Cunnamulla

Ironically opening with the sound of a heavenly choir ushering in a swelteringly hot Christmas in Cunnamulla, located in the "bush" at the end of a rail line in Outback Queensland, filmmaker Dennis O'Rourke's Cunnamulla is a profile of the kind of small town that makes you happy you live some place else. A cast of characters is quickly and deftly introduced: there's a taxi driver of a "flash cab" whose only fares seem to be the film's camera crew, a scrap dealer with a grudge against government, a disc jockey with heavy metal ambitions, a dog catcher who doubles as an undertaker, a couple of very young looking teen girls who fight off advances by local boys (whose idea of a pick-up line is "let's have a crack at ya"), and an aborigine who shuttles between jail and freedom. Most of the residents are pretty unhappy, gossiping about each other, griping about the lack of work, the welfare state, the heat, or the boredom. Unfortunately, there's no dramatic arc here--the characters are still in the same place at the end of the video as they were in the beginning (probably the point)--and the many colorful details, such as the annual lizard race where the confused creatures huddle in a circle, seem to be perpetually on the edge of being funny, without ever actually crossing over into humor. To the filmmakers credit, Cunnamulla boasts originality, but it's questionable whether this skewed slice-of-life documentary will have much resonance outside Australia. Optional. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)