The Last Of The Pretty Boys

A rock star at the top of his game returns to Brisbane for a homecoming concert whilst exploring his past through a relationship with a journalist.

Shock rocker, Lazarus Graves (Alex Jackson), is about to release his fourth album, ‘Lazarus Rising’, and compound his fame as the dirtiest rock star on the scene. He’s the kind of rocker who likes to shave his eyebrows off so that he can paint on some thin news ones of his own, and his hair looks like several birds, squirrels, or any number of insects could comfortably make their homes there. His music is somewhere between Nick Cave and Trent Reznor and his drug taking/alcohol abuse matches anything they could do in their heyday, too.

Lazarus is back in his hometown of Brisbane for a while, putting on a homecoming concert and doing all the usual press and media that comes with it. He has his team around him, somewhere, but mostly he dodges away from them to get high in the bathrooms of public buildings, and slips booze into his coffee as often as possible to waste away the in-between times. With him on his journey this time, however, is Laura Jonze (Bloodsworthy), a crack journalist from Rolling Stone who’s intent on getting the real scoop behind the jaded mask of The Last Of The Pretty Boys.

Over the next two hours, Lazarus and Laura get to know each other better and delve into the murky music scene of downtown Brisbane. They spend some time in a few of the local night-spots, getting drunk, getting high, getting jiggy, that sort of thing, all the while exploring Lazarus’ past as Martin Lieberwitz (Aidan Jackson), the angry skinned teenager who created a sound and a look that would go on to propel him to the forefront of the stage and onto international stardom. As he spends more time back in the scene that gave birth to him, Lazarus faces more and more of the demons he has been running away from for all of his adult life.

Shot in Brisbane, inside some of the actual clubs and bars of the city, and featuring many of the local bands who have graced the stages of these underground music factories, writer/director Dustin Schmidt uses his local knowledge to try and show off his hometown to best effect. A lot of the secondary photography and establishing shots are of recognisable Brisbane landmarks, and the audience gets a tour of it all from Lazarus’ point of view as he revisits the places of his youth. These then become the settings for a music video or two, as Lazarus and his band rock out all over the town to the sounds of real homegrown bands.

It’s no surprise then that the music in this film f***ing rocks the whole way through. There’s barely a moment where we don’t have some song playing in the background, or in the foreground, or on stage, or in a music video, and even in the flashbacks we’re there to listen to a song that helped make Lazarus big. The music helps carry the story and slots right into the visuals that we see on screen, creating a synergy and an impact that intensifies the feeling of what’s being expressed.

Sadly, this doesn’t extend to the rest of the audio, and a lot of the dialogue is patchy and faint, or distant and tinny, or it gets lost in the mix between audio and music. There are times where the audio cuts out completely, and times where we know the audio and the visual are not matched, and it hurts what is otherwise a great sounding film. The photography could similarly use a boost in production, relying on natural light in most scenes and not always finding the right balance between on-screen realism and artful direction.

Let’s be clear, The Last Of The Pretty Boys is real jumpers-for-goalposts filmmaking. This is an independent filmmaker making independent film for independent film money, and it shows. There’s a great, dedicated, central performance from Alex Jackson, but he’s not an actor, and neither is anybody else mixed up with this film. Everyone is there doing this for the love of film, or the love of metal, or the love of Brisbane, or the love of the camera, but everyone is there giving it their all and having a great time while they do it.

There’s real heart to The Last Of The Pretty Boys, despite the cheerful nihilism of its main character, and that comes through in spades from the community behind the film, who you can see are backing it to the hilt. It’s great that a lot of media and merchandise got made especially for the film and that Lazarus Graves t-shirts and album covers exist in the real world, because who doesn’t need a dishevelled anti-hero on their wall these days – someone who can still preach the age-old mantra of Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll. The Last Of The Pretty Boys may come with a Parental Advisory for explicit content, but peer behind the matted hair and dusky eyeshadow, and you’ll find a film with a lot of positivity in its veins.