Romper Stomper

If it's hard to fault Wright's stated anti-racist reasons for making this portrait of Melbourne's skinhead life, you can't help but doubt the wisdom of the stylistic choices he's made. A disaffected young girl, Gabe (McKenzie), who takes up with a gang led by neo-Nazi Hando (Crowe), is attracted by his brute sexuality, the power he wields over his less articulate minions, and the bloody violence they mete out to Vietnamese immigrants. But when the victims decide to fight back, the gang begins to fall apart, and Gabe's affections are transferred to Hando's right-hand man Davey (Pollock). The fact that Wright has opted for such a visceral style tends to vitiate what few insights he may provide into the racist mentality; the raw, semi-documentary narrative may make for plausibility, but the high-adrenaline, souped-up visuals ensure a lack of moral perspective. The cheap 'message' of the ending fails to salvage a film that at best is well-meant but misguided, at worst, flashy and garbled.