MQFF NOTES: That's Not Us (2015, Dir. William C. Sullivan)

I'm not going to say MQFF's opener was devoid of laughs (there were a few), but I think the biggest was saved for the title card that presented at the end of William C. Sullivan's (somewhat) gruelling 98 minutes of relationship (barely) issues that plague three couples (straight, gay, les) on a weekend getaway. That's Not Us it screed in whispy NYC hipster font across the entire screen in front of a predominantly affluent, predominantly white audience. Irony much?

Sure, it is probably not how we want to see ourselves (i.e. dull as fuck) but, fact is, it's doubtful that anybody in the audience had not had at least one of the conversations dribbled out on screen. Possibly word for word. I have. And recently. Unfortunately, mine was an all-too-close parallel of the lesbian couple's bed death fantasia.

For the record, the other non-issues amount to similarly un-cinematic dilemmas: the gay couple's having separation issues since one partner's picked up a plum college spot at a prestigious education course (they have prestigious education degrees?), and the straights are struggling with learning how to ride a bike (it's code for something, must be?!?!)

Ultimately though, let's face it, relationship conversations are boring. None of this is worth the screen time so passably given over to it. If Sullivan and his co-writer were aiming for vérité, they needed something more compelling in their characters. This is about as whitebread as whitebread gets, and about as interesting. On the upside, there's some charm in the performances and a fair amount of chemistry (though those lesbians need to call it quits, anyone can see that!)

I can only assume MQFF were hoping for crowd pleasing here. Nobody I talked to in the crowd was particularly pleased. The bitching afterparty made up for it though.

Par for the course for a festival opening really, so I'm not complaining. Those arancini were amazeballs!!!

★★

Trailer:

That's Not Us screened as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.