The Magician (2005)

The Magician is a fake documentary about Ray Shoesmith who makes a living killing people. He is working as a hit-man for the different drug related organizations.The whole idea first sounds bizarre, and it is. Ray is not your slick "in and out without a trace" type of hit-man. This man feels like the real deal, he kills people in a violent and realistic way often by simply shooting them at pointblank and then hiding the body in the woods.Nothing about Ray's life is amazing or exciting, he eats burgers, he is not cool, he doesn't drop amazing punchlines before he hits someone or plants a bullet in their face. It reminds me a bit of a danish film called Pusher. It's the same kind of "vibe".The keyword for this movie would be realistic. The whole thing feels VERY real, and the actors are doing an amazing job.If we break it down not everyone will love this movie, it's very different, very different.

In a mock/documentary style, we travel around with Ray Shoesmith, a hit-man in the city Melbourne. After his latest hit on an unsuspecting man shot in his garage, Ray moves on to his next person. Tony is a drug dealer, who Ray's friend Edna has mixed up with. Grabbing Tony off the streets, throwing him into the car, drives off to the middle of nowhere for Tony to dig his grave. Jumping from Tony's ordeal, to other hits and Ray's rocky friendship with Edna, we start to see who this enigma of a man is.In recent times, films have been taking that step of raising life mundane aspects into a form of entertainment. The magician runs off a series of non-interconnected conversation, small banter, that ultimately has no end game; it doesn't bring much insight into the people we are watching. Gay actors, what car would you most want to own, would you eat your own excrement, Mardi Gras, etc. The dark humor that is entwined into these conversation stop The Magician failing into redundancy. Tiffs over how a dead man walking digs his own grave is nothing short of devilish. The problem with the conversations is they lack a lot of consistency. While many grab your attention, other fall flat and become mundane; much to the subject matter.For a hit-man, Ray is one unorthodox professional. Writer/director Scott Ryan spins the image of a hit-man from a suave, professional assign to an everyday Australian who you wouldn't pick from the crowd. Ryan never portrays Ray as an antihero, nor tries to make you feel sympathy for him, as he is an amoral person, in a amoral profession.Also taking the lead as Ray, Scott Ryan brings so much charisma to Ray. There is such a presence he holds, you don't want to miss a word he says. At times you are just wondering what is going on in his head. Ben Walker as Tony and Nathaniel Lindsay as Edna both give solid performances; both being amateur actors.The Magician does have it flaws, though they are overcome by some very interesting conversations with one strange man.

The movie began with hand-held shots of a man sitting in his darkened car explaining to the camera that he's going to follow the bloke into the garage and then "give him the good news", and that he does.The Magician is a movie written, directed, produced and edited by Scott Ryan, oh, and he plays the lead as well. Reportedly he did so on a budget of only 3,000 Australian dollars and in only ten days, although reports suggest that he spent something in the region of five years writing it! It's an interesting tale of a filmmaker who makes a documentary of hit-man Ray Shoesmith and a few of his "marks", and that's really about all there is to it. Yet it turns out to be rather fun.It begins darkly and the latter half presents a more sobering tone, but the mid section is more about clever dialogue which, at times, can be extremely funny. Scenes such as the bet between the film maker and Ray if Clint Eastwood was in The Dirty Dozen, where Ray opens the boot to get the mark to list the actors are absurdly funny, and this is a pattern which follows for most of the lighter middle part of the film. However the darker sections are the more intriguing, the filming of the man digging his own grave in the middle of nowhere, Ray sitting explaining his planned hit in the darkened car, these scenes are thoroughly absorbing.It's in these darker scenes that I find the comic moments work the best, when the film maker and hit-man are chatting about some stupidly funny topic and then he turns to kill someone. The contrast of the normality of the situation and the friendship and banter that these two characters have built up with the inhuman, violent acts of the hit-man show the complexity of the character and the fact that he is normal just with a very unusual side! There's even the compelling caring side of Ray that appears when he tries to help the film maker get his stolen gear back. Listening to his somewhat late bout of morality as he pleads not to hurt the thief is actually very amusing, particularly Ray's face and calm manner when he returns after asking politely and being told to get lost. This scene, and Ray's reaction is just superb.Ryan takes over the movie and steals the show wonderfully, he's utterly engaging in front of the camera, and his slow, drawn out, casual style gives a natural performance. Although it's fair to say that at the beginning of the movie it takes a little while for both he, and the audience, to get into the stride of the movie.For me the natural side of the movie is pulled back by the performance of Massimiliano Andrighettowho plays the film maker, Max "Massimo" Totti. Considering the situation and the acts he's witnessing Ray commit, I found it hard to accept his open and often argumentative approach with the character. It didn't sit well for me with the image of a hit-man. I forever thought that Ray's patience would break and he would stop idle arguing with him to either kill him or beat him to shut up, yet perhaps this shows the measured and calculating Ray. Yet I could just not grapple with the idea that the film maker would be so fearless.This movie is about the superbly written dialogue and the very well acted Ray. However it tries to be a bit too comic for my tastes, and with the darker element attached it seems to be confused as to what story it really wants to tell. Very reminiscent of the banter and connection in the film Chopper, yet for me that pulled off the mixture of comic and darkness far better. Still entertaining though, and some of the dialogue will stay with you after you leave the cinema. Dark humour indeed.

This is the best Australian film I have seen in a long time. I saw it as part of the Sydney Film Festival 2005. It was made by Melbourne filmmaker Scott Ryan. He shot it over ten days over two years. It cost him about $3000 to make.The key to this film is STORY. Admittedly it took me about 10 minutes to really appreciate what I was watching, but then it got me. The story is quite simple - following hit-man, Ray Shoesmith, as he goes about business and chats about the industry he's in... it is dark - but the character, his dialogue, his way of thinking are so Australian and although quite funny at times, are also totally logical (well mostly logical). The character has quite the infectious smile too.At the end of the screening, Scott Ryan and producers Michelle Bennett and Nash Edgerton (who both came on after the film had been shot) did a Q & A. When Scott was asked if he thought the film would have been better with more money behind it, he said probably yes - but only in the sense that it would have allowed him to do more in the film, which he couldn't afford to do otherwise. Michelle Bennett then stepped up stated that she believes the key to this film is its story and its performances. I agree, they were exceptional and it is highly unlikely that money could have improved them.The film is edgy and occasionally jarring. As mentioned the performances are very well executed, particularly by Scott who (besides also being the writer and director) plays main character Ray. His acting is subtle and Scott doesn't rush to deliver his performance - he lets us see Ray think about things - pondering his thoughts and actions, it was really very impressive. The supporting cast was also excellent particularly Massimiliano Andrighetto who was also the films' cinematographer.This film is proof that here in Australia we do have some great stories to tell. Stories which go beyond an Aussie Battler struggling through life before he eventually (despite being a little on the slow side) triumphs at the end of the film. While Ray (in THE MAGICIAN) and I may not have a great deal in common, I recognised him. Knew his character, understood his way of thinking (a unique Australian way of thinking) and loved that I was watching a really original and very different Australian story to those I usually see at the cinema. I loved it, it kept me interested, made me laugh out loud and I can not wait to see it again. Highly recommended.