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mortality

Last Cab to Darwin: “Cab Driver’s Death Drive”

June 17, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“I’m a cab driver. I’m going to drive my cab till I can’t drive it no more.”

When mortality suddenly becomes a reality, a cab driver in the Australian Outback decides he wants to face death on his own terms. Rex Macrea (Michael Caton), a crusty loner in Broken Hill, New South Wales, learns he only has three months to live. When he learns that a Dr. Farmer (Jacki Weaver) in the Northern Territory wants to test a new euthanasia law, he starts off on a 1,900 mile journey, hoping to use her suicide machine to end his life. But is it that easy?

Last Cab_Day 11_Broken Hill_2014

Rex has tried to live his life without attachments. He has his mates at the local pub, but he doesn’t figure they’ll miss him. He doesn’t want his indigenous neighbor (and lover) Polly (Ningali Lawford-Wolf) to have to take care of him. So without telling anyone, he sets off on his trek across the continent. Along the way he manages to collect Tilly (Mark Coles Smith), a young indigenous footballer who has let fear stand in the way of a possible career, and Julie (Emma Hamilton), a nurse from London who is backpacking Australia. When he arrives in Darwin he discovers that there is more to dying than he had expected. He also, in making the journey, discovers that there is more to life than he ever realized.

It is easy to miss the joys of life when we are in the midst of the day to day. For Rex, who has lived his whole life in Broken Hill, it is a wonder to see the various landscapes of the Outback. He marvels at the beauty of sunsets. He meets new people. Finally, he comes to discover that those he has left behind are far more special than he knew.

Last Cab_Day 36_Darwin_2014

The writer of Ecclesiastes sets his reflections within a framework of considering mortality. What do all our works, our strivings, our desires, our accomplishments really mean if we are all going to die anyway? What of the daily grind of life? Is it just one thing happening after another, or does it have rewards for us if we just recognize them?

It is just such questions that Rex faces on his trip to Darwin. He thinks he is going off to take control of his life by controlling his death. But in the end, he discovers that there is beauty and love in his life that he’s just not willing to let go of one second too soon.

Photos courtesy of First Run Films

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Australia, based on stage play, Ecclesiastes, emma Hamilton, euthanasia, Jacki Weaver, Jeremy Sims, Mark Coles Smith, Michael Caton, mortality, Ningali Lawford-Wolf, Outback

Honeyglue: A Three Month Love Story

June 3, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

When the beautiful, young, middle-class Morgan (Adriana Mather) meets Jordan (Zach Villa) at a club, she really isn’t sure about him. He is a gender-bending, art school dropout who won’t accept a label. He expresses his freedom through a kind of Bohemian lifestyle, but even that isn’t quite what it seems. They hit it off, but Morgan fails to tell him (at least for a while) that she has a brain tumor and only a few months to live. Honeyglue is their love story with a very YA vibe about it. (Although it is rated R for language, some sexuality, and drug content.)

AdrianaMather_ZachVilla_Honeyglue

As their relationship develops and Morgan deals with facing her mortality, they set out to live these last months of her life with abandon. Morgan records their life together with a video camera. For Morgan, this is a time to do things she has never dreamed of before (like holding up a store). For Jordan, this is a time to be connected to someone in a new and loving way. The film does not want to focus on dying, but on living.

The YA feel of the film comes from the themes that seem to crop up in adolescent stories, such as mortality (it is a time when young people first truly experience the reality of death), freedom and rules, and family and self. All of those themes play out in Morgan and Jordan’s time together, but not always as we think they will.

ZachVilla_Honeyglue

For example, Jordan, for all his anarchistic veneer really longs for something a bit more conventional. Throughout the story, he is working on a children’s story about a dragonfly (representing Morgan) and a princess bee (representing himself) and how they long to overcome the differences of their lives to be together.

Of course, the key theme is how to live in the face of mortality. With such a short time ahead of her, Morgan sets out to maximize the happiness she can find. Even though she is willing to go off to Houston for treatment that will not really help (for the sake of her family more than her own sake), in time she decides to return to Jordan to live her last days in their mutual love and search for the joy of life. The film’s moral can be summed up in the song they use as the climax draws near, the Grass Roots’ “Live for Today.” And truth be told, the message of that song is not far off from the message that we may find in Ecclesiastes.

Photos courtesy Zotbot Pictures

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Adriana Mather, cancer, freedom, James Bird, mortality, Zach Villa

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