JOSH JARMAN

Australia, 2004, 96 minutes, Colour.

Marcus Graham, Daniela Farinacci, Damien Richardson, Kestie Morassi, Kim Gyngell, Susie Cato.

Directed by Pip Mushin.

Josh Jarman is a pleasant variation on romantic comedies along with some satire at the commercialisation of art in the name of public taste. A modest success in Australia, but popular at some festivals overseas.

The film was written and directed by actor and director, Pip Mushin, who co-wrote from experience and obviously enjoyed writing and directing this film. It is a star vehicle for Marcus Graham who has had a long career in Australian cinema (and some overseas experience, especially in Mulholland Drive). There is an engaging supporting cast and some broad comedy from the popular comedian, Kym Gyngell.

Josh Jarman has written several plays and has had 28 total members in the audience (including his mother twice). He shops his play around, its being rejected as too serious and not popular. He is turned down by wealthy and rather crass producer, played by Kim Gyngell. And there is an encounter with his daughter and the contract which requires him to be a companion to the daughter to facilitate its production.

Josh is genial, sometimes dithering, a mixed self-image, good friends with Russ, Damien Richardson, would-be actor, gambler, and taking on masked robberies at fast food outlets, the most inept attempts one could see!

Thrust of the parody is the gradual transforming of Josh’s serious play, from making the protagonists younger rather than older, the woman becoming a nurse, the man a doctor, and, eventually, inserting some and dances in comedy in the Broadway style.

What should Josh do? Go with the public flow and celebrity? Denounce the transformation of his play? Make a new start, write a new play, win the girl who plays the cello in an ensemble…? Of course.

1. A variation on a romantic comedy? The playwright hero and his vicissitudes? The cello player and her struggles?
2. The Melbourne sitting, the atmosphere of the city, blocks of flats, small theatres, Her Majesty’s, fast food franchises…? The musical score – and, eventually, the musical numbers in the play?
3. Marcus Graham as Josh Jarman, genial, his ambition in writing plays, the small performances, his mother going twice, shopping his play around, the various refusals, going to see Stan Billows, meeting Sasha? The beer with her, conversation, the night together? His friendship with Russ, their discussions, Russ and his career, auditions, his gambling, masks and lame and amateur hold-ups? His philosophy of robbing multinationals and neglecting to note the casinos were multinationals?
4. In himself, quiet, writing, theatre? The encounters with Maxine, the cello, her group, Brahms, her going to the counsellor, the sexual experience? Reading Josh’s play, her sadness at the issues?
5. The invitation by Stan Billows, his home, the meal, his wife and her seductive behaviour? Sasha and the meal? The decision to produce the play? The relationship with Sasha, part of the contract to be her partner, and the comic visualisation of her past partners and errors? And finishing with Russ?
6. The satire in what happened with the play, modest production, concern about the public and taste, introduction to the director, his notes, the comedy of the transition from the simple title of a man and a woman to Doctors and Nurses, the glimpses of Josh’s intention with the elderly couple, becoming younger, the nurse, the doctor, turning it into a comedy, the first night, the fulfilment of his dreams, dressed up, in the audience, the audience laughing at applauding, the insertion of the musical numbers, the crass style of lyrics, acting, dancing?
7. The episode with Russ, having to begin up, the gambling debts, the police? Coming home and finding Maxine, sad after reading the play?
8. His going on stage, his eventual denunciation, Sasha applauding? Russ applauding, Maxine at rehearsals and reading the news?
9. Months later, finding Maxine again, writing the new play, the modest production, the applause – and the title, and the references, Brahms and Maxine’s cello experiences?