Going Down

Middle-class Karli (Tracy Mann), alcoholic Jane (Vera Plevnik), unemployed Jackie (Julie Barry), and square Ellen (Moira MacLaine-Cross) are four friends living together and barely scraping by in suburban Sydney. But when Karli’s father offers her a little money and a one-way ticket to New York, she finally sees a way out of her dead-end life—that is, until the money goes missing, kickstarting a final night out on the town that none of them will ever forget.

With a screenplay written by and based on the lives of two of its stars, performances from local Sydney bands Pel Mel and the Dynamic Hepnotics, and supporting appearances by a handful of beloved Ozploitation regulars—including David Argue (BMX Bandits) and Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max)—Haydn Keenan’s debut feature Going Down is an underseen landmark of Australian cinema and a vivid portrait of Sydney in the early 80s. Existing somewhere between Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens and Juliet Berto and Jean-Henri Roger’s Neige in its depictions of the thrills and dangers of urban life, Going Down is a visceral testament to friendship and making it at any cost.