Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Magician (15)

Robert Hanks
Friday 05 May 2006 00:00 BST
Comments

A nastily clever Australian comedy, about a Melbourne hit man, Ray, who has agreed to be the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary by his film-student neighbour, Max. Max follows him around, filming him as he shoots one target, kidnaps another and makes him dig his own grave, warns a former chum out of town.

The film works partly as a satire on film-making - a scathing comment on voyeurism wrapped up in an acutely observed parody of vérité mannerisms. Max's stumbling questions and comments from behind the camera, the uneasy intimacy between observer and observed: it's all been done before, but rarely so well. But running through it is a thread of comic suspense: as the film progresses, the audience can see what the ingenuous Max apparently can't, just how deep he is digging himself in, so that you begin to worry just who Ray's next target is going to be.

It's something of a personal triumph: Scott Ryan not only wrote and directed, but puts on a superbly believable turn as Ray - a low-rent, swaggering psycho, a long way from the suit-wearing assassins of Hollywood myth.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in