No. 003 - 'A Grand Mockery' by Adam C. Briggs & Sam Dixon (2024)
"And now to a man who says he's living in a dead body"
Watched by Matthew Donlan at Ritz Cinemas
Adam C. Briggs is doing it like no one else in Australia with his feature, a collaboration with Sam Dixon, A Grand Mockery.
I could try to summarise the plot. Josie works at a cinema, has a girlfriend, visits the nearby cemetery and writes letters to his friend Sal.
But this movie is not for plot. Briggs and Dixon set out to capture an atmosphere, the mood of Brisbane, and have done so expertly.
Shot of stunning Super8, A Grand Mockery depicts the mental anguish (and its ill-effects) of living in outer suburbia on a minimum wage. The weight of the capitalist life, repetitive and mundane, reduces Josie to irrelevancy and drains him of creativity, having a cancerous effect. Alcohol, sex, (literal) piss do nothing to help. In fact, they only worsen the experience, creating a dizzying and regretful mood.
With jittery editing, a haunting score and gross-out prosthetics, the film crawls under your skin and sits within you. It is discomforting, precarious and entirely deliberate. The Super8 works marvellously here to create a hazy dream where everything blurs together and nothing is stationary.
In constant flux, the film descends further into surrealism, emphasising unsettling feelings through nightmarish scenes. One in particular, at the bar, feels like a blend of Lynch and Kaurismaki - a macabre world with swooning personalities and looming presences.
Cyclical scenes make the familiar eerie and set everything just off-kilter, revealing that in fact, we’re not going in circles but in a downward spiral towards a grim end.
A Grand Mockery has one more screening in Sydney today (Thursday) as part of the Fantastic Film Festival.
Editor’s Recommendation
The Hayden Orpheum is holding a one-time 50th anniversary screening of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles this Saturday. Hailed as the greatest film of all time by the BFI, this is a rare chance to see it on the big screen.
Screenings: Thursday 15 May - Wednesday 21 May
Shooshfest | 15 May
A Silent short film competition
Thursday
Fantastic Film Festival | 24 April - 16 May (highlights)
A Grand Mockery (2024, Adam C. Briggs & Sam Dixon)
Thursday
Inner West Libraries Film Club
Things to Come (1936, William Cameron Menzies)
Thursday
Pink Flamingo Cinema
Samurai Reincarnation (1981, Kinji Fukasaku)
Wednesday
German Film Festival | 1-21 May (highlights)
Mother’s Baby (2025, Johanna Moder)
Closing Night - Moore Park
Wednesday
Berlin Alexanderplatz Part Three (1980, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Saturday
Riverside Parramatta
To Freely Flourish (2024, Victor Wu)
Friday
Flickerfest Best of Australian Shorts (2025)
Saturday
Roseville Cinema
The Correspondent (2025, Kriv Stenders)
Daily
Hayden Orpheum | selected highlights
The Surfer (2025, Lorcan Finnegan)
Daily
Hundreds of Beavers (2024, Mike Cheslik)
Friday
Jeanne Dielman (1975, Chantal Akerman)
Saturday
Golden Age Cinema | selected highlights
Crossing (2024, Levan Akin)
Monday
No Other Land (2024, Adra, Ballal, Abraham & Szor)
Sunday & Tuesday
F For Fake (1973, Orson Welles)
Sunday
Ritz Cinemas, Randwick | selected highlights
The Surfer (2025, Lorcan Finnegan)
Daily
Carmen & Bolude (2025, Carattini & Laossa)
Sunday
Seen (2024, Hailey Bartholomew)
Wednesday
Robert Altman Retrospective (link)
That Cold Day In The Park (1969, Robert Altman)
Thursday
Cult Classics (link)
Charlie’s Angels Double Feature (2000 & 2003, McG)
Saturday & Monday
Celluloid Film (link)
After Hours (1985, Martin Scorsese)
Friday
Classic Matinees (link)
Doctor Zhivago (1965, David Lean)
Saturday & Monday
Make It Musical (link)
Dreamgirls (2006, Bill Condon)
Sunday & Wednesday
Meet Cute (link)
Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001, Sharon Maguire)
Tuesday
Dendy Newtown | selected highlights
The Surfer (2025, Lorcan Finnegan)
Daily
True Romance (1993, Tony Scott)
As part of the Val Kilmer retrospective
Friday
A series of Wes Anderson films
Saturday
Night Shift (link)
The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
Daily
Palace Cinemas | selected highlights
The Surfer (2025, Lorcan Finnegan)
Daily
28 Days Later (2002, Danny Boyle)
Wednesday
Cult Vault (link)
Flash Gordon (1980, Mike Hodges)
Monday
Matinee Memories (link)
Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
Saturday
Art Gallery of NSW
West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty (1979, Med Hondo)
As part of the film series ‘Folly’
Sunday
The Lovers On The Bridge (1991, Leos Carax)
As part of the film series ‘Folly’
Wednesday