Noise is a typical Australian movie. For some reason Australian film makers think they have to make unusual, quirky films for them to be successful, and for this reason, almost all of them are bad. Despite knowing this, I decided to give Noise a chance as the premise sounded interesting.The plot of Noise twists and turns with no real purpose. Every scene contains some nonsensical element. Perhaps the director wanted to mirror the disorienting sense tinnitus gives it's sufferers, in the style of how the story is told, but in reality he just made a truly horrible film that is boring and aggravating at how stupid it is. It never captivates the imagination whatsoever and the story is ridiculous.

This was one of those films that, at least initially, inspired me to reach for the eject button in frustration.The main reason for this was the obtuse characters :the Sergeant/boss, the detective, the girlfriend etc. The near victim and witness to a multiple homicide is treated in a manner that was just ridiculous - her rights ignored, no support or sensitivity exhibited by the police this was one of those stupid films that just frustrates from start to finish... it got better.The photography is expressive: particularly when capturing the flickering, decaying, night-lit scenes of Melbourne.The sound is interesting but I wasn't really sure that the protagonist was even someone whose experiences we were supposed to privilege when the soundscape became filled with his tinnitus' ringing... This was a film that could have had many interesting characters but I felt it failed on some human level to empathize with its' subjects. A lone cop (he acts more like a security guard) minding a community outreach "office" in a low rent suburb might have invited all manner of intersecting lives and interesting stories.... Unfortunately this wasn't THAT kind of film, emotionally stark and ending with a rather heavy- handed closure that was unfortunate.I'd rather it had ended ambiguously (and risked further frustration) than force a redemption or closure upon us. Leave it at that - and make your own mind up.

This was one of those films that, if you are Australian, makes you feel at home in it. A nice change from watching the British murder mysteries on the ABC, the European homicide series' on SBS, or the hour-long American homicide dramas on the commercial channels, all of which seem to compete to horrify the viewer.Horrifying the viewer has its own genre - it's called horror - and *Noise* isn't in it. *Noise* is unmistakably a drama, although the use of sound in the movie does serve to highlight (and overturn) conventional use of sound in cinema. Hence all the awards given for the sound.I loved the main character, particularly his motivation for being a cop. I think I understood his heroism at the end, even though it wasn't spelled out. I wouldn't have minded if all the unknowns had been solved at the end, but as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Especially because it involved Nicholas Bell.PS. I think this film aptly portrayed the range of uniformed officers in Australia.

For me, this was the best Australian film since "Lantana" ... no, I'll revise that and say it's better than "Lantana". The script was brilliantly written, with believable dialogue and characterization, and yet with an eerie, unsettling tension and mystery about it. The acting was very good all round, and in the case of Brendan Cowell, superb. I loved the music score and the moody photography. One of the most outstanding features of this most unusual film was the outstanding sound design. The scene where Brendan Cowell's character tries to drown out the ringing in his ears by making a variety of loud noises is uniquely effective in it's use of sound as an element of a film. You never quite know where this film is going, but when you get there, it's devastating. This film does on a minuscule budget what many big-budget Hollywood blockbusters could never do ... it touches your heart and it makes you use your brain.