Seriously living her dreams
Seriously Red is a wee Aussie number from earlier this year. Writer and lead actor Krew Boylan (Primal) is Red. She is a trainee housing valuer and fulltime misfit. Red lives in her mum’s converted garage, dreams of being somewhere other than small-town New South Wales and is nursing an infatuation with Dolly Parton.
A staff party that goes off the rails leaves Red unemployed, but at least she has improbably caught the eye of a talent agent, during a particularly catastrophic rendition of Nine To Five.
Seriously Red unfolds as a neat wee story about the importance of being yourself. And of how hard that lesson might be to learn when you have your heart set on being a professional impersonator. And as that film, Seriously Red kind of works. It earns a few laughs and wraps itself up neatly in time for the credits. But the reason I liked it is the sense that Boylan and director Gracie Otto (Seriously Red is her first feature) are aiming for something a bit spikier and darker, even if that film hasn’t quite made it to our cinemas.
Otto has assembled a fabulous cast of Aussie TV and bit-part players, including comedian Celeste Barber. The one big name here is Emmy-winner Bobby Cannavale, as a scene-stealing Neil Diamond tribute.
A side plot involving Red’s night with an Elvis impersonator (Rose Byrne) remains inconclusive, as though a story was written, but all we get to see are the beginning and the end.
Red’s more serious love interest is a Kenny Rogers’ impersonator, conveniently called Kenny, sporting such obviously glued-on facial hair I assumed it was to be worn onstage only. But the beard hangs in there for the whole of the film, clinging to Kenny’s jawbone like an emaciated squirrel.
And yet, it’s these flailings that lift the film. Questions over Red’s mental health are raised and the film sometimes seems about to veer into Nurse Betty, via Hedwig and the Angry Inch territory. Just sensing the potential for that made me enjoy Seriously Red a lot more than if it had just played nice.
In 2018, a film called Wild Rose made Jessie Buckley a star, playing a Scottish single mother who dreams of killing it in Nashville. Wild Rose didn’t quite work, but the parts of it that were good, were fantastic. If you saw Wild Rose, you’ll remember it fondly and I reckon you’ll remember Seriously Red the same way.
Seriously Red is now screening in select cinemas nationwide.
Seriously Red (M, 94 mins) Directed by Gracie Otto Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★1⁄2