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Issue No. 143 | 05 July 2002 |
Bad Bosses
Interview: Media Magnet Bad Boss: Abbott's Heroes Technology: All in the Family International: New Labour's Cracks Economics: Virtuality Check History: Necessary Utopias Poetry: Let Me Bring Love Review: How Not To Get It Together Satire: NZ, UK Added to Australia�s Migration Zone
Revealed: The Evidence Cole Won�t Touch WorkCover to Set Up Crimes Unit Electricians Oppose Family-Busting Conditions Blue-Collar Blokes Back Mat Leave Murdoch Telegraphs Contracts Push Abbot Changes Rules for �Employer Advocate� Funding Cuts Drives Academics Mad Star City Casino Strike On The Cards Chifley Planners Lose Benefits Qantas Staff Sick of Shivering Regional Councils Call Jobs Summit Kiwi Ex-Pats Targeted for Poll Push Shangri-La Workers Still Fighting
The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Week in Review
Buggering the Bush The Great Giveaway Down and Out Why I hate Telstra
Labor Council of NSW |
Review How Not To Get It TogetherBy Tara de Boehmler
********** Has inflated rental costs got you leafing through the share housing classifieds? Do you secretly long for the uncomplicated communal utopias enshrined in hippy folklore? Do you plan to audition for the third series of Big Brother? In the hippy era there was a book that you could read before deciding whether communal living was for you. Clem Gorman's People Together: A Guide To Communal Living summarized a few important tips about forming a successful communal household, what to keep in mind when relating to each other and contained a handy chapter on relating to society. These days Lukas Moodysson's new movie Together carries many of the same messages by depicting what happens when a group of society drop-outs choose communal living for some very different reasons and even less understanding of where each other is coming from. One of the residents of the Together household invites his sister and her two young children to come and join the commune, after her alcoholic husband physically abuses her. The entrance of the woman and her children into the household sends the other housemates reeling. Before, the idea of community was just something they spoke about. But now they are faced with the reality that some sacrifices may need to be made to accommodate this young family. Seeing the household through the children's eyes quickly reveals some of the darker undercurrents within the housemates' personalities. Their motivations, methods of manipulation and less than desirable character traits are unsympathetically exposed and their reasons for rejecting bourgeois society for this dysfunctional little unit begin to look more ridiculous by the minute. Unfortunately the movie falls down in its pigeonholing of different personality types through the use of one dimensional extremes. It also fails to recognise much that was good about the hippy era's passion for communal living. This is a movie that should be seen by activists who fail to act, community leaders who refuse to play a role in their community and anyone who talks hot air then disappears when crunch time comes. But if you are looking for a misty-eyed trip down memory lane, Together will do little to recapture the genuine feelings of camaraderie and community that really did exist in much of hippydom. 2 out of 5 (the art of falling apart together)
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