Book Review

Looking For Alibrandi is a rarity in Australian film. Not only does it cater for a traditionally American genre, the teen film, but it also does it with great panache and style, mixing a keen understanding of its audience with a maturity and depth that these films so often lack. It¡¯s rare for Australia to even bother with a teen film ¨C the last true one was probably Bruce Beresford¡¯s Puberty Blues back in 1981. There have been others that cater for a teenage market (like Cut, for example), but a film that focuses on the teenage experience and directed at a teenage audience is something we have been a little wary of, and that¡¯s why Looking For Alibrandi is such a godsend. Based on the best selling, and well loved novel of the same name, the book¡¯s author, Melina Marchetta also pens the script, both lifting and shifting from her original work. This is a novel loved by teenagers throughout Australia, and it¡¯s encouraging to see this is not some mere rip-off, a quick ploy ...