Not Quite Hollywood – Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation (2008)

Directed by: Mark Hartley | 103 minutes | documentary | Starring: Abigail, Phillip Adams, Christine Amor, Glory Annen, Alan Arkin, Ian Barry, Briony Behets, Dennis Hopper, Jamie Lee Curtis, Alan Finn, Quentin Tarantino, George Lazenby

Until the 1970s, Australia hardly had a film tradition, but that changed with the emergence of Ozploitation: Australian pulp films that could count on a growing audience not only Down Under, but also in Europe and America. Incidentally, Ozploitations films like ‘Mad Max’ even managed to break into the mainstream, but most were simply too bad for international success and had to make do with modest cult status. That didn’t make the fun with which they were made and viewed any less. Blood, brutal crackers and naked girls were the pillars of the Australian pulp tradition: the perfect backdrop for an exciting date in the drive-in in the 1970s and 1980s.

Video pushed the drive-in cinema and with it the pulp tradition into the background, but the influence of Ozploitation is still visible in the work of contemporary directors such as Quentin Tarantino, who serves as one of the commentators in the documentary. A golden move, because his enthusiasm is contagious and his clear explanations also make it clear to the uninitiated what makes Ozploitation films so special. According to Tarantino, a good pulp film must meet at least one condition: it must contain scenes that make you wonder what sick mind created it. It will come as no surprise that these kinds of scenes in ‘Not Quite Hollywood’ are frequently reviewed.

The nice thing about ‘Not Quite Hollywood’ is that the form fits perfectly with the content. The screaming title already betrays that this film is intended for the fans, not for the film critics. The documentary unfolds like a colorful spectacle with juicy fragments from terribly wrong films, interspersed with short, often hilarious interviews with the stars of yesteryear. ‘Not Quite Hollywood’ is full of anecdotes and quotes: irresponsible stunts with near-death outcomes (“shouldn’t be allowed anymore”), opponents who could shoot each other and a star from earlier times who bombs himself into a ‘sex object’: “ I ask women for sex and they object”. In short, material that makes interviewers lick their lips.

The only flaw of the documentary is that it is especially interesting for fans of the pulp genre. ‘Not Quite Hollywood’ opts for quantity rather than depth and contains so many interviews and film fragments that the casual viewer is a bit overwhelmed. In addition, the majority of the films and stars shown will ring little bells with the average movie audience. So it is quite possible that after 45 minutes you have had your share of frontal nudity, severed limbs and car races through the Australian outback. But if you’re warm to bad taste, you can literally and figuratively have fun with the cheerful and quirky ‘Not Quite Hollywood’.