De Souza has crafted a series of compelling works that provide fascinating portraits both of individuals and of the often unconventional communities in which they live. De Souza now widens his playing field with the fresh and entertaining youth flick 6 Festivals, his first fictional feature, but one which remains firmly affixed to his documentary roots.
Shot on the fly at a variety of music festivals around Australia (which are fictionalised for the film’s dramatic purposes), 6 Festivals follows three young friends who initially appear to be out for little more than a good time by hitting up the biggest music events around the country. But as the film rolls on at pace, we soon learn that James (a wonderfully sensitive turn from Rory Potter), Summer (the very engaging and utterly charming Yasmin Honeychurch) and Maxie (charismatic surfer turned actor Rasmus King, who is shaping up to be a big, big star via a series of films all about to see release in the next few weeks and months) are all dealing with major personal issues that threaten to derail their musical odyssey.
Filled with cracking musical performances (the film is almost like a far more entertaining, and far less sexualised, version of Michael Winterbottom’s conceptually interesting but ultimately awful 9 Songs) and cameo appearances (someone, seriously, right now needs to make a Hard Day’s Night or Studio 666-style movie with Dune Rats) as the young trio sneak backstage and mix with the festivals’ various performers, 6 Festivals really feels for and empathises with its youthful leads. It’s a rare film totally sympathetic to its teenaged characters, and it feels all the more energetic and refreshingly freewheeling for that. Raucously entertaining but also deeply thoughtful, 6 Festivals is a wondrously appealing Aussie coming of age drama.
