The Wog Boy
The word 'wog' is a racist term of uncertain origin, perhaps an
abbreviation of 'golliwog' or an acronym for 'Westernised oriental
gentleman'. More recently in this country it was used by those of British
descent to describe southern European people, especially those migrating
after WW2.
Thirteen years ago writer actor Nick Giannopoulos set out to reclaim the
word 'wog' so 'ethnics' could feel more equal with the 'skippies'. Since
then he's had embarrassed audiences rolling in the aisle at stage
performances of Wogs out of Work, Wogarama etc, and has made Acropolis Now
for TV. Belatedly perhaps, Aleksi Vellis brings Wogs to the big screen.
Steve (Nick Giannopoulos) has been called a wog since he wore Greek national
costume and took a salami for lunch on his first day at school in Australia.
As an adolescent he bought a Valiant, equipped it with the number plate 'WOG
BOY' and did John Travolta impressions at local discos. He is now
thirtysomething and content to be on the dole and hanging around with his
ethnically diverse mates. One day his car collides with a Minister for
Social Security's vehicle and he becomes embroiled in the politics of
unemployment. Much turns on the public's perception of him via Derryn
Hinch's tv show. At the same time Steve enters (an uneasy relationship with)
ministerial staffer Celia (Lucy Bell).
Steve at his best is a poor-man's Chauncey Gardiner (Peter Sellers in Being
There), but his metaphor is pizza rather than flowers and his wisdom even
more elusive. The Wogboy dabbles in the potentially interesting issues of
work, media power, personal injuries compensation and different forms of
rejection but ultimately it shies away from any depth or incisiveness. From
the outset this movie is as happy to buy a groan as a bargain basement
laugh.
The characters are stereotyped yet sometimes lovable 'new Australians'. They
are intellectually slow, emotionally immature, gullible, aggressive and
shallow. Giannopoulos plays his own hairy-faced mother and one of his
friends is a compo fraud. There is little evidence in these
characterisations of the value that migrants have brought to Australian
life, and if anything they reinforce more racist ideas.
The acting is mostly theatrical 'ham' with the direction and writing such
that even Derryn Hinch isn't convincing as himself. The accents are bad,
there is some stilted swearing and the central thread of romance between
Giannopoulos and Bell is as predictable as it is uninteresting.
Vince Colosimo as Steve's pathetic best mate is relatively endearing in this
context and his entanglement with Abie Tucker's character provides some of
the better moments due largely to her effervescence. Hung Le, Kim Gyngell,
Gerry Connolly and Lucy Taylor are wasted. The physical separation of the
audience from the actors in films may render less-confronting some of this
comic material which was originally developed for the stage. The film makers
have wasted the freedom to have the actors move about a bit too which is
especially dull as they don't move the camera around much.
It remains to be seen if the word 'wog' still has the power to draw an
audience at a time when Europeans are fairly well integrated into the
community and united with the skips against Asians, Middle Easterners and
Aborigines. Wogboy seems stale, ultimately racist and doesn't rise above the
benchmark set by They're a Weird Mob some thirty years ago. (Andrew
Bunney--filmnet.org.au)
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