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Cast:
Nick Giannopoulos, Lucy Bell, Vince Colosimo,
Abi Tucker, Stephen Curry, Geraldine Turner, John Baressi, Derryn
Hinch, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell
Review by Luke Buckmaster
Rating (out of 5):
‘The Wog Boy’ is a new Australian comedy, maate, which tends to play similar jokes on numerous occasions, maate, kind of like this review is doing now, maate. The question is, maate, how long can it keep it up?
Well, virtually no plot guarantees that the film will eventually fall on its knees, and you can kind of sense that an anticlimax is awaiting since the build up is practically nonexistent. It quickly becomes evident that ‘The Wog Boy’ is not a plot-orientated film, but rather an extended collection of sketch comedy, courtesy of debut co-screenwriter and Melbourne comedian Nick Giannopoulos, who is also the star of the show, the Wog Boy himself.
Kudos to Giannopoulos and the rest of the creative team for coming up with something different and, however flawed the final product might be, I’m grateful to them for making me laugh, and judging by the crowd at the 1am screening at Crown (if that’s any judgement at all), it went down fairly well with the public.
The story follows one man, Steve (Giannopoulos), who was teased in primary school as the Wog Boy ("Wog Boy! Wog Boy! Wog Boy! Wog boy!") so he’s kept the name ever since. His philosophy is, if it’s a wog boy he is, then it’s a wog boy he’ll be. When Steve is denounced by Darrin Hynch as Australia’s biggest dole bludger, he shrewdly manipulates the situation to his advantage on national TV in a clever scene of role reversion. In no time, children are rapping to Wog Boy tracks and packing snacks in Wog Boy lunch boxes. That is fundamentally the plot of the film -- Steve’s rise to fame -- and for the climax a half-witted incident involving a ludicrous political scam to eliminate the dole is introduced to finish the piece off.
The multicultural environment of the film is a winner -- there are plenty of different kinds of people to be amused by -- although generally the characters are deadlocked into their stereotypes. That’s part of the film’s fun, I guess, but also part of its irritating simplicity.
It’s all fun and games until you just wish the wogs would stop saying wog jokes just because they’re…wogs. Under the restraints of stereotype, many characters are little more than walking talking jokes of the cultures they represent. Acting by Giannopoulos is what you’d expect, a constant loop of similar dialogue and actions that try desperately hard to maintain wog-ness.
‘The Wog Boy’ features some wacky and tacky moments which remind us that different and wonderful styles of film can be produced when the iron curtain of conventions is momentarily lifted. This film is a noble effort to blend culture and humour together in a homegrown format (it feels very much Australian), although it clearly falls short. The film, maate, relies on character and plot and both are flimsy. And I can’t believe it -- a whole wog movie without even one wog grocery owner? Without even one Con the Grocer? Cammon, maate, get your priorities in order.
