Metal Skin
| Year: | 1994 |
| Production Co: | Daniel Scharf Productions |
| Director: | Geoffrey Wright |
| Cast: | Aden Young, Tara Morice, Ben Mendelsohn, Nadine Garner |
This very early effort by Geoffrey (Romper Stomper, Macbeth) Wright is a misnomer. You think it's going to be an action drama about underground street racing, something like Midnight Spares only a drama.
In fact it's about a collision of lives as an inarticulate teenager (Aden Young in a role that - if you've seen him in the much more recent The Bet shows just what a chameleon he is) falls in with a local hoon (Mendelsohn) in a kind of hero worship and they share a love hate relationship of both mentor and student, friends and status rivals.
They both have girl trouble - the former with a Wiccan who's in love with the latter (Morice, who made such a huge splash with Strictly Ballroom and went nowhere after this), and the girlfriend of Mendelsohn's character (Garner, who likewise fizzled out despite huge early promise). She has her head on straight and has never forgiven him for an accident that left her scarred, trying to extract herself from his life and the whole scene.
It's a character piece rather than a racing movie, and with only one car race in it, it's left to some highly emotional but clouded motivations to tell the rest of the story. Despite a thing of quality, it doesn't really make much sense or have much impact, even with a shatteringly violently conclusion straight out of nowhere.
In fact it's about a collision of lives as an inarticulate teenager (Aden Young in a role that - if you've seen him in the much more recent The Bet shows just what a chameleon he is) falls in with a local hoon (Mendelsohn) in a kind of hero worship and they share a love hate relationship of both mentor and student, friends and status rivals.
They both have girl trouble - the former with a Wiccan who's in love with the latter (Morice, who made such a huge splash with Strictly Ballroom and went nowhere after this), and the girlfriend of Mendelsohn's character (Garner, who likewise fizzled out despite huge early promise). She has her head on straight and has never forgiven him for an accident that left her scarred, trying to extract herself from his life and the whole scene.
It's a character piece rather than a racing movie, and with only one car race in it, it's left to some highly emotional but clouded motivations to tell the rest of the story. Despite a thing of quality, it doesn't really make much sense or have much impact, even with a shatteringly violently conclusion straight out of nowhere.