Not many films are as honest and raw as this. Not many films would care enough for the underprivileged, unappreciated, ignored society we're too quick to label in Australia's poor suburbs. What this film does is question our roles as parents.
While the kids go through a series of self discoveries, though journeys they're not even aware they're on, we see their lives are heading for a place that is a bleak, hopeless and destructive. There's no guiding light for them here. Life is it's greatest teacher and the movie, to it's wonderful credit, doesn't do it in a sentimental way but in an intimate, truthful approach we see and feel them find out for themselves. It doesn't come without costs. Not everyone comes out of it unscathed.
The cast mostly comprises of real kids in similar situations and circumstances the movie presents and Director Phil Crawford does a terrific job in cutting the fat and passing no judgement on their actions-rather he presents it just as fact.
Kudos must go to everyone involved with this film. It experiments with shooting styles that on paper you may question but on this film it succeeds. A brave, fearless piece of film-making that deserves to be seen as a counterpoint to how most Australian films potray us to be.
Houso's shows us a kind of over the top satire of this community but if you want to dig deeper you couldn't ask for a better tour than this little gem. Great work.