''Manny Lewis'' is a 2015 Australian comedy-drama film starring

Carl Barron Carl Barron (born 11 June 1964) is an Australian theatre and television comedian. His style is based on observational humour. Life and career He was born in Longreach, Queensland, the son of a sheep shearer, and formerly worked as a grease tr ...

Cast

as Manny Lewis *

Leeanna Walsman Leeanna Walsman is an Australian actress. She is best known for her role as Zam Wesell in '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' (2002), and for her roles in the 2000 film '' Looking for Alibrandi'' and the television series '' We ...

as Maria *

Roy Billing Roy Harwood Billing (born 1947) is a New Zealand television actor, now based on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. He was brought up in Ruawai, Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand. Billing spent almost three decades living and working in Austral ...

as Lyle *

Damien Garvey Damien Garvey is an Australian actor and former musician known for his film and television roles. Early life and education Damien Garvey graduated from Padua College, a Catholic boys' school in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1982. Career Garvey ...

Simon Westaway Simon Westaway (born 22 December 1958) is an Australian actor who has appeared in many television series, films and theatre productions. Education Westaway studied acting with PBL Workshop and John Gauchi's Theatre Workshop. Career Westaway ...

as Joel Hillman

Background

Barron said the film was semi-autobiographical:

I wanted to do a story about my life on the road for the past 20 years and show people the other side of stand-up comedy, the side without all the laughter and all the isolation of being a comedian. It is also a bit of a love story and about trying to connect to someone. When you are performing you connect to thousands, but do you ever really connect to one?... Manny Lewis is just a well-known comic who ... has trouble holding down a relationship. Everyone has a trouble trying to connect to people. There is a bit of me in there, how much of me I will leave up to the audience to decide.

Plot

Lewis is a successful

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehear ...

, living alone in a luxury Sydney apartment. Bored and lonely, he begins a series of chaste night-time conversations, as "Thomas", with "Christine" a hostess on a

phone sex Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. As a practice between individuals temporarily separated, it is as ...

service and, a few days later, meets Maria, who rents a flat above his favorite coffee shop. They begin hanging out together, somehow failing to recognise each other as "Thomas" and "Christine". They fall in love, then break up when he resists her suggestion they go swimming together. He confronts his father about brutal treatment he received as a child. He is arrested for brawling; the resultant publicity embarrasses his agent, who is on the verge of arranging an American contract. In the last scene he reconciles with his father, walks away from the contract, and is reunited with Maria – they dive into the harbour together.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an aggregated score of 22% based on 2 positive and 7 negative critic reviews.

References

External links

Official film website
*
Review of film
at Filmink
Review of film
at SBS

at

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

Review of film
at Guardian Australia

at WA Radio Drive - ABC
Review of film
at Herald Sun Films set in Sydney 2015 films 2015 comedy-drama films Australian comedy-drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s Australian films English-language comedy-drama films {{2010s-comedy-drama-film-stub