Suburban Mayhem
Starring: Emily Barclay, Michael Dorman, Robert Morgan
Director: Paul Goldman
The film: First came The Castle, the comedy about a Melbourne family's efforts to protect their home from demolition. Next was Lantana, a taut, melancholic drama about love and betrayal behind the veneer of middle-class life in Sydney.
Then, late last year, Suburban Mayhem came along and kicked up the storm its predecessors merely hinted at.
True to its title, Paul Goldman's film is a relentless, in-your-face piece about the malaise bubbling beneath the quaint suburban lifestyle of Newcastle. But one teenage single mother rejects the stifling normalcy - with murderous consequences.
The femme fatale here is Katrina Skinner (Emily Barclay, far right), a self-absorbed master-manipulator of men (and young women as well) who runs rings around her family and friends, extracting incredible favours that allow her to lead a raucous, carefree life.