After a middle career making movies in the U. S. like “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Peter Pan” (2003), PJ Hogan returns to his Australian roots with the autobiographical “Mental,” two decades past his early success with “Muriel’s Wedding” (1994). Set in the fictional suburban beach town of Dolphin Heads, “Mental”‘s brood of lead characters are the Moochmore girls, each equally convinced they are suffering various psychological disorders: one would much rather be mental than simply unpopular. Their “Sound of Music”-obsessed mother goes “on holiday” after suffering a mental breakdown, leaving the philandering politician father (Anthony Lapaglia), the local mayor, to care for five girls he barely knows.He picks up a pit-bull-wielding drifter named Shaz (Toni Collette) alongside the road who quickly assumes the pot-smoking Mary Poppins role. Armed with a blade in her boot, an old psychologist’s handbook—as well as being slightly unhinged herself—Shaz escorts the girls around town to confront those who made their mother feel bad. Along the way, wouldn’t you know, Shaz shows that the conformity of suburbia is a breeding ground for mental issues despite how normal they seem on the surface. Liev Schreiber takes an offhandedly surreal approach as the boss of eldest daughter Coral, obsessed with using sharks as an analogy for everything (“I’ve battled insanity and it’s a shark!”). Appropriately cringeworthy at times, Hogan’s eager cast lends comedic method to what might only have been madness. 116m. (Julie Gavlak)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Spawn Sacrifice: A Review Of The Creator "The Creator" is richly detailed, punchy, pulpy, punkish entertainment that still has highly serious subjects in mind, without growing didactic and with substantial heart.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
Uncanny Ally: A Review Of M3GAN "M3GAN" sells itself in its first handful of seconds in how it introduces the handiwork of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, "Get Out") and her present product, PurrPetual Petz from Funki.
RECOMMENDED
