> Butterfly Crush
3 stars (out of 5)
Director: Alan Clay
Cast: Courtney Hale, Hayley Fielding, Amelia Shankley, Sally Kelleher, Richard Adams
Rating: (M)
The Academy has renamed itself Church Cinema on Dundas and is running with one session a week (Saturday at 6pm) of Butterfly Crush. Set in Sydney, it tells the story of two-girl group Butterfly Crush which is on the verge of making it.
Moana (Courtney Hale) and Eva (Hayley Fielding) were a couple but Eva has started hanging out with a strange group called the Dreamguides, much to Moana's alarm.
Unable to let Eva go and attracted to one of the guys at Dreamguides, Moana starts to spend time at their headquarters.
What she finds troubles her.
It is fun dancing the night away and sleeping plugged into machines which direct your dreams, but the group's leader, Star (Amelia Shankley), with her probing questions and demands of total obedience, really bothers her.
Butterfly Crush was written and directed by Alan Clay and contains many strange tics that would have been ironed out if it had been a more mainstream production.
Yet beyond the bonkers plot and sometimes ropey acting, Butterfly Crush has one strong selling point.
The group Butterfly Crush is a dynamic package that manages to suspend all doubts when it performs, which fortunately it does a lot.
Best thing: Amelia Shankley was a child star in England before dropping out of acting and moving to Australia. She easily outclasses all the other acting performances with her plausible, chilling cult leader.
Worst thing: Contains the dreaded dream sequences, although to their credit no-one actually says "Oh, it was just a dream."
See it with: Any teenager counting the days until they will be old enough to enter New Zealand Idol. Just be prepared for the heavy parental counselling required afterwards.
- Christine Powley
