Kiss or Kill

If nothing else, this winner of five Australian Film Institute Awards (including Best Picture) convinced me that it was a lean year for the boys and girls down under. Taking two derivative pages from the Oliver Stone school of filmmaking (subject and style), the film introduces your standard issue young thug pair for whom sex and violence isn't a thrill so much as a full-time job. Nikki (Frances O'Connor) and Matt (Matt Day) run a lucrative sting operation--Nikki seduces businessmen, drugs them, and then invites Matt into the hotel room for a little robbery action. When a would-be mark dies from an apparent overdose, the pair get nervous--taking extra-special precautions to wipe down everything before they hit the road...and then--in a scene which absolutely makes no sense--Nikki tosses the guy's wallet out the window of their car, effectively handing the authorities a road map of their escape route. From there, the film takes more absurd turns than Steve Jobs' career at Apple, but I found myself asking the same critical question over and over: (namely: "who gives a rat's butt?"). Also, memo to director Bill Bennet: choppy editing is not alchemy; it will not automatically turn base filmmaking into gold. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)