Film Festival 2007 - The Wog Boy

Screening at the Serge Constantin Theatre, Vacoas
Sunday 18 February 2007 from 2 PM

Synopsis

Ensconced in the largely Greek neighbourhood of an inner-city Melbourne suburb, Steve (Nick Giannopoulos) is a good-natured larrikin whose life revolves around hanging out with his mates at the pizza parlour, posing at the local nightclub and hooning around in his cherished '69 Valiant. When he has a minor prang with a limo carrying the Minister for Employment (Geraldine Turner), and later impudently sends her the repair bill, the Minister decides to teach him a lesson by engineering a media slur campaign whereby he is labeled as "Australia's Biggest Dole Bludger". With his reputation (not to mention his unemployment benefits) hanging in the balance, Steve sets out to clear his name. Now he has to prove to the world, and to Celia (Lucy Bell) the girl he loves, that being a wogboy isn’t so bad after all.

Review

Courtesy of Andrew L. Urban (www.urbancinefile.com.au)

This film has crowd-pleasing ambitions and sticks to what it knows best. In the process, we are spared the subtleties and nuances of Australia's rich social mix, and given instead the tour of its broadest, funniest sideshows. This means that 'wog' is worn as a badge of honour, and somehow it comes to mean an AUSTRALIAN wog - perhaps the most profound statement the film makes. And a good one it is too, because watching the film we realise that the humour is Australian, not imported. The characters are Australian suburban people (all right, a bit overdressed and over done, but hey, this is a comic outing). It's really a gentle comedy, despite the bravura of its title and its opening gambit. Derryn Hinch deserves credit for playing his own character, warts and all, and the jovial jokes are all worthy of repetition at your next barbecue.

Director: Aleksi Vellis
Exec Prod: Roger Rothfield
Producer: John Brousek, Nick Giannopoulos
Writer: Chris Anastassiades, Nick Giannopoulos
Cast: Nick Giannopoulos, Lucy Bell, Vince Colosimo, Abi Tucker, Geraldine Turner, Hung Le, John Barresi, Kim Gyngell, Stephen Curry 
Duration: 90 min
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Original Australian Theatrical Censorship Rating: P.G.
Screen Ratio: 1.1:85