Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
Not Quite Hollywood is a genuinely distinctive piece of film history excavation, unearthing the largely forgotten world of Australian exploitation cinema (ozploitation) with infectious energy and a trove of wild archive footage. Its novelty is high because this specific cultural-cinematic moment had been almost entirely undocumented, and Hartley's enthusiastic approach gives the film a singular voice. The documentary structure is solid — talking heads are lively and candid, and the archive clips are startling and frequently hilarious — but the overall narrative arc is fairly loose, functioning more as a greatest-hits reel than a deeply analytical exploration. Acting is irrelevant as a strict category but the interview subjects are colorful and engaging (above average for a doc). Cinematography is functional and competent, relying heavily on archival material. The ending deflates somewhat, as the film struggles to find a satisfying conclusion beyond 'and then it all faded away,' leaving the viewer wanting a stronger sense of closure or reflection.