Jason “Jabba” Davis is an award-winning performer who has been entertaining Australian audiences for over two decades.
A familiar face with 25 years’ experience on Australian TV including acting in Logie Award winning comedy “Housos” and the cult classic “Fat Pizza” television series and feature films, Jabba has worked for all major networks, Foxtel, Nova FM, and since 2012 has appeared weekly on the 7 Network’s Weekend Sunrise as the show’s movie man, reviewing films and interviewing film talent.
He also produces a quarterly TV show for families – Jabba’s School Holiday Movie Special, now in its fifth year, and recently launched a brand new program for the 7 Network – Jabba’s Movies.
Check out his website: jabbatron.com
Citizenfour
I’ll never forget the experience of watching this Oscar winning doco in California in February 2015, having flown there to interview Will Smith & Margot Robbie. Back in my hotel room I was watching a screener of Citizenfour to review for TV, and right at the point in the film where a fire alarm goes off as the government's massive covert-surveillance programs are being discussed in detail, the power went out in the hotel and I couldn’t shake the feeling that big brother truly was watching. This plays as tautly as a Jason Bourne thriller.
The Decline of Western Civilization Parts 1-3
Especially #2 The Metal Years.
OMG this film is so hard to find and features the most hysterical cutaway shot of Ozzie Osbourne spiling orange juice as he talks about biting the heads off bats in this warts and all look at “the megastars of metal” that is as unintentionally hilarious today as it was in 1988. Trust me on this one.
Exit Through The Gift Shop
It feels like such a cliché to recommend this one, but even for the title alone, you’ll appreciate the irony next time you visit an art gallery or theme park or exhibition, you’ll always “exit through the gift shop”. Imagine trying to make a documentary film about a notoriously reclusive artist whose face has never been seen or name ever revealed. This just gets more bizarre with every twist and turn and bless Banksy I reckon he’s the greatest artist of my generation. Or maybe he;s not from my generation. Who knows?!
Sherpa
This film has it all. A female Australian director, incredible timing and first world problems, like how much should you pay your Tibetan mountain guide to haul a flat screen TV up Everest for you? I’ve never understood mountain climbers but I’m always up for a mountain movie and this one is superb. See also Jen Peedom’s other spellbinding ode to summits - Mountain, also on Docplay.
Memory: The Origins of Alien
I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about Ridley Scott’s epic space thriller Alien but that was before I watched this definitive guide to the classic film. Turns out I knew very little about the “origins of Alien”, and this doco by Swiss writer/director Alexandre O. Phillippe is a fascinating deep dive into the story behind the iconic film. Exploring the climate the film was created in, from the “fun space adventure” of Star Wars in 1977, to later works like The Thing, and E.T. Memory primarily examines the three key components of Alien, namely scriptwriter Dan O’Bannon, visionary artist H.R. Giger and directing powerhouse Ridley Scott. Memory also explores the many influences on Alien, from H.P. Lovecraft to Weird Science Comics. Proclaiming that the chest-burster scene is one of the best film moments of all time, it made sense when I learned the director had previously made an entire documentary about the shower scene from Psycho. Explaining the presence of mythical creatures in various cultures the world over as a fundamental reason for the deep connection Alien has sustained with audiences for four decades, Memory is a delight for fans of the cult classic film.
