Smash Palace

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N L the holy grail of NZ new wave Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/30/23 Full Review walter m In running the auto shop that his father owned before him, Al(Bruno Lawrence) and his French wife Jacqui(Anna Jemison) have their assigned tasks. She answers the phone while he goes out on calls. But socially their lives are more ambiguous which becomes clear when they need a babysitter for their seven-year old daughter Georgie(Greer Robson). So, Al stays home while Jacqui goes to a party and has to be driven home by Ray(Keith Aberdein), Al's best friend, when she has too much to drink. As domestic drama, "Smash Palace" has a few very familiar elements like Jacqui being lonely and needing somebody to talk to while all Al wants to do is race cars.(In fact, even on a limited budget, the racing scenes are finely handled.) But even as rough as it can be in spots, including one atrocious performance, the movie finds something unique to say in the way it presents this broken relationship where even the lovemaking has a desperate and violent feel. That's because Al and Jacqui have vastly different visions for how to raise their daughter who is caught in the mniddle and is probably going to use her future race car driving earnings for her huge psychotherapy bills. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Realistically portrayed Kiwi film about a junkyard owner and race car driver who takes a mental pit stop after his wife leaves him with his daughter and moves into his best friend's place. I don't think they are best friends any longer. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Bracing drama for a couple falling apart and the effects on their daughter. It's unfortunate that it starts to fall apart in its last 30 minutes. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member I found this movie to be incredibly slow paced, confusing, downright boring, and every time it seemed like something exciting would happen, it wouldn't. At least not until the disappointing end of the movie. For the most part I couldn't understand what the actors were saying, whispering their lines in their New Zealand accents. For a movie that looks like an action flick on the box, it sure wasn't action packed, it was more of a drama film, and a boring one at that. I don't recommend this movie. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Totally bizarre but captivating New Zealand drama. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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