Review: Love, Lust & Lies

This is the fifth instalment in a “7 Up”-esque documentary series by Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong (“My Brilliant Career”,“Charlotte Gray”, “Little Women”), first following three Adelaide teenage girls (Kerry, Diana, and Josie) in “Smokes and Lollies”. It’s now 35 years later, and those who have followed these characters (now in their mid-to-late 40s) throughout the years are probably going to love this instalment, and in fact would’ve already seen it. If this is the case, you’re probably not going to find much of interest in my review, and in fact, may become incensed by what I have to say here. I have had no previous encounter with this series, and after watching this virtual love letter to ‘Boganism’ (and I say that as a Westie myself, born and still living in Sydney’s Western Suburbs), I won’t likely be looking back at the rest, let alone catching up with any future instalments.

I won’t deny that I found the film sometimes watchable, in a sort-of bad soapie kind of way (I’ve had on-and-off love affairs with “The Bold and the Beautiful”, and to a lesser extent “Days of Our Lives” and “The Young and the Restless”), but whilst I can’t say I hated these characters, I also can’t say I found them appealing. They ranged from boring to sad to outright trashy ‘bogan’ (Closest international translation would be ‘white trash’). In the boring category we have Kerry, who is the most likeable and stable of the trio, (mostly) happily married to a nice man for over 20 years and mother of two. She seems like your typical nice working class suburban wife and mum, pretty much. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the rather sad Josie, who despite some marital stability now, has problems with at least one of her children. I guess if you’ve followed the series, you might be deeply moved by her story, I found her rather boring and sad. Then there’s Diana, the most dominating but easily the least likeable of the trio. Despite being a grandma, this trashy hell-cat is pretty much a walking, talking cliché of the worst aspects of working class Boganism. In this instalment we find out about an indiscretion on Diana’s part, a long time ago. In the film’s juiciest (and admittedly, it does have a fascinatingly gossipy soap opera vibe to it) development we find that Diana had a fling with a long-time neighbourhood resident (fleetingly glimpsed in the first instalment!) named Fury, and...well, you’ll just have to wait and see, except to say that Diana and Fury (who looks like a typical Bogan thug and has served jail time) are now together and her ex-husband Keith (the film’s most likeable character by far) is clearly the most understanding man on the face of the planet. I’m sorry, I just found this woman cheap and trashy, and I say that, like I mentioned earlier, as a proud Westie. The woman has no class, and few interesting qualities as a documentary subject.

I just don’t get why I was meant to be interested in this at all, though being new to the series didn’t help. These characters are sad, sometimes outright unlikeable, and live dull, seemingly depressing lives. They are the embodiment of the ‘bogan’, an Aussie stereotype that I, as a Western Suburbs dweller have tried my absolute hardest not to end up like. Call me elitist or a snob if you want, but if that were true, I wouldn’t still live here.

Why Armstrong would choose to look at such unhappy, possibly unfulfilled lives is beyond me, but perhaps it works for devotees of the series. I don’t get the appeal, the resonance, or even the point. Hell, I couldn’t even see any rapport between the trio, they only appear together at the end and seemed barely acquainted to me. I’m sure they were meant to be long-time friends, but even if they’ve since parted ways, I still didn’t get enough sense of familiarity and affection between the trio.

Look, for all my snobby, possibly slanderous labels of ‘Boganism’, I don’t actually dislike working-class Australians at all. I dislike the stereotypes that this film and its subjects seem to embrace (these girls all got pregnant very young, for starters). It’s not me, nor is it any other working class Australian that I know, and I do not find these characters or their lives interesting or important enough to have had five frigging films (to date) made about them.

The way the film is structured doesn’t help, either. Armstrong has attempted to help newbies to the series by beginning with a re-cap of previous events, but it is done in such a manner that it took me a while before I adjusted to what was the main and current narrative, getting confused as to what era the footage was in, at times. Obviously, series fans won’t have any troubles at all, but I was starting to feel like I had tuned into “Days of Our Lives” several years after not having watched it (Non-die hard soap opera viewers will know what I mean).

So don’t take my word for it, you might love this, if you’re a fan already. As for me, if I want to see a bunch of Bogans, I’ll just go outside my house and talk to the neighbours. I’m sure their stories are pretty similar to the ones found in this unremarkable film.

Rating: C