The Magician

The Kino Dendy hosted the Melbourne theatrical launch of The Magician last night and MLI and I were lucky enough to attend the bash and be interviewed and photographed by a Melbourne newspaper. So keep you eyes peeled for Ladycracker this weekend.

As far as the film went, I really rated The Magician. My reasons are many but firstly, from the point of view of a person who selects films for a festival and has done for the last four years, films that are written, directed and acted by the same person usually spells kiss of death. They have a tendency towards insularity and The Magician has some great qualities that allows it the skirt this embrace.

While The Magician has a small cast, the talent more than makes up for this, especially Scott Ryan who has an easy charisma as Ray the hit man. Special mention also go to Tony, the hapless eccie dealer who is begging for Ray to not take his life.

Other reasons I enjoyed this film include the shonky hand held camera work, making it feel like you are the eyewitness to a few days in the life of our mysterious hitman and his unseen neighbour/documenter. You get the feeling that most of this film was shot on the fly and that adds to the feeleing of tension, particularly when Ray really gets into his profession. Also the script has some corker pop culture conversations about Tome Cruise, Wayne Carey and Mardi Gras that are genuinely funny.

I have no idea about the origins of the script, perhaps it came from a successful short idea and developed from there? Perhaps my one complaint would be that it is difficult to place the whereabouts of the characters amongst the crimes syndicates of Australia. However as far as an addition to the crime genre in Australia, I think that is rates up there with Chopper and Blue Murder for downright fascination with the crooks and The Magician will be popular from Chapel St to Boronia.