THE LONELY SPIRITS VARIETY HOUR
****
Director: Platon Theodoris
Screenplay: Platon Theodoris and Nitin Vengurlekar, based on Vengurlekar’s play of the same name.
Principal cast:
Nitin Vengurlekar
Sabrina Chan D’Angelo
Teik Kim Pok
Alison Bennett
Joyce Edmonds
Peter Gizariotis
Country: Australia
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 77 mins.
Australian release date: 18 March 2023.
After showing at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and winning the award for Best Film at the Sydney Underground Film Festival last year, Platon Theodoris’ inventive, funny movie The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour is now getting a limited release in theatres around the country. Adapted from an eponymous play written by the multi-skilled Nitin Vengurlekar, who not only co-wrote the screenplay (with the director) but also performs in the film’s leading role, it should be sought out by lovers of absurdist, off-beat comedy and original Aussie talent. This is a movie that could well attract cult status. The dates of the Q&A screenings can be found here.
Neville Umbrellaman (Vengurlekar), real name Rabindranath Chakraborty, hosts a midnight radio program from a home-made studio he’s built in his parents’ backyard garage. During the show, Neville muses about existence, the meaning of life and the mysteries of the universe while he spins tracks available in the public domain. It’s a very low-rent program in which he plays various characters and pretends to be broadcasting in front of a live audience. On this particular night, he has invited some guest performers into the studio to show off their varied abilities: there’s guitarist and folk singer Kenneth Wong (Teik Kim Pok); boulangère Yvette (Alison Bennett), who’s neither a baker nor French; and Sabrina (Sabrina Chan D’Angelo), who has a crush on Neville and performs an act that’s not exactly designed for a radio audience. At times, a four-piece jazz band pops up unannounced in the cramped space, too. It’s all very strange until we realise that Neville is lying in a hospital bed after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage. Is he remembering recent events or experiencing some kind of hallucinogenic dream?
Theodoris directs all this quiet mayhem with aplomb. His control of the material is remarkably self-assured considering that this is only his second feature, after 2015’s Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites. Full credit must also go to Brian Rapsey, who was responsible for the cinematography and the editing, both of which are excellent and used to great effect here. The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour looks terrific and Rapsey frames much of the action within static shots, which suits the material, especially the interior of Neville’s cramped studio, an Aladdin’s cave of kitsch. He’s made good use of a drone-mounted camera, too, capturing some of Australia’s ‘big things’ from odd angles - as Nev’s mind wanders, we see images of the Big Merino, the Big Lobster, the Big Murray Cod and the Big Koala. I told you it was off-beat! The script requires close attention at times, particularly when Neville goes off on one of his deadpan riffs about existentialism and life in the universe. They’re very funny and very inventive. Vengurlekar is excellent as the repressed DJ, who comes alive in front of the mike, delivering stock-standard radio-presenter clichés with rapid fire conviction, but seems to withdraw into himself when faced with people IRL. Equally awkward is Chan D’Angelo’s Sabrina, who’s obviously carrying a torch for Neville but, regardless of how provocative she is or how many hints she drops, is barely able to get a reaction from her tongue-tied love-interest. It’s a first-rate performance. Also very good in their small roles are Teik Kim Pok and Alison Bennett.
The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour is an original, clever movie that reveals its creators’ acknowledged influences of Spike Milligan and Jacques Tati on its slightly surreal world view. Catch it if you can.
Screenplay: Platon Theodoris and Nitin Vengurlekar, based on Vengurlekar’s play of the same name.
Principal cast:
Nitin Vengurlekar
Sabrina Chan D’Angelo
Teik Kim Pok
Alison Bennett
Joyce Edmonds
Peter Gizariotis
Country: Australia
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 77 mins.
Australian release date: 18 March 2023.
After showing at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and winning the award for Best Film at the Sydney Underground Film Festival last year, Platon Theodoris’ inventive, funny movie The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour is now getting a limited release in theatres around the country. Adapted from an eponymous play written by the multi-skilled Nitin Vengurlekar, who not only co-wrote the screenplay (with the director) but also performs in the film’s leading role, it should be sought out by lovers of absurdist, off-beat comedy and original Aussie talent. This is a movie that could well attract cult status. The dates of the Q&A screenings can be found here.
Neville Umbrellaman (Vengurlekar), real name Rabindranath Chakraborty, hosts a midnight radio program from a home-made studio he’s built in his parents’ backyard garage. During the show, Neville muses about existence, the meaning of life and the mysteries of the universe while he spins tracks available in the public domain. It’s a very low-rent program in which he plays various characters and pretends to be broadcasting in front of a live audience. On this particular night, he has invited some guest performers into the studio to show off their varied abilities: there’s guitarist and folk singer Kenneth Wong (Teik Kim Pok); boulangère Yvette (Alison Bennett), who’s neither a baker nor French; and Sabrina (Sabrina Chan D’Angelo), who has a crush on Neville and performs an act that’s not exactly designed for a radio audience. At times, a four-piece jazz band pops up unannounced in the cramped space, too. It’s all very strange until we realise that Neville is lying in a hospital bed after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage. Is he remembering recent events or experiencing some kind of hallucinogenic dream?
Theodoris directs all this quiet mayhem with aplomb. His control of the material is remarkably self-assured considering that this is only his second feature, after 2015’s Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites. Full credit must also go to Brian Rapsey, who was responsible for the cinematography and the editing, both of which are excellent and used to great effect here. The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour looks terrific and Rapsey frames much of the action within static shots, which suits the material, especially the interior of Neville’s cramped studio, an Aladdin’s cave of kitsch. He’s made good use of a drone-mounted camera, too, capturing some of Australia’s ‘big things’ from odd angles - as Nev’s mind wanders, we see images of the Big Merino, the Big Lobster, the Big Murray Cod and the Big Koala. I told you it was off-beat! The script requires close attention at times, particularly when Neville goes off on one of his deadpan riffs about existentialism and life in the universe. They’re very funny and very inventive. Vengurlekar is excellent as the repressed DJ, who comes alive in front of the mike, delivering stock-standard radio-presenter clichés with rapid fire conviction, but seems to withdraw into himself when faced with people IRL. Equally awkward is Chan D’Angelo’s Sabrina, who’s obviously carrying a torch for Neville but, regardless of how provocative she is or how many hints she drops, is barely able to get a reaction from her tongue-tied love-interest. It’s a first-rate performance. Also very good in their small roles are Teik Kim Pok and Alison Bennett.
The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour is an original, clever movie that reveals its creators’ acknowledged influences of Spike Milligan and Jacques Tati on its slightly surreal world view. Catch it if you can.