All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane

All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane is a pleasant romantic comedy in the indie manner brought off well by debut director Louise Alston thanks to effectively natural performances from an engaging cast on the back of a solid script by Stephen Vagg who also wrote the play on which the film was based.

It tells the story of  Anthea (Charlotte Gregg) and her good friend, Michael (Matt Zeremes),  20-somethings who are caught up in the modern 9-to-5 world of office job and a social scene that revolves around who’s sleeping with who. Shot on a small budget (originally $42,000. with additional shooting after winning Australian Film Commission funding) it is a commendable effort although some of the secondary characters notably Romany Lee’s Simone and Gyton Grantley’s Jake are too briefly dealt with to satisfy and the central premise of stay-or-go remains more of an in-joke for Brisbane-ites than something that a wider audience, regional or otherwise (indeed the film got a very limited release, even in Australia), can relate to. Still, if you’re in the film’s frame of reference, age or other wise, this will no doubt resonate.

 

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