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Out in Sydney's west, a young man is juggling an overwhelming mother, a disabled brother, his new girlfriend and the horrors of virginity.
Cherie Nowlan’s first feature since Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997) is the kind of well-crafted film that makes you wonder when she’s been this past decade. A comic-drama about a twenty-one year old virgin and his impossible family, Clubland has the requisite humour, pathos, drama and chaos to please audiences and critics alike. Tim (Chittenden) is the glue that holds this coming-of-age-tale-with-a-twist together, but he’s not the one growing up. It’s his overwhelming mother Jean (Blethyn) who has a thing or two to learn.
Tim’s parent’s are entertainers, or at least they were sometime in the mid-70’s. These days they’re divorced; Tim’s dad is a supermarket security guard, his mother works in a factory canteen. But every now and then she gets to tread the boards and remind herself of what could have been before she gave up English stardom for an Australian love affair and its by-product, their disabled son Mark. All of which Tim could cope with blindfolded, if only she would let him get over the hump (metaphorically speaking) of his first serious romance.
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