Dir. Stephan Elliott
St. Johnathon Schaech, Rod Taylor, Susie Porter, Dee Smart
Screening at: Village City, Greater Union Castle Hill, Hoyts Broadway, Chatswood and Penrith

Don't believe the mainstream press: 'Welcome to Woop Woop' is not as unfunny, tasteless, or as generally as bad as they make it out to be. OK, so at the premiere every seat in the cinema was covered with a 'Woop Woop' whoopee cushion, but despite the tag ('a movie which will offend almost everyone') it's actually pretty tame, with the hyped anti political correctness extending only to a few fart jokes. The crime of the film isn't tackiness; it's nostalgia. It's an affectionate trawl through the kitsch of Australian culture, circa the 70s, almost Fellini-esque at times with its relentless carnival of obese women, pineapple glazes, limbless Kewpie dolls and menthol cigarettes. The circus of Australia damned.

The story is simple: American shyster Teddy flees to Australia and is knocked unconscious and abducted by local tramp Angie, who takes him to her hometown Woop Woop, an isolated community policed by the patriarchal Daddy-O. Anyone who leaves Woop Woop without his permission is shot. Teddy (or 'Boofhead' as he's christened) is drugged by Angie and wakes up married to her. What a hangover! His only desire is, naturally, to escape.

The casting is inspired: Daddy-O is played with grizzled menace by Rod Taylor, who was dragged out of retirement for the role. Dee Smart is hypnotic, haunting and earthily beautiful as Angie's sister Krystal, who longs for a life beyond teaching children how to brandish chainsaws properly (Woop Woop's economy is based around a very suspect method of dog food manufacture). Johnathon Schaech is beautiful but talentless: with no sense of comic timing and the lack of any apparent acting skill, his beauty is animalistic, sinuously muscular and transcendent: the camera loves this man, and his body. And Stephan Elliott has made sure it is shown off as much as possible-- Schaech's toned backside makes an appearance and his wet D&G bikini briefs feature prominently during the early stages of the film.

The jokes flow thick and fast, slowing down as the film grinds to a predictably predictable end, but there are some hypnotic set pieces and genuinely moving moments to keep things interesting. The movie's true achievement lies in its aesthetic (thanks to Oscar winning costume designer Lizzie Gardner and production designer Owen Paterson), which is claustrophobic, excessive and frighteningly close to any number of small country towns I've lived in. This isn't a movie: it's a cultural documentary.

Welcome to Woop Woop-- you live here too.

dita
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