MIFF 2022- Film #7Sometimes it's fun writing a negative review when you're trashing a corporate product or the delusional mess of a self-indulgent auteur. But when it's a local, independent production whose passionate cast and crew were present at the screening, there's no joy in explaining why a movie doesn't work. Unfortunately, despite its technical prowess where both the sound design and costumes are very well-done, Petrol features a subpar narrative filled with poorly written dialogue and derivative attempts at ambiguity and surrealism. Petrol insists that the enigmatic Mia is the most charismatic person ever but we're simply told this without feeling her unique presence; she curates a so-so art exhibition and does some vampiric roleplay on the beach but that's the extent of it, nowhere in her mannerisms or interactions with others do we glimpse the reason that both the wide-eyed Eva and hypnotist are utterly enthralled by her. Putting that aside, if Petrol is supposed to be about female friendship, the dynamic between the leads has barely any progression or development; nor even basic scenes of shared connections or misadventures that are integral to feeling the weight of her subsequent disappearance. Their chance meeting is contrived and unnatural; Mia conveniently drops her necklace, Eva picks it up and follows her to a house party before they engage in the most stilted conversation that ends with Mia inviting her to stay with her rent-free. The next day they are wandering the promenade discussing their deeper feelings about being romantics at heart and we’re supposed to believe overnight they have become the best of friends. Compare this to Under the Silver Lake where in a single evening, Sam and Sarah flirt by the poolside, bond over her dog and old actresses then laugh about her eating habits so that her mysterious disappearance has a profound effect on him and gives the quest genuine weight. It’s hard to feel any investment in Mia and Eva’s surface-level relationship when Mia disappears, especially when the movie insists on repeatedly spelling out the exact nature of their dynamic even after making it incredibly obvious. Eva literally reads an entry of Mia’s diary where she admits how much she enjoys being revered by Eva, meanwhile dream sequence Mia tells Eva that she’s too desperate to be liked by everyone which she immediately proves by begging for her forgiveness, it’s like there’s zero respect for the audience’s ability to pick up on subtext. The overexplaining is a constant issue in Petrol, take the scene where Eva discusses with a classmate what a crazy coincidence it is that he brings up Catch Me if You Can the day after she had a dream about DiCaprio then a scene later her mother is discussing quantum entanglement and the propensity for coincidences. The audience has probably picked up on this link already, yet Eva directly mentions the DiCaprio coincidence again, this hand-holding is a reason the attempts at ambiguity fall so flat.The ambiguous and surreal elements are both derivative and ineffective, amounting to very little overall. We’re introduced to the surrealism in a cutesy sequence where Mia and Eva unexpectedly manifest a picnic mat and snacks, only for the next scene to be one where Eva’s dad literally reads from a book describing the exact circumstances that just occurred, defeating the whole point of inexplicability by immediately contextualising it. There’s no real purpose to this scene besides quirkiness, and when the winking transformation reappears at the end with their clothes it’s in a blatant ripoff of the Club Silencio climax from Mulholland Drive with none of the hypnotic power. The movie also beats you over the head with the ghost element, having three separate doors unexpectedly opening/closing sequences, multiple characters explicitly mentioning ghosts and hauntings and so many scenes of Eva unnervingly seeing a doppelganger before it suddenly vanishes. It’s supposed to be a reference to the other Eva I suppose but to what end when it’s never satisfyingly resolved beyond it deciding not to strangle Eva after rising from the dirt. It just seems like the director got focused with certain images and formed a half-baked story about grief and friendships around it, throwing in some attempts at Lynchian touches while failing to recapture any of the inexplicable weirdness drenched in unspeakable emotion. There’s plenty more I could point out like the awful romance subplot or the toothless film school/capitalist satire but there’s little point to going further. I had high expectations for Petrol which weren’t met but hopefully the director bounces back with something stronger.Edit: Didn't expect this to get any traction but this is an overly harsh takedown of a local Melbourne production. There's a lot of hyperbole and dismissiveness that's probably misrepresented elements of this movie, even if I stand by this review and my feelings on Petrol itself have not changed. Filmmaking is hard and I don't really want to play any part in discouraging artists from creating.
