There are few films that feel as quintessentially \u201cMelbourne\u201d as Mad Rush, the feature debut of writer-director Maddelin McKenna. It largely unfolds in the city\u2019s centre, with a scaled-back colour palette \u2013 lots of blues and greys \u2013 that seems informed by the city itself. McKenna brings a grainy street-level authenticity to a story centred on gen Z protagonist Madisha (Senuri Chandrani), who is targeted by an intricate phone scam involving callers who claim to work for the Australian tax office and insist she withdraw all cash from her bank account.<\/p>\n
In Hollywood\u2019s hands this premise would probably become a pulse-pounding thriller. Here, it more closely follows the beats of a far more realistic \u201cday in the life of\u201d narrative. Its small conversation-based moments are convincingly staged, but don\u2019t do much to service the plot or propel things forward, although the pacing remains quite tight across the run time\u2019s lithe 76 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
At times I was reminded of SBS\u2019s spunkier drama Swift Street<\/a>, which similarly feels very much like a product of its environment. Mad Rush also has the aura of a truly indie work: unburdened by conventions with an appealingly unpolished, guerrilla energy that feels (perhaps also like Melbourne) stylish without being flashy.<\/p>\n It is, as the title suggests, an experience that prioritises motion, manifesting in a couple of different forms. First the literal \u2013 showing Madisha literally dashing through Melbourne\u2019s streets \u2013 but there\u2019s also the more figurative, with her life and circumstances being in a state of flux. Madisha has recently lost her job, for reasons gradually etched out, and needs to find somewhere to live, her housemate having broken the news that she\u2019s moving out with her partner.<\/p>\n Introducing protagonists who are at a crossroads in their lives both orients and destabilises our perspective. We\u2019re encountering these characters at a moment of upheaval and uncertainty, making their personalities more difficult to read and their motivations harder to discern. But this upheaval can force people out of complacency, revealing something fundamental about their character.<\/p>\n From the outset it\u2019s clear Madisha is keen to return to some semblance of normality \u2013 which is exactly when dramatists tend to add some heat, piling on the difficulties for an already beleaguered protagonist. Ergo: she receives a series of phone calls informing her of suspicious activities associated with her bank account as part of an \u201congoing federal investigation\u201d. A request comes to drain her account of cash, among other things.<\/p>\n