The Best Australian Films You’ve Never Seen: Malcolm (1986)
Cruising down Wellington Parade on a dawn joyride in a makeshift tram, the iconic triangular lights of the MCG peeking out over the tree line against the backdrop of a gloomy grey sky. You’d be hard-pressed to find a film that better represents Melbourne and its eccentric characters than Nadia Tass and David Parker’s 1986 debut feature film Malcolm. The husband-and-wife director and screenwriter duo created a story that affectionately spotlighted people living on the fringes, not in a directly political or particularly artistic way, but in a way that everyone could digest, through comedy.
At its release, Malcolm was a huge critical success, earning a whopping eight AFI Awards (now known as the AACTA Awards)-making Tass the first woman to ever receive the AFI Award for Best Director. This critical acclaim was not without reason; this was a film that anyone could enjoy, from your average punter to the harshest critic. The masterful performances, paired with Tass’ character-driven direction style gleaned from her background in psychology, and the warm, gentle humour from Parker’s script produced iconic characters who feel real and are much deeper and more complex than you would find in other films of this genre. The three lead actors all won an AFI award for their performances in this masterfully crafted crowd-pleaser with a heartwarming message. However, not everything was perfect.
Featuring a neurodiverse character in film can be very tricky to do in a respectful way and it is something filmmakers of today still struggle with and receive a lot of criticism for. When you first hear about a movie from almost 40 years ago with the titular character being a man with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (although a diagnosis is never directly stated), it would be understandable to not be too hopeful. However, Malcolm does a much better job in this regard than other movies of the time. Obviously it’s not perfect, the main issue being that Colin Friels, the actor who plays Malcolm, while bringing so much to the role, does not have ASD himself. That being said, throughout the whole film Malcolm is treated with a lot of empathy, never being a character you laugh at, but a character you laugh with — something that wasn’t lost on the critics of the time with several pointing out the gentle and affectionate ways the film depicts Malcolm. This empathetic portrayal is largely due to the fact that the character of Malcolm was inspired by Tass’ late brother who had ASD and had tragically died a few years prior to the film’s release.
For me, this is one of those films that just never gets old. Perhaps it’s my bias of seeing my home city beautifully depicted on the big screen, but 1 think it’s more than that. There has never been another Australian film like Malcolm. It is smart, heartwarming and hilarious, and, although it has its flaws, is a film that still deserves to be watched and talked about today.
“I always maintain that comedy is a serious business, that if it doesn’t have a real backbone to it, it’s just going to be trivial.” — Nadia Tass
This review was originally published by the Australian Film Institute Research Collection (AFIRC), in partnership with RMIT Culture and the Bowen Street Press in ‘The Best Australian Films You’ve Never Seen: Celebrating 20 Years of the Australian Film Institute Research Collection’
