Clubland

The Australian film ”Clubland”, a favourite at Sundance, is a film to cheer about, and once again proves that Brenda Blethyn is of the great and brave actresses of her generation

Brenda Blethyn, Khan Chittenden, Emma Booth, Frankie J.Holden

The Australian film ”Clubland”, a favourite at Sundance, is a film to cheer about, and once again proves that Brenda Blethyn is of the great and brave actresses of her generation. Blethyn stars as a boozy, bawdy, overprotective mother, Jean, once a nightclub and TV performer in England a quarter of a century ago. Now in Sydney’s Western suburbs, divorced from the ex-singer who brought her to Australia two decades ago, she still performs her crass act in work class clubs on the weekend, while making chips and breakfasts in a canteen. Desperately clinging onto her past so-called glories, she smothers her two sons, one the mentally challenged Mark [a tour-de-force performance by Richard Wilson] and his 20-year old brother Tim [Khan Chittenden]. It is Tim’s growing relationship with the beautiful and assertive Jill [Emma Booth] that threatens to drive a wedge between himself and a mother desperately afraid of growing old and being alone, while Tim’s journey from sexual awkwardness evolves into his own journey of independence.

It is no surprise that the applause greeted at the conclusion of ”Clubland” was raucous and enthusiastic. Smartly written by the talented Keith Thompson and directed energetically, with style and eloquence by the extraordinary Cherie Nowlan [”Thank God He Met Lizzie”], Clubland is both very Australian in tone and vernacular yet universal in its comment on coming to terms with your past and growing older. Blethyn is simply magnificent here, vulnerable, pathetic and tragic in many ways, yet so human as she finally accepts what life has in store for her. Her final scene, singing a duet with legendary Australian rocker/actor Frankie J. Holden is alone worth the price of admission. Holden, by the way, is wonderful. Emma Booth is a find and a half as the beautiful and passionate Jill and Khan Chittenden is charmingly naïve as Tim.

A boisterous, irreverent and visually striking Australian film, ”Clubland” is a truly special piece of cinema that is destined for commercial longevity, both in its native Australia and the world.

Rating :
Reviewer : Paul Fischer