HOW TO MAKE A MOVIE IN 12 DAYS

Time isn’t all that presses on an 11-year-old Australian auteur.

As if juggling shooting schedules, budgets, last-minute crew and script changes, and unforeseen family business isn’t tricky enough, it seems that there are also unknown saboteurs getting in the way of letting Hayley Whelan finish the film she wants to make in her prickly but beloved grandmother’s memory during the tight interval between school terms. Hardy vigorously cranks up the suspense with both a mystery and an impending deadline while imparting a convincing picture of the problems, technical savvy, and astounding amounts of planning and passion that even amateur filmmaking can entail. In the process, she dishes up a delicious cast that features on the one hand Hayley’s scene-stealing little sister, Jennifer (who gets many, but by no means all, of the good lines), and on the other, a diverse working crew of classmates including members who are Mexican and Malaysian Australian as well as Wemba Wemba and Gamilaroi (Hayley and her family present as White). Their buy-in and personal loyalty survive extreme tests on the way to the tearful and cathartic premiere. It’s a sorrow that the final film—a horror flick entitled (wink wink) Rosebud, about a child-eating rosebush—is only fictive, but in compensation, the author does strew nods and references to real ones throughout for budding cineastes to pick up.

Order up plenty of popcorn and settle back for a tense, intense, delightful ride.