HOT MESS

Australia, 2018, 85 minutes, Colour.
Sarah Gaul, Marshall Campbell, Zoe Carides, Hannah Lehmann, Kendra Murphy, Terry Serio.
Directed by Lucy Coleman.

Director Lucy Coleman has collaborated with comedian, Sarah Gaul, on a television miniseries, On the Fringe, as Well Is this brief comedy film. There have to be a number of biographical elements in the film.

Loz is 25, is an aspiring writer, with all kinds of examples throughout the film of her rather pessimistic outlook on life, her frankness in terms of being female, female bodily functions, sexuality and needs. She is also hoping to get tenure in a position in the theatre as a writer, and has written some plays, her original play, lighter in touch, more appealing to the director of the company, Terry Serio, who is not so enthusiastic about her current pessimistic work.

Loz is certainly not decisive in any of her actions, tending to drift, possible studies, possible work, and conversations with her mother, Zoe Carides. She also has lots of conversations with her girlfriends.

At a party, she encounters a good-looking young man, Dave, and is hopeful for a relationship with him. There is a certain amount of intimacy but reservation on his part. However, it is not to be, and he eventually has a wandering eye even as he has been a pleasant companion for Loz.

Her life is something of a hot mess – what is she to do? A film which may appeal to younger female audiences, a woman searching for what she should do and be and life. Older audiences may find her too exasperating.