The Combination (2009)

Waste of time

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The Combination was for me, a refreshing surprise of a flick, initially banned, I believe, which would of been such an injustice, as it would deprive movie goers of what is a first rate, independent flick, directed by acting great, Field. This film and it's ferocity, really surprised me, it was that engrossing. It's one film I just couldn't turn off, and finish watching the next day. Not many films focus on the Lebanese community, and here racism still runs high in the inner suburbs of Sydney. An older brother has just got out of the joint. There's much conflict between him and little brother (Firass Dirassi) who's heavily mixed up in crime, where he's heading in the same direction. Not only this, but he's clashing with another student, not Lebanese, at high school over a girl, where a small gang war breaks out. This movie is more take the gloves off high school flick, which can really show what happens with two cultures clash, and the tragic results can culminate. For me, Dirassi's fate was pretty mapped up, where I knew it wasn't gonna end well for him. There's many lessons illustrated in this film, where The Combination is one of the most impressive and searing Aussie films I've seen, and one that must be seen. The same can be said about explosive new talent, Dirassi. Thank you Mr Field, where you've now impressed me as a movie maker.

It's basically a re-used plot, featuring more detestable characters lacking any serious depth or development. They perpetrate some very negative stereotypes of cultures in Australia, and glorify violence and bad hairstyles. If Harry tells you otherwise, don't believe him. He is not a level-headed movie critic, and frankly represents the negative attributes displayed by the main protagonist.The dichotomy of cultures portrayed in the movie is a farcical hyperbole of abuse and violence under the false veil of honour and 'street justice', when in reality it is all about greed and insecurity. The only redeeming element in the film is the accurate portrayal of the fashion sense adopted by the criminal counter-cultures, namely the terrible haircuts and sportswear.

It's obvious the producers and director of the film were inspired by American History X, Boyz In the Hood, and other American movies which deal with multiculturalism, racism, and family. Unfortunately, inspiration alone does not meet the requirements when trying to produce a quality film. This film is a shining example of directors trying too hard to implement ideas from other movies into their films without building character structure, emotional investment, and atmosphere. The result of which is this film. The movie had so much more potential. The movie stars George Basha and Firass Dirani with supporting performances from Doris Younane and Clare Brown. The inexperience of the cast is made more obvious with each scene by director, David Field and this is not more obvious than in the melodramatic final scenes. The story revolves around Basha who plays John Markos, a Lebanese-Australian who has just been released from prison (we never know the reason or how long he has been in jail). On Johns return home, his mother, Mary, played by Doris Younane, greets him with open arms and is glad her son is home. He is also welcomed into his home by younger brother, Charlie, played by Firass Dirani (some Australians might remember him from the latest edition to the Underbelly series), who seems to have acquired some new friends since his brothers absence. The lack of a strong male presence in the household (their father died – don't know how, or when) seems to have had a dramatic effect on Charlie and John tries to steer his younger brother away from his new friends, guiding him, sometimes with brute force (not much of an example) towards a better future. Charlie has become more like his older brother and tries to make easy money because he doesn't want to work for a lousy three hundred dollars a week to clean toilets, especially if the owner of the place is Aboriginal. So, Charlie starts dealing drugs and is introduced to drug king pin Ibo, played by Michael Denkha who hires Charlie and his friend to run drugs for him. While this is going on, John tries to get his life in order by getting a job at the local gym and forming a relationship with Sydney, played by the beautiful Clare Brown. In spite of his older brother's best efforts, Charlie continues his path of self destruction. The rest of the movie deals with the consequences of being involved in gang activity and the growing relationship between John and Clare.The producer does not lack passion but rather direction and suffers from lack of subtlety. The writing is amateurish and this is can be seen in the outcome of the film, making the central performance of the piece somewhat insignificant and lacklustre. 2 stars of out 5.

Mention that catch phrase, "Australian values" and you will only be taken seriously by the rather unpleasant Nazi types who whipped up the Cronula anti Lebanese riots a couple of years ago (They were referred to briefly in the "Bra Boys" documentary narrated by Russel Crowe and form a back drop to the dramatic culmination of this film). John (George Basha), the hero in "Combination" dismisses Australian values as no more substantial than football and beer drinking.But the film makes the case for an Australian culture, Australian values that exclude the use of guns and vendettas as a means of settling conflict. The heroine's father tells his daughter, Sydney (Clare Bowen), that he was threatened by a Lebanese worker whom he had to dismiss from his job some years ago. He has no objection against the Lebanese people who have transformed his neighbourhood – just the fact that guns are now a commonplace item in the community in which he raised her. That is not a cheap shot by a bigot. It is a reasonable statement of fact. The hero of the film contemplates killing the criminal who has murdered his brother. He is encouraged to do so by the killer's neighbours when he confronts him, gun in hand. But he rejects the idea and (hopefully) renders his brother's killer impotent by publicly humiliating him. That is an example of Australian values. It is a valid difference between the more unpleasant aspects of the culture in Lebanon and that in Australia and it is worth celebrating. "Combination" does just that in a remarkable and satisfying manner.There is another really affirming idea embodied in the script, written by the George Basha, the Lebanese-Australian lead actor. It is an aboriginal Australian who councils him against a vendetta and provides the assistance necessary to extricate himself and his brother from the criminal milieu in which they have become mired The one thing that all the people who criticize Baz Lurhman's film, "Australia", fail to perceive is that it demands that all Australians recognize that the Aboriginal inhabitants have had a set of values (culture) for thousands of years that could be held up as instructive for those who have settled on their land. It is a rare thing to see this virtue celebrated in Australian literature. "Combination" seems to reinforce that notionBut all this may make the film sound preachy and sanctimonious. It is anything but that. It contains uniformly fabulous performances, script and direction that give the film narrative momentum and cinematography and sound that transports the viewer into the locales in which it was filmed. Director David Field, who created that wonderful character Acko in Gregor Jordan's film "Two Hands" some years ago, gives Basha the necessary space to concoct a character whose smouldering, barely restrained, macho authority brings to mind Richard Burton as Jimmy Porter in "Look Back in Anger" or Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in "Streetcar Named Desire". His direction has more of the operatic tone of an Elia Kazan "Streetcar" than the laid back bravura of a Gregor Jordan – Brian Brown "Two Hands", but let's put that down to the hot blooded Leb culture he is portraying on the screen. Clare Bowen's touching portrayal of a fresh faced young Aussie girl is a world away from Vivien Leigh's jaded Blanche or (perhaps more appropriately) Kim Hunter's Stella. But it is none the less powerful for that. Such is the quality of the script she is given to perform, that it does not take much to imagine her parents being seduced by the virtues of the Lebanese culture with which she has been smitten. The exotic cuisine, the foot stomping, hypnotic dance, the loyalty to family. Wed that to the virtues of an Australian culture that embraced and absorbed more Jewish victims of Nazi concentration camps than any other country and turned Melbourne into the second largest Greek city in the world and you have a flawed but none the less worthy place to bring up the child gestating in Sydney's womb. Surely that is worthy of celebration When a country's film industry can not only document the problems it faces but also suggest ways in which they can be overcome with such a keen eye and in such an entertaining manner, things can't be as bad as the Nazi types would like to have you believe. As Rampaging Roy Slaven, that other Australian prophetic voice would say, "This is a good news story"Bravo "Combination" You really rock!