PALM SPRINGS SHORTFEST 2024 REVIEW! I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m usually not one for musicals, but the Australian short film Yeah the Boys, written by Vanessa Marian and directed by Stefan Hunt, is not your typical musical. It features six young Aussie men who make hypnotic choreographed moves while chugging bears, putting each other into chokeholds, crowd surfing, and just being your typical drunk bros.
The techno beat score by The Avalanches is equally mesmerizing, enhancing the fun rhythm of the movement we see on screen. It all kicks off with a quiet scene of a girl (Bailey Spalding) fixing her boyfriend’s hair, but the moment that the rest of the boys show up, chaos follows. A loud thud on the car hood, all the guys yelling, and one morning, the car sets the mood for a very different vibe.
“The perfect-fitting music and expert dancing make this movie a real bro hymn that everyone can groove on.”
The camera pans a three-sixty to show beer drinking and dancing in a backyard, with the music pulsating. It’s just a bunch of dudes being lewd and obnoxious when a choreographed dance of the same type of shenanigans breaks out. It’s like watching the Blue Man Group if they were six drunk Aussies. There’s a particularly fun (and surprisingly emotionally sensitive) final sequence where one of the boys is passed out drunk, but the rest of them use his rag doll-like body as a centerpiece to continue on the dance while they carry him, eventually putting him to bed on a couch while one dude holds him through the night.
I have to give props to the male cast of Neven Connolly, Hadley Davidson, Jordan Hill, Kieran Crowe, Jackson Garcia, and Rob McLean because they nailed the choreography as if they were a seasoned dance troupe. It must have been no small task for director Stefan Hunt to put it all together as well.
Yeah the Boys gives us an entertaining look into the Neanderthal-like bro culture, where grunts and frat-party types of actions are king. The perfect-fitting music and expert dancing make this movie a real bro hymn that everyone can groove on.
Yeah the Boys screened at the 2024 Palm Springs Shortfest.
"…not your typical musical."
