Murray Fahey is an Australian actor-writer-director who tenaciously produces very low budget movies without even the backing of the usual funding bodies.
The credits of Dags, his fourth feature, announce that it was a Made On A Bank Loan production and that one of the film`s executive producers was Visa Card - it`s that cheap a picture.
Fahey describes this as a `dag-u-mentary`, and his heroes are supposedly typical blue collar Aussies, blokes who binge on beer and dope, eat fast food, watch videos and occasionally indulge in sex; chicks who are into clothes and makeup and, when possible, sex. Cheryl, Tanya Bulmer, is engaged to the amazingly daggy and permanently stoned Daryl, Brian Roberts, but she decides she needs something better. Meanwhile Tina, Sheena Crouch, has secretly been having an affair with the desirable Enzo, Sam Makhoul, who happens to be the boyfriend of her best friend, Charlene, Penny Cooper.
The film owes a lot to Muriel`s Wedding and also to Kevin Smith`s Clerks - the characters are exaggerated, but recognisable, the dialogue is horribly realistic. It was a mistake to have it narrated by a fake anthropologist, whose scenes are intrusive, but, on the whole, Dags is fun, in a daggy kind of way.
