Snakeskin

Exploiting road movie dynamics and wild South Island landscapes with an expert’s love of both, Gillian Ashurst has reanimated the spirit of Pork Pie with the sexual politics, the drugs and the pop-trash-fetishism of the OOs.

Snakeskin, New Zealand, 2001

Director/writer: Gillian Ashurst
Production co: Cowgirl Productions
Producer: Vanessa Sheldrick
Executive producers: Chris Brown, Katherine Butler, Trisha Downie
Photography: Donald Duncan
Editors: Cushla Dillon, Marcus D'Arcy
Production designer: Ashley Turner
Costume designer: Katrina Hodge
Music: Leyton Langelveld, Joost Langelveld

With: Melanie Lynskey (Alice), Boyd Kestner (Seth), Dean O'Gorman (Johnny), Oliver Driver (Speed), Paul Glover (Terry), Charlie Bleakley (Owen), Jodie Rimmer (Daisy), Taika Cohen (Nelson), Gordon Hatfield (Tama), Adrian Kwan (Subaru), Jacob Tomuri (Robbie), Frances Bol (Swedish Hitch Hiker), Katerina Daniels (Tama's Mum), Violet Fagan (Waitress), Nathan Pohio (Pool Player)

35mm, 92 minutes, R16-contains violence, offensive language, drug use & sex scenes

Watch the Snakeskin Trailer (8.57MB; 2.23 minutes)

“Bold, funny, sexy and macabre, Gillian Ashurst’s juicily cinematic first feature boots the cinema of unease into the new century. Alice lives, to her dismay, in the outer suburbs of a flat South Island town, which she identifies with sweeping peevishness as New Zealand. Why wasn’t she made in America like Princess Leia, like Elvis, Marilyn, Thelma and Louise, Nancy Sinatra, The Dukes of Hazzard? Everyone in New Zealand is just too boringly safe. Alice’s cute friend Johnny provides some consolation, but not as much as he’d like to. What law student could? They’ve cut the roof off his Valiant and they drag up and down the straight and narrow country roads dreaming of Route 66, and looking for dodgy hitch-hikers who might offer Alice the trouble she craves. They find their man in Seth, a billboard hunk of American cowboy with snakeskin boots, a serpent tattoo and a few spare tabs of acid. Heading west becomes a matter of dodging all the people who’d like to get a piece of Seth: a carload of skinhead speed freaks on a rural home invasion spree; a dope-dealing couple in a Mr Whippy van; and a baleful bro on a bike packing a family grievance. Ominous signals abound but they only jazz up the trippy euphoria of Alice’s adventure. Fields of sunflowers and hallucinated skies are so sweetly enhanced for our delight with little cgi tricks and inspired retro pop music choices, that even the sheep seem to be high. But as day turns to night, the mountains close in and sexual tension reaches cataclysm at a mushroom-fuelled West Coast pub – to a strangled rendition of the proto cowboy junkie classic Some Velvet Morning (When I’m Straight). There’s worse to come. Racing three cars full of bad-ass characters across the plains and into the heart of darkness is an ambitious project for a cowgirl, but abetted by deft editing, tasty performances, stunning cinematography and passages of inspired writing, Ashurst keeps the curse of the Kiwi caper comedy at bay. Exploiting road movie dynamics and wild South Island landscapes with an expert’s love of both, she’s reanimated the spirit of Pork Pie with the sexual politics, the drugs and the pop-trash-fetishism of the OOs.” — Bill Gosden, New Zealand Film Festival, 2001

“The newly released New Zealand film Snakeskin crackles with the joy of film making. It director and writer, Gillian Ashurst, shows her love of film in every scene as she picks apart favourite genres and makes them her own... The three principles create a triangle that sets the film alight. Seth coolly out-manipulates Alice’s naive movie-crazed fantasies with no dear what fires she is lighting. O’Gorman’s passive Johnny centres the piece with his tragic longing that Alice will look around and love him for what he is always doing for her. The Southland landscapes are filmed as an essential fourth character, classically sublime in suggesting terror and luxurious beauty at the same time... The ride is in the front car and the film is gripping all the way to its violent conclusion.” — Timothy O’Brien, The Dominion, 19 October 2001

“Alice is a small town tease with big city dreams. Johnny is a law student with a Valiant. Cruising the streets of South Island suburbia in search of an “American adventure’ the two meet Seth, a cowboy cliche with snake eyes, snake hips, a snake tattoo and snakeskin boots. The next thing you know they’re all on the run from a carload of skinheads on speed, a Maori warrior on a motorbike and a stoner duo in a Mr Trippy Van. So the first half of this film plays out like your typical road movie. There are your good guys in a red car, loads of bad guys and chase sequences through the stellar South Island landscape, all set to retro pop. Reference is even made to Goodbye Pork Pie. But halfway through, the film shifts in tone becoming darker and more menacing. The sweetly trippy feel becomes a trippy feel becomes a drug fuelled paranoia; as night falls, the enemies come closer and the acid Alice dropped kicks in. But the jump from light to dark is a bit jarring. While from the start it’s clear things are going to go very wrong for these kids, it’s hard to get into the hallucinations and shoot outs when they started their journey hiding behind hedges. There are some standout performances particularly Charlie Bleakley as a baby faced minion. And Lynskey is fantastic, striking just the right mix of adolescent desperation and childlike self confidence. While the film self-consciously makes reference to Kiwis’ adoption of the American dream (Alice and Johnny have Elvis and Marilyn icons ‘guiding them’ on their journey), it doesn’t make the mistake of trying to be an American picture. Like lamingtons from the roadside tearoom where Alice, Johnny and Seth stop for a cuppa, Snakeskin has a real Kiwi taste.” — Jo McCarroll, Sunday Stars Times, 14 October 2001

Screenings: Snakeskin screened on 20/12/6