METAL SKIN (1994)
Director: Geoffrey Wright
Only lasting a paltry week in Brisbane, Metal Skin barely registered with the general public when it debuted in Australian cinemas.
Despite being directed by Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) and boasting two of the countries "then" hottest actors (Ben Mendolsohn and Nadine Garner), the film was deemed too bleak and depressing and quietly faded into obscurity.
Metal Skin is set in good ol’ Melbourne town and its characters are a bunch of self-destructive misfits coming apart at the seams in suburban dystopia. Joe is a social outcast who is obsessed with street car racing, Savina is a malevolent suburban witch aching with desire, Dazey is a bogan-cassonava with unsinkable charm and Roslyn is an emotionally shattered car-crash victim teetering on the edge.
All of the characters spiral out of control in a mélange of lust, speed, Satanism, blood, bad fashion and the spectre of death until all of them are driven insane.
There is no hope at the bottom of this cinematic barrel and the film exudes a moral ambiguity which leads the frazzled viewer to make their own moral judgments.
Metal Skin is anti-Hollywood in regards to "happy endings", and in being so blatantly nihilistic, it reveals its true beauty without the trite bullshit.
Wonderfully destructive.
- Review by Jordan Bloomer.
This is the final car chase scene from the film, between a Charger and a Nascar. Only watch it if you're not afraid of a spoiler: