A film that begins with explicit wanking and then involves the protracted trashing of a kids birthday party should get your attention. Not that these are gratuitous scenes designed to shock for shock’s sake. It’s all part of a carefully structured narrative that seduces not in spite, but because of the chaos it generates. Why is this man masturbating with a prostitute? Why is his car rolling down a Sydney road? What is he so damn angry about? Who is the young boy and why are they living in a cheap motel? Deliberately, director Jonathan Teplitzky (Gettin' Squared) takes time to untangle his jangling narrative and mangled time lines, to pull some order from the disarray he has generated.

This deliberation and confusion is only one of the many pleasures found in this partly-autobiographical and unapologetically confronting account of a man in free-fall. Tom (Matthew Goode) is a Bondi chef (the perfect career choice for angry men) who hopes to bounce before he cracks. He’s given himself a get-out-of-jail-free card to do what he wants: cheap drink and cheap sex, abrogation of parental responsibility and the freedom to wallow in bad humour. And there's plenty of it. Quite why, and why people let him behave this way, is the focal point of Teplitzky's deeply personal drama.

Burning Man could easily become an exercise in self-indulgence, but with Teplitzky's focussed vision he makes the darkness and chaos exciting, attractive even. It's certainly compelling and Goode is central to that experience. A surprising talent, he's better known for playing the nice-guy in films like A Single Man but here is anything but and rises to that challenge. Teplitzky brings it home with a terrific visual flair that is rarely seen in domestic cinema. The combination of music, cinematography, staging and editing has created something quite special. While the unrelenting drama comes at a price, there's a payoff that makes Burning Man a film you simply must see. It may be a painful experience, but one well worth enduring.

// COLIN FRASER
moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks