Worth: $17.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Rebecca Murphy, Andrew Ryan, Ally Porabas
Intro:
...a wry, funny delight...tinged with an undeniable sadness...
America is a big, crazy, amazing, silly nation, seemingly built on a shaky framework of hubris, arrogance, genius, corruption, artistry and desperation, and sometimes it takes an outsider’s eye to really lens that bizarre and frenetic mix of qualities to truly cogent effect. From Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger through to Ridley Scott and Nicolas Winding Refn, the history of interlopers really getting their finger on the pulse of the US of A has been a long and rich one. And while it might be a little premature to hurl writer/director Andrew Ryan in amongst heady talent like this, this Australian filmmaker’s scathing take on America in The Florist is certainly a fascinating one.
Constructed in mockumentary style, and shot with true poetic artistry by Jon Salmon (in the kind of washed out, pastel-hued, magic hour, slack style often favoured by Sofia Coppola, Gus Van Sant and Vincent Gallo), The Florist is the unlikely tale of Annika (Aussie actress Rebecca Murphy is superb), a flaky but garishly ambitious twenty-something who runs a fine line in funky sunglasses and t-shirts (“Legalize Dreams” hilariously reads one, though the best cheekily proclaims “Ask Me…I Might”) and makes a living selling buzz-inducing edible flowers to LA’s hip eateries. Desperate to make it big, Annika stakes it all on finding the “comet flower”, an edible plant that allegedly allows whoever eats it to see the future. Along for the goofy ride is the amusingly hapless Hunter (director Andrew Ryan brilliantly doing double duty), Annika’s decidedly more sensible but easily persuaded business partner.
Propelled by a terrific electronic score by Anoraak, and hanging beautifully on the gorgeously loose-limbed, comically knowing, and ingeniously desperate lead performance from Rebecca Murphy (who should be a major star, like, right now), The Florist expertly walks a fine tonal line, feeling hip and contemporary while at the same time also delightfully skewering what it means to be hip and contemporary. With the “comet flower” standing in for every other popular craze or unobtainable fantasy, The Florist gently rips at the cheap edges of The American Dream. It’s a wry, funny delight, but one tinged with an undeniable sadness, as the film’s likeable, promising characters get tossed on a tawdry sea of “self-actualisation”, therapy, and get-rich-quick stupidity. They could and should do so much better, and that’s what gives The Florist its fragrant, bittersweet kick.
The Florist screens as part of the Screen Inc. Showcase on Thursday November 10 at 6:30pm at Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney. For all ticketing information, click here.
