Kenny · 2 August 2006
Forget Jindabyne as the year’s best Australian film, tonight I saw the preview of Kenny and I reckon it’s the Aussie film of the year!
I laughed so hard in some parts I seriously worried about the state of my bladder.
It’s the story of a real Aussie battler, with just real documentary footage shot from a camera crew following Melbourne plumber and port-a-loo supplier Shane Jacobsen (Kenny) around in his day to day life in its highs and lows. Kenny works for SplashDown, a company that supplies and maintains toilets for big events – you know the ones you’re always queueing for at the big day out or the WASO Concerts. The movie follows Kenny’s journeys to Tennessee and back, meeting a girl, seeing to his dad’s sudden bout of poor health, camping with his brother and dad, and coping with his young son and trecherous ex-wife.
I was so thoroughly impressed by this film, and was crying with laughter at the vrilliant ending (for which he had to go to the Melbourne magistrates court to defend.)
At the end of the movie, everyone was surprised to see the lights come up with Kenny sitting among us all. He walked down the aisle, shaking my hand as he passed, and answered a barrage of questions from the audience including a 10 year old’s question “How’s yer dad Kenny” to which he replied “Yeah he’s good, you can have him if you want.”
This movie is like a time capsule – if you were to take a chunk of Australian culture right now and preserve it for the future, you’d use this movie to do it. I don’t think I’ve thoroughly enjoyed a movie like this in over a year. I’d recommend anyone see it. There’s another good review of Kenny here.
