Filipino-Australian filmmaker Matthew Victor Pastor has been prolific in recent years, with “The Neon Across the Ocean” marking his ninth feature since 2011. Once again tackling themes of Filipino-Australian identity in what is the first entry in his so-called 2020 Trilogy, the director somewhat misses the mark in what is a dull and meandering affair.
Mandy (Waiyee Rivera) is a Filipino-Australian teenager living in the not-too-distant future of post-pandemic Melbourne. The teen has a strained relationship with her parents and feels distant from her heritage, never having ventured to her mother's home country of the Philippines. We wander with Mandy as she adjusts to life in an isolated world and juggles everything from familial struggles to blossoming sexuality.
Starting with the positives, there are elements of Pastor's film that are sporadically enjoyable. Much of the night-time cinematography that opens the movie and runs sparsely throughout, makes for some striking images of the neon-lit, rainy streets. Pastor clearly has an eye for low-lit imagery, as a handful of scenes later in the film have a notably seedier aesthetic. There is also the occasional plot interjection from a mysterious Filipino narrator, who ponders about life in the land where their father came from and describes a feeling of constant loneliness. This aspect of the narrative proves to be the most intriguing, yet it is merely supplementary, contributing only to a misleadingly positive opening before being mostly forgotten.
I hate to use the word pretentious as I feel it often devalues the intention of the filmmaker, but no description is more apt in the case of “The Neon Across the Ocean”. Everything about the movie is lofty and distant, without anything of real weight or emotion being explored. You may argue this distance works thematically, given the post-pandemic setting, but the lack of investment you feel in everything from the characters to the so-called plot is extremely disengaging.
The pacing is demonstrably slow, a fact that is made worse by the randomly inserted shots of tables, streets, and the Melbourne cityscape, the latter of which are undeniably pretty. One would assume that these long shots have been included to allow moments of reflection for the audience, but there are no meaningful developments to look back on. These seemingly pointless shots are detrimental for the already snail-paced plot, which takes all of half the runtime to get going in any real sense.
Pastor is trying to tackle several topics in the film, the most prevalent perhaps being isolation. However, there are several other themes that experience only surface-level exploration, as the director also delves into coming of age, sexuality, familial struggles, and mixed heritage. Unfortunately, there's such a distinct lack of focus on any one element of the narrative that the result is a severely undercooked scattershot of lofty ideas that aren't presented in an accessible manner. Reading into the film post-viewing, it's clear that isolation in a post-pandemic world was a key theme for Pastor. However, this intention is not garnered through viewing the film organically, as you're instead only left with frustration and boredom.
This narrative approach is made worse by the awfully stilted dialogue that the actors cannot do much with. It's difficult to judge the performances in any meaningful way given that everyone has the same emotionless demeanour, comically distant presence, and monotone line delivery. The feigned naturalism of the dialogue only makes it more clunky and unbearable, especially when characters spout outlandish lines such as “nothing lasts forever” when discussing junk food.
“The Neon Across the Ocean” is an utterly unstimulating affair, rife with self-importance. The slow pacing, disjointed narrative and lack of focus all contribute to what proves to be a dull and empty film. Experimental? Sure. Entertaining? Not even close. The occasional moment of cinematographic beauty covers up what, for the most part, comes across as a glorified student film.
