Petersen

(Viewed in 2011): Peterson suffers from tonal confusion and fails to balance serious character driven drama with more satirical elements. Williamson's screenplay addresses the fractured class system in Australia but provides little understanding of its 'internal dynamic' beyond showing the difficulty of an aspirational tradie trying to cross the class divide. Peterson is also a thoroughly unlikeable character, but not in a way that promotes insight into the film's broader thematic concerns.

There might've been a decent script here about this bloke trying to switch from blue collar to white collar (an admirable theme to explore), but this titular character is a gigantic asshole and the film loves him anyway, as he's often portrayed in a good light (literally). He's constantly cheating on his wife, and ultimately he even viciously rapes one of his mistresses, but the film still rewards this aggressive oath with successes (mostly extra-marital). Lazy garbage.