Noise (2007)

One of my all time favorites.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Noise is a typical Australian movie. For some reason Australian film makers think they have to make unusual, quirky films for them to be successful, and for this reason, almost all of them are bad. Despite knowing this, I decided to give Noise a chance as the premise sounded interesting.The plot of Noise twists and turns with no real purpose. Every scene contains some nonsensical element. Perhaps the director wanted to mirror the disorienting sense tinnitus gives it's sufferers, in the style of how the story is told, but in reality he just made a truly horrible film that is boring and aggravating at how stupid it is. It never captivates the imagination whatsoever and the story is ridiculous.

"Noise" is proof positive you don't need a big budget to make a compelling story with remarkably good production values and fine acting. I don't usually, but in this case I viewed the background "extras" available on the DVD and was impressed by how much the company did with how meager resources. The result is a credit to them. The acting is top-notch, but as others have said the plot is disjointed, doesn't always make sense, and has some loose ends. The script clearly had a hatchet taken to it.There is also some implausibility and irrelevance, such as why the boss would be angry at him for being sick and what is the importance of the tinnitus after all. Even laid-back Ozzie police officers must cringe at the protagonist receiving hearsay testimony in the trailer without so much as taking positive identification from the people who visit, and the idea of leaving a single officer alone in a location where he/she is vulnerable to assault ... and worse, as we eventually see.All the faults not withstanding, this is a film worth paying attention to, with good directing and some taut moments that are pretty compelling. The budget was undoubtedly less than the stipend a mediocre Hollywood star would command, so it is a job well done. Finally, the DVD lacks any subtitles, and some of the "Strine" dialect and accent is hard to get the first or even second time around.

I like independent movies. I like to see the work of many talented people resulting in a work of art. This piece is one of those. The acting, sound, post, cinematography, story, the entire piece was really good, it is totally worth watching. However, this piece of art tried too hard to suck the audience into its psyche by elongating the scenes to the point of exhaustion. I wonder how many "beats" were in the script. I actually got so bored with the pace of the movie that I decided to get out the ironing board to do something productive with my time while the movie slowly unfolded. So ladies and gents, make sure you bring something to keep you entertained during the unnecessarily long scenes. Chop 15 minutes off the top and you got yourselves a real winner. Still a good little indie.

I thought this was really an excellent movie. It was well-written, acted and directed. There was real drama going on here, and you really felt for both the cop who may have a brain tumor and the young girl finding herself in the middle of a bloodbath. While it was a "small" film in the sense that it contained no "stars" and it was clearly shot on a modest budget, I could easily see it being remade into a large, big budget Hollywood production. My sense, though, is that it would lose much of the intimacy and emotional power if such a translation were to occur.It does, by the way, have my favorite curse I have heard in years: "f*ck knuckle."