Another Brian Solano film?  Yes indeed, bonus, this one is available for free! Let’s head to the land down under…. where women glow and men plunder?

The Australia Project opens strong with a bizarre bit of exposition by Joe Kinder to set the scene in his Joe Kinder kind of way.  Floridaman Matt Segal, Philly’s finest Robbie D’Anastasio, and young gun Emily Harrington, all known (at that time) for dominating on plastic, are heading to Australia to prove their mettle on real stone.  The film immediately dives into a baller montage with Pennywise blasting out a cover to the Men at Work classic referenced above.

This film is wild, both in the climbing and what happens in between.  The climbing shots are interesting, loaded with jump cuts, close-ups, and slow mo, turning Matt and Rob’s aggro bellows into full on demonic calls.  I hope you don’t mind the shouts of angry failing climbers, because those are in full effect for a lot of the film. How hard are these things they’re flailing on?  Who knows, as none have grades affixed and many are just labelled “Unknown” – however the seasoned reader will recognize some of names on the list below from some of our previous articles however.

Between areas and attempts, there’s a nice bit of interview that helps frame each climber’s personality and motivation. It’s also where you get insight into their backgrounds, Segal giving crags like Boat Rock as shout-out, and the revelation that Rob is a terrible spotter. When there is no meaningful dialogue to be had, there’s a constant rockhip-hop soundtrack that I definitely found myself grooving to.

I found the climbing itself great, with 80% of it in the Grampians and Armidale, Bungonia Gorge, the Arapiles and others seeing brief visits as weather allows. Ample failure is shown on routes and boulders in addition to the successful climbing, and I find that the hallmark of a motivating film. This was as much climbing trip as it was vacation, with the climbers taking in the culture of Sydney, driving their soon-to-be-broken van with its column-shifted manual, and hitch-hiking with rugby players who are watching adult films on the way to a match.  You know, that vacation type stuff, capped with a bit of hard partying and slideshow of memorable, blurry, moments.

Verdict: Good Times Down Under. Maybe I’m biased, but I dig the people in this film and the way they approach climbing – goofy with flashes of passion that borders on madness.  It doesn’t make me want to fly to the other side of the world, but it does make me miss friends.

Matt Segal

Rob D’Anastasio

Emily Harrington

Randy Puro

Alan Pryce

Brian Solano

Lost for Life

Forced Entry

American Pie

Anderson’s Jump

Anderson’s Slab

Mana

Erotic Penguins

Rave Heart

The Nevin Rule

Spanin’ the Monkey Bars

Snooky Badlands

Circus Jerkus

I Feel So Holy

Dead Can’t Dance

Ammagamma

Kachoong

Sperm Bitches

Attack Mode

Candy for Jeff

Vampire Dagger

Pinch Me

Nanjanuka

Feisty

The Sandman

Grey Mist

Rock the Clock