Preface To Catastrophe: A Movie Recommendation

(image from the IMDb)

No, this is not a recommendation from Self Help Radio's resident cinephile Chuck. Yes, this might be the first time I've explicitly recommended a movie on this blog. Maybe I should do that for every one of these prefaces. I'll think about it. Meanwhile.

Here's a sweet Australian rom-com from the mid-90s. It had a couple of firsts for me - it was the first time I saw actors Radha Mitchell & Frances O'Connor. & it may have been the first rom-com I saw in which there were gay characters who were part of the romantic element (I think it's about two couples but I'm not entirely sure at this point) of the film & not relegated to supporting characters (or part of a gay movie). I found it charming & ridiculous & probably put it on my recommended movie shelf when I worked at a video store in the late 90s.

It's funny, I actually found the movie in its entirety online a few months ago but it seems to have since disappeared. Rats. Chuck is better at this than I am! But if you see it around & you like movies like this, maybe think of my recommendation. As far as data goes, it has a 6.4 on the IMDb & a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes (though 51% for critics yikes). But this review of the film from the Guardian has a nice take: "Two decades on it’s a wonderfully spritzy dialogue-driven work to revisit, full of oomph & chutzpah."

It's almost thirty years old now however. But I watched some of it online a few months ago & remember it fondly. & it features some small catastrophes!