Brian Trenchard-Smith

  • Dead End Drive-In (1986)

    Dead End Drive-In (1986)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, February 2020) There’s a memorable 1988 Joe Lansdale novel called “The Drive-In” that features teenagers trapped in an eternal night at the drive-in, with the only source of food being the concession stand. It’s gruesome and weird and terrifying and you’ve got to wonder if there’s any filiation between that and director Brian Trenchard-Smith’s earlier film Dead End Drive-In, in which teenagers are trapped in a drive-in repurposed to be a concentration camp in future dystopian Australia. As a proud ozploitation film, it seems to blend a bit of Mad Max and another bit of The Cars that Ate Paris into something not quite like its inspirations. There’s a lot of social commentary here, the social microcosm inside the drive-reflecting the world at large. It’s stylishly executed too—1980s new wave punk fashion for the characters, and audacious low-budget filmmaking elsewhere. It’s got very much the strengths and weaknesses of its subgenre: Quirky, in-your-face and willing to say things not mentioned in polite company, but also unpolished, difficult to take seriously and more allegorical than credible. Still, Dead End Drive-In is not a bad watch, especially if your expectations are low.

  • BMX Bandits (1983)

    BMX Bandits (1983)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2019) Through a strange alchemy, some movies go beyond creating embarrassment into some kind of awesomeness, so clearly do they defy the rules of cool and good taste. Or at least that’s what I tell myself in trying to justify seeing BMX Bandits, an early-1980s teenage adventure film that features no less than a teenage Nicole Kidman (in her feature film debut) as the leaders of a gang of bicycle riders. She looks cute in red curls and is arguably still the best reason why the film is worth a look. But that would be minimizing the sheer energy through which the film tries to make BMX bicycles look cool, with overdone synth music and audacious camera movements. BMX Bandits is clearly a film for the kids—not only do they take up the lead roles, saving the day when the adults can’t, but the villains are more comedic than threatening. Directed by then-journeyman Australia director Brian Trenchard-Smith, the film takes a long trip through Sydney for its climactic chase sequence. The low-budget film clearly has rough edges (there isn’t a lot of flow from one shot to another), dumb comic bits, useless flourishes (such as funny sound effects) and hopelessly dated early-1980s trends. But it’s still enjoyable on a basic level, and the Australian scenery does add quite a bit of local not-quite American colour. Still: It takes quite a bit of work to make BMX bikes look cool, and BMX Bandits should get some kind of award just for that.