bajparry "The Magician" is a quirky and darkly humorous mocumentary about the life of Melbourne-based hit-man Ray Shoestring. Followed around by his film-student friend, we see all the action through the lens of his ever-rolling camera.I find it hard to express what an achievement this film is. Scott Ryan- writer, director, producer *and* lead actor- pulls off a remarkable debut. His grizzly and hypnotic performance is frighteningly real. The depth of Ray Shoestring is a testament to the all-round skills of Scott Ryan. We can't help but feel close to Shoestring, even though we are left in no doubt about his dubious character. A large part of our sympathy with Shoestring is that, in true Big Brother diary-room style, all his thoughts, prejudices and passions are laid bare before the camera."The Magician" is unusual in that it focuses less on the joy-riding, gun-toting, blow-things-upping side to being a hit-man, and more on the less glamorous sitting-around-in-a-car-and-eating-hamburgers element of assassinhood.A stunning debut – *not* to be missed. 8/10

D_la Although it isn't magic he uses, not unless you count a count as a wand. He is a hit-man, working in Melbourne, and this documentary style film recounts a few of his jobs. The condition imposed on film-maker Max is that he won't release the film until after Ray's death.It is a strange film, but very enjoyable. The style is used to allow Max to question Ray about his actions. To have an outsider looking in wondering can Ray tone down the violence, or how much would he want in order to eat his own excrement. Did I forget to mention this is a comedy? The focus of the film is all on Ray. The rest of the characters are just their to provide him with something to interact with. And Max, the cameraman is never shown un-pixelated on screen, to protect his identity from the police no doubt. And Scott Ryan gives an excellent performance as the almost charming hit-man. His sense of timing is perfect and his delivery of the lines is spot-on. Of course he did write and direct it, so he should know everything about this character, but it is still a wonderful role.It is almost a buddy road movie, with Ray, Max and a possible target traveling across Australia to locate some money. There is a great discussion about Wayne Carey and whether sleeping with your vice-captain's wife could ever be regarded as merely a mistake. Probably more likely to turn out to be a cult hit than a blockbuster, if you get the chance you should try to catch this film.

nobbytatoes In a mock/documentary style, we travel around with Ray Shoesmith, a hit-man in the city Melbourne. After his latest hit on an unsuspecting man shot in his garage, Ray moves on to his next person. Tony is a drug dealer, who Ray's friend Edna has mixed up with. Grabbing Tony off the streets, throwing him into the car, drives off to the middle of nowhere for Tony to dig his grave. Jumping from Tony's ordeal, to other hits and Ray's rocky friendship with Edna, we start to see who this enigma of a man is.In recent times, films have been taking that step of raising life mundane aspects into a form of entertainment. The magician runs off a series of non-interconnected conversation, small banter, that ultimately has no end game; it doesn't bring much insight into the people we are watching. Gay actors, what car would you most want to own, would you eat your own excrement, Mardi Gras, etc. The dark humor that is entwined into these conversation stop The Magician failing into redundancy. Tiffs over how a dead man walking digs his own grave is nothing short of devilish. The problem with the conversations is they lack a lot of consistency. While many grab your attention, other fall flat and become mundane; much to the subject matter.For a hit-man, Ray is one unorthodox professional. Writer/director Scott Ryan spins the image of a hit-man from a suave, professional assign to an everyday Australian who you wouldn't pick from the crowd. Ryan never portrays Ray as an antihero, nor tries to make you feel sympathy for him, as he is an amoral person, in a amoral profession.Also taking the lead as Ray, Scott Ryan brings so much charisma to Ray. There is such a presence he holds, you don't want to miss a word he says. At times you are just wondering what is going on in his head. Ben Walker as Tony and Nathaniel Lindsay as Edna both give solid performances; both being amateur actors.The Magician does have it flaws, though they are overcome by some very interesting conversations with one strange man.

Richard Brunton The movie began with hand-held shots of a man sitting in his darkened car explaining to the camera that he's going to follow the bloke into the garage and then "give him the good news", and that he does.The Magician is a movie written, directed, produced and edited by Scott Ryan, oh, and he plays the lead as well. Reportedly he did so on a budget of only 3,000 Australian dollars and in only ten days, although reports suggest that he spent something in the region of five years writing it! It's an interesting tale of a filmmaker who makes a documentary of hit-man Ray Shoesmith and a few of his "marks", and that's really about all there is to it. Yet it turns out to be rather fun.It begins darkly and the latter half presents a more sobering tone, but the mid section is more about clever dialogue which, at times, can be extremely funny. Scenes such as the bet between the film maker and Ray if Clint Eastwood was in The Dirty Dozen, where Ray opens the boot to get the mark to list the actors are absurdly funny, and this is a pattern which follows for most of the lighter middle part of the film. However the darker sections are the more intriguing, the filming of the man digging his own grave in the middle of nowhere, Ray sitting explaining his planned hit in the darkened car, these scenes are thoroughly absorbing.It's in these darker scenes that I find the comic moments work the best, when the film maker and hit-man are chatting about some stupidly funny topic and then he turns to kill someone. The contrast of the normality of the situation and the friendship and banter that these two characters have built up with the inhuman, violent acts of the hit-man show the complexity of the character and the fact that he is normal just with a very unusual side! There's even the compelling caring side of Ray that appears when he tries to help the film maker get his stolen gear back. Listening to his somewhat late bout of morality as he pleads not to hurt the thief is actually very amusing, particularly Ray's face and calm manner when he returns after asking politely and being told to get lost. This scene, and Ray's reaction is just superb.Ryan takes over the movie and steals the show wonderfully, he's utterly engaging in front of the camera, and his slow, drawn out, casual style gives a natural performance. Although it's fair to say that at the beginning of the movie it takes a little while for both he, and the audience, to get into the stride of the movie.For me the natural side of the movie is pulled back by the performance of Massimiliano Andrighettowho plays the film maker, Max "Massimo" Totti. Considering the situation and the acts he's witnessing Ray commit, I found it hard to accept his open and often argumentative approach with the character. It didn't sit well for me with the image of a hit-man. I forever thought that Ray's patience would break and he would stop idle arguing with him to either kill him or beat him to shut up, yet perhaps this shows the measured and calculating Ray. Yet I could just not grapple with the idea that the film maker would be so fearless.This movie is about the superbly written dialogue and the very well acted Ray. However it tries to be a bit too comic for my tastes, and with the darker element attached it seems to be confused as to what story it really wants to tell. Very reminiscent of the banter and connection in the film Chopper, yet for me that pulled off the mixture of comic and darkness far better. Still entertaining though, and some of the dialogue will stay with you after you leave the cinema. Dark humour indeed.