Mad Bastards is an
Australian export; a road movie with a little more bite and a lot more
music. Brendan Fletcher, a
director more accustomed to music videos than feature-length films, leads the
project and his visual style is noticeable from the outset. At its core, Mad Bastards is about several men whose parallel lives are, or have
been, violent and in need of redemption.
The
highlight of Mad Bastards is its
music. Fletcher is obviously very
comfortable splicing images and sound together to create the desired mood and
tone, and often songs play for several minutes at a time, functioning as
interludes between scenes. The
twangs of strings and the beats of drums are almost pervasive. In fact, at times the music is so
overwhelming that it makes understanding the rapid-fire Australian speech
abnormally difficult.
When
the music stops and the story kicks in, the problems come tumbling after. Of the three major male characters, the
youngest is criminally underdeveloped.
Unfortunately, it has an impact on his relationship to the other main
characters as well, so that in most scenes you never feel like both characters
are real. Mad Bastards features some really cool cinematography and the
beautiful Australian backdrop, but ultimately the decision to put style over
substance makes the drama hard to really buy into.
