Billy (Xavier Samuel) and Lucy (Morgan Griffin) have been friends since a childhood accident brought them together.
With their friend Sparrow (played by scene-stealing powerhouse Travis Jeffery), Lucy and Billy have created a formidable, championship winning, ute-driving team. But when Billy takes a stunt too far at the yearly muster, Lucy decides to leave for Sydney. Billy has one night to figure out how to convince Lucy to stay.
‘Spin Out’ is a comedy, a romance, and a damned fun night at a B&S. The ensemble cast of characters bring a lot of heart and more than a few belly laughs to the story, giving a glimpse into the mischief and mayhem of the Ball, outside of Billy and Lucy’s dramas. The group are sweet without being cloying, and it’s hard not to love them for their awkward and fallible charms. Lucy and Billy have chemistry, and it’s fun to watch them try and figure each other, and their own emotions, out. But it’s Sparrow that steals the show.
Travis Jeffery couldn’t steal more scenes if he came to work with a gun and a balaclava. Sparrow is irreverent and daring, emotional and utterly compelling on screen. Best of all, he’s a rarity in the current crop of movies: a man perfectly willing to cry and be emotional. Seeing an emotionally-aware Aussie boofhead on screen is worth the price of admission alone; and yet, Sparrow brings so much more to the movie.The writers have nailed it. ‘Spin Out’ doesn’t fall into the tired trope of the men being emotionally-stunted morons who’ll never learn, with the women only there to nag and be long-suffering. Instead, the characters are diverse, quirky and believable. There’s nuance to each character, with nary a cardboard cut-out style persona to be found.
It would have been easy to make a mockery of the characters, to play for the cheap laughs and avoid the emotional elements of the movie. But while there’s a hat-tip or two to our habits of assumption, the writers have worked hard to keep from falling into the tired tropes we’re used to. Listening to people talk after the movie, it was clear that some of the guys had gone in worried that it was a romance, and they’d be bored. And some of the women were worried that it was all utes and beer, and they’d be bored.
But the joy of ‘Spin Out’ is how perfect a movie it is for date night. If you’re a fan of utes, comedy and piss ups, then you’re covered. But if you want romance and drama, you’re covered, too. There’s action and earnestness, fights and chaos, and some utterly captivating driving work. This is, quite possibly, the definition of a movie with something for everybody.
It feels – as a friend who grew up in a small town pointed out – scarily real, if a little undersold. Writer and director, Tim Ferguson, has hinted that some of the ideas they’d gone with – ideas taken directly from real B&S experiences – had to be watered down to appease the censors.
‘Spin Out’, like the musters and balls it portrays, isn’t likely to be a great time for the easily offended, and if you’re going into it looking for a realist sense of the day-to-day lives of those living in rural Australia, you’re in for some disappointment. Instead, it’s a celebration of the great Aussie tradition of letting your hair down and having some fun.
Comedy, at its very best, is a way of exploring the world that distracts you enough to make you enjoy the experience. ‘Spin Out’ is a movie with a lot of heart and laughter, but also the kind of movie that explores some of the big moments in our lives with wit, wisdom and more than a little charm.
‘Spin Out’ is easily the best comedy I’ve seen this year, and fingers crossed this won’t be the last time Edwina Exton and Tim Ferguson collaborate on a movie.
★★★★★
