Nirvana Street Murder (1990) User Reviews

Murder, Nirvana Street style

[videorama-759-859391 · 8/10 · 8 August 2014]

Here was a little gem of a comedy, or I should say a little gem of black comedy. I love smart humor in film, and this is smart humor, though not everything is funny, as there are some quite serious moments here. Mark Little is a scream as the dope smoking bludger brother of cannery working Mendelsohn who also volunteers as a carer to elderly rich woman (Florence). Little, fed up with working at the meat plant takes up thievery again, where his plan to do over old Florence's place culminates in a fight to the death between two brothers. Little has also brought more s..t down on him, where his girlfriends snatched by some Greeks. Mendelsohn also has trouble with his lover, Mary Coustas, who little Sister has been blackmailing her where Mendelsohn soon sets her straight, bringing a hard rain down on him. Watching Mendelsohn, one of Oz's young seasoned performers, smoking dope in an early scene, a giggling Girt, is just one funny moment, but it's the situations and how the characters act upon em' which is funny. Sometimes it's just the situations, though you have to owe a lot to Little on this. Funny too is watching Russell Gilbert as Mendelsohn's, short fused boss, lose it, where for dramatics he scores a ten out of ten. Yes there are comparisons here, as in comedy style, to Death Is Brunswick, but Nirvana Street Murder, a slick, short, sharp and bittersweet black comedy, shows you that it doesn't need much plot or anything to pull off something inventively smart or something that is genius. There ate some funny instances in this that will be imprinted in your mind, and the film does have a happy ending. The performances are good, especially from Little. How much I loved to see this film again, as I leant it to someone and never got it back. I know one day, I will see it again. Those who haven't seen it, I wish you a good hunt. A much blacker comedy than Brunswick.

Some good points but too black

[PeterM27 · 5/10 · 18 June 2022]

This is a gritty black comedy about life at the low end of town. Boady (Mark Little) is the crazy brother - he also has a broken arm, a heavily pregnant girlfriend, a problem with sleepwalking, and a bigger problem with anger, which gets the brothers into more and more trouble.

Luke (Ben Mendelsohn) is the sensible brother, who tries to do the right thing, but whose loyalty to his brother gets him into all sorts of trouble. Luke love a Greek girl Helen (Mary Coustas), who is not game to tell her family she loves an Aussie.

When they get forced out of their run-down rental house (due to Boady's attempt to manufacture speed) they go to live with in a mansion belonging to Molly, an old Irish lady who Luke takes for walks in her wheelchair. But soon the Greek gang whom Boady provoked catch up with them, with fatal consequences.

This film has its moments of positivity and truth, but Boady's craziness leads to tragedy which is a bit too awful to be funny. Some people love this film, but I don't like seeing all the nice people suffer because the stupid people are bastards.