Praise (1998) from Tuna

Praise is an Australian film about a co-dependent couple.  He is a chain smoking asthmatic who works in a package store and lives in a flop house. When he is asked to work a fourth day in a row, he quits his job and becomes a full time loafer, filling his time with cigarettes, beer, and conversations with his fellow flop house residents. Out of the blue, he gets a call from a barmaid (Sacha Horler) who had worked in the pub portion of his workplace. The slightly plump girl with hideous eczema turns out to be a nymphomaniac and a recreational user of drugs and alcohol. His kind of woman! It would be a perfect match, except that he is rather ambivalent about sex, and a premature ejaculator. When they move in together, it looks as if they may forge a relationship, but, in the end, they are not compatible.

Praise is similar to Leaving Las Vegas in the themes it explores and the mood it establishes. As with Leaving Las Vegas, you might not enjoy it, but you will almost certainly admire it. While I generally don't appreciate films about truly unpleasant people, this one is a big exception, perhaps because the performances are just so outstanding. Both characters are presented so intimately and believably that you can almost feel them as you are watching. Sacha Horler is especially brilliant as the barmaid.
 

DVD INFO

  • No features
  • the transfer is anamorphically enhanced, and is not especially vivid

 

NUDITY REPORT

Sacha Horler does full frontal and rear nudity

The Critics Vote ...

  • Nominated for ten Australian Film Institute awards, winning two (actress, screenplay).

 

The People Vote ...

  • It grossed $30,000 in the United States, never reaching more than two screens.
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

  • A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
  • B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
  • C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
  • C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
  • C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
  • D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
  • E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
  • F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+

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