Clip description
Alex (Shaun Evans) meets Taylor (Scott Mechlowicz) outside a hostel in Kings Cross, Sydney. They spend a night carousing with two girls that Taylor knows. Alex wakes up beside one of them the next morning as Taylor takes a Polaroid. Hung over and embarrassed, Alex accepts Taylor’s offer of a lift to the north coast. Alex is en route to Byron to meet his girlfriend, but tells Taylor he’s meeting ‘some friends’. Taylor asks him to sign and date the Polaroid, one of many in his collection.
Curator’s notes
The film presents a subtle contrast between types here, based on nationality. Taylor is a confident, cool, unflappable American. He has his own car and two girls to go out with. Alex hasn’t even got a place to stay and he’s ashamed that he got so drunk that he can’t remember what happened with the girl. This small degree of vulnerability makes it easier to understand why he goes with Taylor, a complete stranger. It suggests a certain innocence that’s attracted to Taylor’s worldliness. The Polaroid photo makes the viewer apprehensive, but Alex isn’t thinking too straight this early in their relationship. On the other hand, he instinctively lies about having a girlfriend, which might suggest that he doesn’t yet trust his new friend.
