Bamboozled wins Tropfest by turning gay sex into dumb joke

Hardie’s “reality TV” defence is flawed because the reality TV is never set-up. It’s just a horrible and horribly cheap gag ending.

If “Bamboozled” was really about reality TV, we might have the Darren Gilshenan character as the protagonist – the film’s POV – and we’d see the extreme lengths to which he was prepared to go in the name of reality TV.

Or we might have Pete and/or Helen/Henry as a contestant/s on a reality TV show and we’d see the extreme lengths to which they were prepared to go.

The problem is: we don’t see any of that. What we see is, well, we’ve all seen the film by now.

Nothing riles audiences more than having the rug pulled out from under them. Why? Because the filmmakers haven’t “earned” the ending.

Watching “Bamboozled” last night I groaned at the lazy, glib transgender op set-up. But rolled with it because, well, to be honest, it’s Tropfest. So yeah. Okay. Then I bought into Pete and Henry reconnecting after eleven years.

But that ending. Oh, Matt. Along with everything else, it just wasn’t “earned.”

One hopes that Hardie’s greatest crime is terrible screenwriting. Was he really taking a satirical stab at reality TV? Perhaps.

But from his interview after winning Tropfest, I’m not sure if his ambition was anything more than to make a seven minute sketch:

“I was going for a walk, I knew I wanted to make a Tropfest film and sex change popped into my head.”

Leaving aside the homophobia for a sec, the problem with the film is that it just isn’t very good. It’s something you might expect from high school kids in a media class but not from an international event like Tropfest. How ‘Bamboozled’ managed to get into the Top 16 let alone win it, reflects poorly on the state of Australian film making. Embarrassing.

Almost no one who wins tropfest seems to go on to any great success. Or even become a working professional. Sure there was Wilfred as a finalist but what else?
There is a theory that they choose bad films so filmmakers think they have a shot and keep entering and giving away their intellectual property which is then sold without payment. If there was any career boost involved in might be worth it but there doesn’t seem to be. It is disappointing that Bamboozled won. I wonder if Adam Elliot chose it or if he was outvoted. Tropfest is now rather pointless, we have youtube and vimeo year round.

Sorry, but this is a beat-up. It’s funny, and about the only film the crowd enjoyed. Wasn’t surprised when the subject-matter caused an inevitable kerfuffle, but art does imitate life. Get over it.

I think commenting on the state of Aussie film is very harsh. The overall standard was very high. People going toTropfest expect to be entertained with wine and crackers in a big field, the guys jumping up and down behind the presenters clearly weren’t there to find the next best director.

I do think there were better films on the night and its a shame that TF’s reputation might be taking a hit. I blame the judges,did they have criteria?

i just watched it.

It’s hilarious!

And I’m gay. Get over it people and lighted up.

Sheesh…. soon enough we will be banned from laughing at the special Olympics…..

In a short film, it’s probably quite hard to deal with such subjects in a deep n meaning ful way. However, the film is just really bad, in fact, all the films I watched were terrible. What was the animated one? The gallery security guard jumping into a painting and fooling a would-be burglar. It was so terrible, my 13 month old could write a better story (& animate it better). The whole event was a damp squib and John Paulson needs to look at how to get back to the tropfest roots that we hear so so so much about at the beginning of every effing tropfest.

Isn’t the irony here that it’s using tacky, exploitative media to actually attack tacky, exploitative media?

Such a disappointingly poor film on a number of levels. If Hardie really did think that we would look at this piece of filmography and think that he is highlighting the stereotypes of social commentary and how the world views these issues, and that the film is highlighting this to oppose those issues, then he’s lost his mind.

It really does make a mockery of sex change issues, “I woke up one day & thought – stuff it – I’ll get a sex change…popped a few hormone pills and job done”. What a load of shit.

“A general Mediterranean wash”???? WTF. If this wasn’t part of an arts show, it would be highlighted in the media as being damn right racist. Imagine if this rubbish was on hey hey it’s Saturday…

When people like Dave say ‘get over it people and lighted (sic) up’ it’s pretty effing ignorant and they aren’t really thinking of people that would be affected by this.

Yet, it’s all fair game in the gay and lesbian community (and fair play to them, may I add.) They’re constantly parodying and mocking women, priests and nuns, politicians, religions, working class people etc (and again, I appreciate it’s largely harmless – and often important – satire.) But when given a little razzing themselves they fast cry foul. I’m not religious but some members of my family are Catholic and they find the idea of gay, bearded men dressed as nuns hugely insulting and repugnant. And I can respect that – having one’s religion mocked like that is, for most, unacceptable. Maybe the sensitive ones need to lighten up a bit here. After all – we’re all in this together!

I didn’t think the film was funny, but that’s mostly a matter of taste (disclosure: I am a white, gay male).

Unfortunately, and what really bothers me, is that the humour in this film is no different from the casual racism and casual misogyny that Australians engage in more often that they’re willing to accept. I am usually horrified at the “jokes” that are laughed about on morning television, on the radio, at the pub, at a dinner table. And what’s really scary is that such banter is the norm.

Before someone jumps in and says that Australians aren’t racist / homophobic / mysoginist, or no more than anyone else, I’d like to suggest that that’s not true. What is mainstream humour in Australia would never be accepted in a New York pub, or on a London radio station. I know this, having lived in all of these places. Disagree? Hmmm…Would this film have made it through any film festival in either of those two places? Would a bunch of black-faced dudes get past the executive producers of a Saturday night variety show? Would any candidate for the nation’s leadership be able to stand behind a sign that says “Ditch The Witch” – and then actually win?

Not a chance.

Instead of yelling at poor Matt Hardie, who won an award he probably didn’t expect, how about asking the judges to tell us what they thought was funny about it? Or asking why it is that marginalised communities remain the butt of everyone’s jokes?

Wow, furore over nothing. The filmmaker must be loving the exposure. My viewing of the film was that we get to the point where the characters have consumated their relationship and guess what? No ridicule, no shame or slapstick. It’s the point after this that the film crew bursts in and makes fun of the main character that is the point of the film. Nothing wrong with what they have done, it’s the media making fun of him that’s wrong. Gotta say, not a great film, but certainly not a homophobic one either. Pick your targets people, this is not a film that makes fun of gay relationships, it’s making fun of people that try to profit from demonising gay relationships.