Such emotional affinity also allowed Hogan to achieve his astonishing, adult-worthy version of Peter Pan in 2003 and his superb though little-known Unconditional Love where his underdog compassion was first articulated through the appeal of popular music. Mental is driven by Hogan's identification with the dissatisfaction of social customs ('roles give you cramp' sang Lesley Woods of The Au Pairs). Shaz hates the social order that has wronged her and means to 'upset the delicate balance of its vanity.' She also recalls Renoir's archetypal anarchist Boudou come to save Shirley and her daughters from drowning in abuse.ĭaringly, Hogan always snaps back from Shaz's pain with equally manic humor. Far beyond a feminist, Shaz declares herself 'the avenging angel of the perpetually humiliated.' Her vengeance is both funny and scary (especially a menstrual protest that is surreal where Bridesmaids was merely gross). She finds perfect placement here as a kind of Mary Poppins who brings balance-self-acceptance and self-defense-to the unfair circumstances of housewifery, motherhood and girlhood. The aggressive Collette, who starred in Hogan's debut film Muriel's Wedding, always suggested a commedia dell arte performer unfortunately stuck in neorealist contexts. Still twirling, he launches into her household chaos and social rejection, using fast-paced Aussie dialect that may bewilder some before playing his wild card: Shaz (Toni Collette), a heroine-catalyst even crazier than the housewife. To recognize this berserk parody is to be inside Shirley's disaffection and that's the key to Hogan's unique, antic sensibility.

The opening scene of Aussie housewife Shirley (Rebecca Gibney) twirling in the backyard of the suburban home she shares with five daughters and an estranged husband imitates The Sound of Music's extravagant opening. But Hogan is bolder than the politically correct pandering of TV's fatuous Glee and The New Normal or films like The Kids Are Alright he goes to the heart of social alienation with visionary wildness. Hogan, Australia's most appealing yet least heralded filmmaker, returns to prominence with Mental, a kind of musical screwball comedy about social misfits that at first seems perfectly designed for the era of 'It Gets Better' nostrums.

Hogan's Mental offers a compassionate screwball masterpiece

Outlaw by Stephen Davies