Pluskylang Great Film overall

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

dean-schneider A debut film from an AFTRS student. A typical, empty, superficial piece of work that displays no effort at trying to get inside the minds of these characters, indeed, it rather pretends to know and is so convinced that these are 'good blokes and Sheila's' it doesn't even bother to try any harder. The story lumbered from point to point with holes in between the size of the Hawkesbury River, and the acting does no more than try and cover over these. In the end, none of it comes together in any sensible way, and there is no attempt to show what the hell this whole mess of a film is about anyway. Is it about oyster farming, or is it about life of a Sydney sider living in the country?Or is it neither? A confusion. (Spoiler) It ends with the main male and female characters in a bath together, having somehow successfully fallen in love, with no attempt on the part of the filmmaker to convincingly portray the two falling in love. It's almost as if we are expected to believe this relationship based on the mythology or formula seen in other films, a concession that this is poorly written but telling us at the same time we should go along with it for the sake of pleasing the ego of some filmmaker far far away with nothing to say and all the power to say nothing. Another film from our abysmal industry, and why? Just ask where the filmmakers learned their craft.

Tim Johnson I hope Anna Reevs, the director as well as the writer, takes justified pride in this amazingly wonderful first effort. Because of its class I was surprised to see that it was her debut film-how many others would dream of writing and directing such a superb first effort.I saw this film several days ago in Fremantle and although I had heard from electronic media outlets that it was a very good film, I had no idea, other than the obvious title what I was going to see. The beauty of the Hawksbury was breathtaking and the juxtaposition of that beauty with the basic everyday existence of the oyster farmers presented a compelling contradiction throughout the film.Maybe it's the technical strides that have taken place during the recent past but I am swallowed by the beauty of the cinematography; I am sure Bollinger whose camera work captured every nuance of the natural beauty of this region would tell me that it was his and Reeves' direction that captured the setting and that it had nothing to do with improvements in equipment. Be that as it may, the camera images were beautiful.The actors were on the whole unknown to me but the work they did made a life unknown to me real and more importantly, eminently worth watching. An absolute gem of a movie not to be missed.

Philby-3 I had a schoolmate who was nicknamed "Oyster", but I never understood how he got the name until I saw this movie. The oyster is very hard to get anything out of. It is susceptible to viruses and pollution, a shy breeder, changes its sex and doesn't like loud noises. Here, oyster farming provides a suitably off-beat background to a pleasant romantic comedy. Young, hunky, tattooed and not terribly bright city boy Jack Flange ("it's not a joke") comes to the beautiful Hawkesbury estuary to be close to his sister Nikki who is slowly recovering from a serious car accident in an expensive private hospital nearby. Short on readies to pay the hospital Jack carries out a robbery at the Sydney Fish Markets, posting the money to himself. But the money never arrives and Jack starts to suspect one or more of the locals has filched it.There are plenty of suspects. There's his boss Brownie, grumpily separated from his wife Trish who is working on the lease next door, and Brownie's Irish father Mumbles (actually the most articulate character in the picture). There's Slug, the not very sanitary septic tank cleaner whose beautiful daughter Pearl (what else) Jack takes a fancy to, the entire staff of the local post office and Skippy (no, really) the Vietnam veteran who lives up the river at Utmost Mangrove with a few crazy mates, all deranged by Agent Orange. For a while I thought we were in for an Aussie version of "Deliverance" or perhaps a re-make of the closing scenes from "Apocalypse Now". We know of course the money thing doesn't matter very much; the real questions are will Pearl and Jack get it on and will Trish and Brownie get back together. When Pearl and Jack do get it on we actually get a genuine bucolic, nay, erotic moment.While the recent "Peaches" choked on its own earnestness, writer-director Anna Reeves succeeds here in a modest way by keeping things simple. At times I found myself muttering "nice scenery and fey characters does not a romantic comedy make" and Alex O'Laghlan (at 28 almost too old for Jack), though a great looker, is no Russell Crowe. Diana Glen as Pearl is just all right but there is some great acting from the old pros, David Field as Brownie, Kerry Armstrong as Trish, Jack Thompson as Skippy and above all Jim Norton who as Mumbles makes an incredible character quite believable. Kerry has a scene in which she tends to Jack's wounds in a way the late Anne Bancroft would have admired.One amusing minor detail is that the postal service portrayed is not the corporatised but very public service Australia Post but an organisation called Allied Post with even ruder and more unfriendly operatives. I guess the producers either asked Australia Post to help and were knocked back when the PR people saw the script ("Australia Post does not lose mail") or they decided it wasn't worth asking. New Zealand actress Sarah Smuts-Kennedy who contributes a very believable rude postal clerk is inexplicably not in the credits as shown in IMDb.The Australian Film Finance Corporation handed out $3 million for this film and in contrast with most of its recent investments might get a reasonable proportion back. But I can't help thinking it's all a make-work scheme. Serious commercial films are made in Australia because there is a pool of talent here and it's cheap – hence "Moulin Rouge" and "The Matrix" series. As moviegoers do we really need these nice small inoffensive derivative pictures funded by the taxpayer which hardly anyone goes to see? Like Oyster, it's very hard to get anything out of them. It must be admitted there is the occasional pearl ("Three Dollars" wasn't bad), and this film is well made. I still can't help feeling my tax dollars could be better spent.

ptb-8 Finally, after the Oz film production industry of the past 18 months being all at sea and in the doldrums, comes a trip up the river instead that produces a film akin to a welcome breath of cinematic fresh air. OYSTER FARMER is a visually spectacular and humorously wry drama of intermingling relationships among local eccentrics and family dissent throughout the muddy mangrove oyster lease businesses on the Hawkesbury River on Sydney's northern fringe. It is a great setting for an easily enjoyable tangle of wants yearnings - and some survival - in a closed community gingerly accepting one 24 year old man finding his place in the world. As with many genuinely warm and often quite funny successful Australian films, we are presented with beautiful locations, dry humor, some hilarious sight gags, an undercurrent of mistrust and begrudging affection, and ultimately, common sense to be happy with one's lot. Previously unseen actor Alex O'Lachlan is the handsome main focus (in a Ramon Novarro way) and it is his journey we enjoy, visually and romantically as he meanders through a community of antsy couples and family jousting, hermit men and railway line-riverbank oldies all living in grubby slap-board shanties on stilts. It has a languid pace, a lot like the river itself but all the deep-water undercurrents of this type of drama also are relevant. Produced by master craftsman of Australian cinema Anthony Buckley, his films are often identifiable by their breathtaking location photography and family dramas set around a tough but troubled industry. See 70s box office champions like THE IRISHMAN, or CADDIE, or classic TV epics like POOR MANS ORANGE or HARP IN THE SOUTH or recently, THE POTATO FACTORY. His celebrated 1960s career in editing Michael Powell classics like the recently restored AGE OF CONSENT are a testament to his success in that if you see his name on an Australian film it is of a consistent standard and a uniquely heartfelt theme. New director Anna Reeves who also wrote the OYSTER FARMER script is to be applauded in that her story and inventive direction allows the pace, characters and scene to be completely satisfying experiences for the viewer. OYSTER FARMER is the film that in 2005 has reinvented the independent film industry in Australia and now in its second week of release is proving to be a major success. A character story rather than an action drama, OYSTER FARMER reminds us of Brit pix like LOCAL HERO or quiet bayou dramas of the deep south in the US. Well known acting faces like Kerrie Armstrong (see LANTANA), regular nugget David Field (not unlike England's Robert Carlyle) and veteran Jack Thompson (see BREAKER MORANT or Sunday TOO FAR AWAY) add the acting strength necessary to keep the characters and interaction interesting. Armstrong's on-board first aid to O'Lachlan provides startling personal physical closeups appreciated by the gasping crowd at the session I attended. New big screen actor Diana Glenn is the film's other main focus. She was previously seen briefly in SOMERSAULT and on TV in the angst series SECRET LIFE OF US. The widescreen photography and dreamy locations suit her quite compelling blue eyed beauty as a riverbank muse with an character-bending shoe fetish. The sight gags involving Smokey, her delinquent dog are genuinely hilarious. She is extraordinarily good looking and perfectly cast. The sex scene on a shady jetty with Alex O'Lachlan is a widescreen zinger. Some perplexing editing in the first couple of reels still puzzle me but I have a sneaking suspicion reels 2/3 at Cinema Paris at Fox Studios in Sydney were in the wrong order. Typical of that cinema. Good facility and hopeless presentation.. It is a testament to this well crafted film that even if I did see some of it in the wrong order, it did not mar the overall experience.OYSTER FARMER is a type of quiet humorous Australian drama we make well in this country and is it a relief to see this film lead the way out of the flat box office run of 2004/5. Interestingly it has taken newcomer writer director teaming with a statesman producer to achieve this success. Much like the casting too. Of particular note is Brit old timer Jim Norton whose hilarious turn as Dad almost steals the film. Local critics have welcomed this film and you should too, especially if you are an International audience.