The Organist, film review: Australian indie leaves a bad aftertaste

The Organist isn’t good. It’s tough for me to admit that because, on paper, the concept of the film really sings:

A man who earns a commission brokering organs for sickly people meets a physically healthy man who’s ready to die and donate all of his organs in one go. It’s easy to envision a black comedy like this becoming a real breakout hit. Alas, what we get is a confused tale that moralises when it should satirise, and goofs around when it should be sincere.

Just prior to finding Riley, his ‘karmically challenged’ universal organ donor (played by Luke Fisher), our main man Graham Sloane (played by a perpetually confused Jack Braddy) discovers that the majority of the kidneys and livers he’s procured are not going to dying patients at all – but to a cannibal (Aaron James Campbell) who lives on a houseboat.

Again, it’s a solid idea, but something in its cinematic execution makes the sequence fall flat. Perhaps it’s the perfunctory camera work (shot, reverse shot, shot, reverse shot, and on and on), or in the mismatched performances of Braddy and Campbell.

You haven’t been talking to the cops, have you mate?

Jack the cannibal sees nothing wrong with eating people’s innards – in fact it’s as normal as having a BBQ with your mates. He divulges this world view to Graham via some real mealy-mouthed dialogue (pun intended) which he delivers in a pseudo-Mendo ‘how’s it going boys’ way. It’s offputting, but what’s even more offputting is the lack of energy in both actors. The set up alone should at least elicit a giggle, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh even once.

We then meet Graham’s HR manager, played by the effervescent Lena Moon. For a film full of misses, she is perhaps the one true hit. Embodying the hierarchy-obsessed psychopath that is ‘Tracey from HR’, Moon eats up her scenes with glee.

From shushing Graham during his complaints process, to banning him from quitting the job and then later waterboarding him, her journey from infuriating bureaucrat to villainess is the only character arc that feels truly satisfying.

Even with moments that play towards pathos – like when Riley has doubts about his organ donation despite the fact that he could save a dying girl’s life – the attempt to set up a Good Place-eqsue philosophical quandary just doesn’t feel sincere enough to land the necessary emotional gut-punch.

The dialogue setting up the main moral question is always delivered in a sort of sarcastic, self-aware way, where you can imagine the actors winking at the audience, saying ‘this isn’t for real, it’s just a movie we made with our mates’. Is there anything more frustrating than a film that doesn’t vouch for itself?

Does it have legs?

The muddled presentation of The Organist has a certain air of ‘throw a bunch of gags at the wall and see what sticks’. The tone is rarely consistent, leading to a lot of scenes feeling disjointed.

Graham’s character also becomes an ever-shifting game between playing straight man in one scene and absurd in the next. He goes from hating his job for the fact it’s immoral, to pushing through the most morally questionable acts because … well, I don’t actually know. I can’t really glean what sort of character he is, nor what his motivations are for anything. I have a feeling a lot of the jokes would land better if the main character’s POV was a bit more transparent.

While it mostly chugs along as an OK rainy-day movie, the film completely loses steam in the last act. There, we are reintroduced to an act one character, and there’s a bizarre C-plot about one of Graham’s coworkers which has little to do with the central themes of The Organist. If anything, this tells me that the work may have been better off as a short film of around 60-75 minutes.

It’s always tough to write a negative review for a locally made film like The Organist, especially when it has all the makings of a passion project gunning for cult status – but the inclusion of the film in this year’s MIFF program, which led to all three of its sessions selling out, tells me the filmmakers are prepared for a bit of critique.

The audience appetite for local indies is certainly there, which can only mean good things for the future of Melbourne filmmaking. Onwards!

The Organist is currently showing at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Visit Miff.