Displaying items by tag: Robert Roworth

NO WITNESSES

Australia, 2021, 101 minutes, Colour.

Jack McAullay, Jacob Machin, Jackson Dunlap, Robert Roworth, Madelene Valentinis, Annie Wilson, Gemma Sykes, Paul Antony Rogers, Taya Calder-Mason.

Directed by Robert Roworth.

A small budget Australian drama, ambitious in its scope and storytelling.

It was all filmed in Newcastle, taking advantage of the atmosphere of the city, streets, locations, warehouses, walls, police precincts…

The film was written and directed as well as edited and art designed by Robert Roworth. And he plays the interrogating detective. He has assembled a cast of young actors, some of them beginning their screen experiences, some with some acting background.

One of the immediate drawbacks and comments from some of the viewers is that so much of the action takes place at night, often out in the streets, but very dark and difficult to see the characters and their expressions, sometimes in desperate situations.

Another challenge to the audience is the timeline, opening with an initial shooting, then various flashbacks to definite and indefinite times, coming back to the shooting later in the film, but audiences having to pay attention to try to locate particular scenes and their dramatic development.

At the core is the interrogation of a suspect by two police officers (there is also immediate indication of tension between the two, some flashbacks to the past, the relationship between them, now broken off, some hostility which manifests itself at moments during the interrogation.

The central character, Arthur, cheeky during the interrogation, an answer for everything, alibis for everything, quoting movies – which seems even more psychopathic when we look at the flashbacks and see the cumulative effect of his leadership of his gang, his resentment of a home invasion when a child, his determination to put the rich in their place, demands complete loyalty from his two male friends and girlfriends, seen chatting, planning, then a home invasion, his torture of the male in the house and eventually killing him, the others meant to kill his daughter but, in fact, cutting her but letting her live. And, when this is revealed, dire consequences for the two friends and his heartless killing of them.

There is also the complication with his girlfriend who is married, and the psychopath going to their house to confront her and killing her partner.

On the whole, the film keeps some interest in the plot and characters complicated though the presentation is. And, with the interrogation, there is a question as to his admission of guilt or not.

So, a small Australian film of the 2020s, which went immediately to streaming, a thriller of contemporary urban crime.