Nick Prescott

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Dr Nick Prescott is a lecturer of English in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Australian Studies. He is also a member of the Adelaide Writers Week Board, and broadcasts weekly film reviews for the ABC.

Nick's research interests include:

  • Postmodern Literature
  • Contemporary American Fiction
  • Allusion and Intertextuality
  • Thomas Pynchon
  • Don DeLillo
  • Philip K. Dick and Paranoia
  • Contemporary Cinema and Intertextuality
  • Fiction as Socio-political Commentary and Critique

    • Nick's extensive supervisory interests include:

  • Postmodern Literature and Theory
  • 20th Century American Fiction
  • Crime and Detective Fiction
  • Genre Fiction
  • Science Fiction, in particular the works of Philip K. Dick
  • Literature and Film Adaptation
  • Literature and Intertextuality

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      "The Constant Gardener" directed by Fernando Mireilles [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2005) Prescott, Nick
      John Le Carre, perhaps the most celebrated author of espionage fiction of the late Twentieth Century, has, in his more recent work, explored some of the genuinely troubling world events that have begun to drive our planet since the end of the cold war. The Constant Gardener, set in Kenya and London, caused something of a stir on its release as a book; here was a tragic love story played out against a backdrop of big-business corruption, Governmental apathy and the exploitation of the third world. Large-scale and complex issues these most certainly are, and Le Carre brilliantly examines them by focussing on the effects wrought upon a pair of lovers caught up in the midst of cataclysmic events.
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      "Borat" directed by Larry Charles [review]
      ( 2006) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      Sacha Baron Cohen is a man who’s used to offending people. For years now the gifted British comic has, in his hugely successful TV shows, created and masqueraded as a series of idiotic and hilarious caricature figures, most famously the sexist homeboy Ali G and the buffoonish TV host Borat Sagdiyev. Through these creations, Cohen has satirised not just the broad cultural types he’s playing with, but the gamut of reactions that they generate in others, as well. It’s a fascinating kind of comedy, predicated upon the comic’s cunning ability to catch his audience(s) entirely offguard. Cohen seems to be a master at it, and with this new film version of Borat he has brought his extraordinarily confronting comic gift to the big screen.
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      "A Good Year" directed by Ridley Scott [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      When I heard that one of my favourite directors of all time, English filmmaker Ridley Scott, was making a romantic comedy, I could scarcely believe it. This is the man who, over the years, has brought us spectacular cinematic experiences like Gladiator, Alien, Bladerunner, and Legend, none of which are particularly comedic, and all of which stand as beautifully-crafted films whose most striking characteristic is the extraordinary Ridley Scott visual style that overlays their every frame. Scott’s cinematographic stamp, a gorgeous aesthetic sheen that has influenced a generation of video-clip directors and advertising executives, has been much-imitated by other filmmakers but has, in my opinion, never been surpassed. Scott’s visual style is a compelling trademark indeed, but it seems less suited to intimate human dramas than it is to action films, period spectacles and fantasies.
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      "Cars" directed by John Lasseter [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      The latest offering from the Pixar animation studio finds itself in an odd predicament. As the most recent entry in a series of astonishingly entertaining computer-animated films, Cars has an awful lot to live up to, and while the film is by no means terrible, it really does suffer from comparisons with its siblings. Pixar’s Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc (2001) and especially The Incredibles (2004) were all brilliantly funny and wildly entertaining; the films set successive benchmarks for the quality of computer-animation, and they all demonstrated their makers’ awareness of the one crucial element that sets extraordinary kids’ films apart from more everyday offerings – wonderful writing. Cars, by contrast, comes off as an extremely technically proficient but ultimately lacklustre effort. Extraordinarily realized in a technical sense, with cutting-edge digital animation that truly boggles the mind, Cars looks and sounds amazing: it’s the premise and the narrative itself that let the film down.
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      "Casino Royale" directed by Martin Campbell [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Coperation, 2006) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      Most audience members will have gleaned the basic facts about the latest in the 007 franchise by now, so I’ll keep the facts here to the bare-bones variety. This is the 21st entry in the most successful series of films in cinema history, and it stars Daniel Craig as a newly-minted James Bond, taking up where Pierce Brosnan most recently left off. Based upon Ian Fleming’s first ever Bond novel, Casino Royale is a “modernised trip back in time”, if you will; set in today’s high-tech environment, it travels back to the beginnings of the Bond mythology, beginning Bond’s story as a “double-0” agent and following him as he earns his license to kill.
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      "Miss Potter" directed by Chris Noonan [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-01-25) Prescott, Nick
      To answer the most pressing question first: no, this isn’t a film about Harry Potter’s sister. Miss Potter, the charming new film by Chris Noonan (best known on our shores as the director of the original Babe) is a biopic built around the life and writing experiences of beloved children’s author Beatrix Potter. The creator of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck and scores of other indescribably adorable animal characters is apparently still the highest-selling children’s author in history, beating everyone from Enid Blyton to latter-day picture book creators. Born in 1866, Beatrix Potter was a member of a reasonably affluent London family that had made its fortune in industry. As a young woman interested in making her own way in the world rather than settling for a convenient marriage, Beatrix spent many years proving to her rather strict and traditional parents that earning her own living as a writer and illustrator was nothing to be ashamed of. Potter’s mother in particular was deeply sceptical about her daughter’s talents and prospects, even in the face of Beatrix’s growing fame in the early years of the 20th century. Alongside these family struggles, Beatrix faced that with which we are all confronted in our growing up: romantic yearnings. These twin threads, family and romance, are really what the story of Miss Potter is built upon.
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      "The New World" directed by Terence Malick [review]
      (Roadshow Entertainment, 2006-04-27) Prescott, Nick
      Terrence Malick, the elusive and faintly mysterious director of four films that arguably stand as masterpieces one and all, usually brings the film world to a dead halt when he releases a new work. Badlands was a stunning début in 1973; kickstarting the careers of its lead actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, it made cinematic poetry of its young-lovers-on-the-run narrative. Days of Heaven (1978) is regarded by many cinematographers as the most beautiful film ever committed to celluloid, and The Thin Red Line, Malick’s 1998 piece, was rapturously received around the world (by critics at least; many cinemagoers found the film too demanding, and its philosophy too convoluted, to stay with it). That film brought its director back into the limelight after twenty years in obscurity, and it stands as the most deeply felt anti-war film since Platoon.
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      "Mission: Impossible" directed by Brian De Palma [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-05-04) Prescott, Nick
      With the recent big-screen release of the latest entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, it has been a canny move for the studio to re-release the first of the films in a beautiful 2-disc Special Edition DVD. Brian De Palma, best known as the director of ultra-stylish genre pieces like Dressed to Kill, The Untouchables and Scarface, was an interesting choice to take the reigns for Tom Cruise’s first outing as superspy Ethan Hunt.
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      "Inside Man" directed by Spike Lee [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-05-11) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      Inside Man is both a tense heist drama and “A Spike Lee Joint”. What this means, in translation, is that Spike Lee, one of New York’s most idiosyncratic and wellregarded filmmakers, has this time around chosen to bring his particular brand of directorial flair to a genre film. What an interesting thing for audience members to walk into.
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      "Candy" directed by Neil Armfield [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-05-26) Prescott, Nick
      It’s my pleasure to announce that Australian cinema audiences can once again rejoice in the arrival of a sterling new Australian film. Candy, based on Luke Davies’ well-received 1997 novel, is the first big-screen feature-film effort from acclaimed theatre director Neil Armfield, and it’s a pretty stunning piece.
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      "Ten Canoes" directed by Rolf de Heer [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-01) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      For over two decades now, Rolf de Heer has shown himself to be one of Australia’s most groundbreaking, idiosyncratic, intelligent and unpredictable filmmakers. With projects as diverse and unusual as Dingo, Bad Boy Bubby, The Quiet Room and The Tracker to his credit, de Heer’s filmography is about as challenging and as artful as they come. With his most recent work, Ten Canoes, the director may well see his reputation expand as one of the most significant Australian filmmakers ever to have worked in the industry.
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      "Xmen: The Last Stand" directed by Brett Ratner [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-01) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      In short, the third film in the X-Men franchise is much like the second one: spectacular, fast-moving, and in large part consisting of a lot of sound and fury that signifies not terribly much. It’s massively entertaining, mind you; just don’t come looking for profound, life-changing narrative.
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      "Colour me Kubrick" directed by Brian Cook [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-08) Prescott, Nick
      For both film aficionados and the public at large, Stanley Kubrick has long been a figure of fascination. Interest in Kubrick as an artistic figure has continued in leaps and bounds since the great director’s untimely death in 1999. As the visionary creator of many of the twentieth century’s landmark films, works like 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Dr Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick was a figure of intense acclaim and interest during his lifetime; a significant percentage of the world’s artistic community followed the filmmaker’s projects with obsessive interest. In his latter years, Kubrick’s refusal to travel outside England and his tendency toward reclusiveness increased his attraction for other parts of the popular press, as well as for gossip-mongers and mythographers. During the last decade of his life, however (and in large part because of the aura of mystery that had come to surround him) Kubrick attracted one of the most bizarre forms of attention possible: he was impersonated by a trickster, a con-man who passed himself off as the famous director in order to take advantage of the goodwill of individuals who were, it would seem, all too willing to believe they had encountered the great man in person.
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      "Poseidon" directed by Wolfgang Petersen [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-15) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      Well, it’s remake time again. For quite a few years now people have been suggesting that Hollywood’s major studios have run out of ideas; casting our minds back over the last little while, we will remember any number of re-jiggings, re-imaginings, updatings and re-creations. We have seen King Kong receive the Peter Jackson treatment, we’ve seen The Manchurian Candidate refashioned for the Gulf War generation, we’ve witnessed Charlie’s Angels in its crass new incarnations, and we’ve seen The Fast and the Furious, The Mummy and Ocean’s Eleven all remade and sequel-ised for modern cinemagoers.
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      "Oliver Twist" directed by Roman Polanski [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-22) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      Roman Polanski is, in this reviewer’s humble opinion, one of the cinema’s greatest directors. As legendary for his eventful personal life as he is for his extraordinary body of film work, Polanski, who is now in his early seventies, has throughout his long career managed to make films that are at once deeply personal and widely accessible to audiences around the world. From his fascinating beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s with films like Knife in the Water, Repulsion and Cul-De-Sac, through blockbusters like Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, to the recent award-winning masterpiece The Pianist, Polanski has proven himself an unique force in the filmic world. Respected by other directors as a master of the form, Polanski is a filmmaker whose each successive work is eagerly awaited by a devoted audience.
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      "Wah Wah" directed by Richard E. Grant [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-29) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      Richard E. Grant is, for many cinemagoers, one of today’s most cherished actors. Since his raucously brilliant, star-making performance in Withnail & I (1986) Grant has enjoyed almost constant work as an actor, and his pedigree is up there with the best of them. From seething villains to bitchy butlers, from romantic luvvies to noble heroic leads, Grant has shown, in a career of breathtaking scope, that he can convincingly portray almost anything. He has demonstrated enviable skill as a writer, too; his wonderful film memoir “With Nails” (published in 1997) documented, with amazing humour and wit, his first few projects as a major star. With Wah-Wah, his directorial debut, Grant has combined the two aspects of his creative life (filmmaking and writing) and used them to tell a funny, moving and heartfelt coming of age story, inspired by his own experiences as an adolescent in Swaziland.
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      "Superman Returns" directed by Bryan Singer [review]
      (Astralian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-06-29) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      Like many filmgoers around my age, I remember going to the cinema as a young boy to see Christopher Reeve play the man of steel in the “old” Superman films. The 1978 version of Superman, directed by Richard Donner, was a colossal hit and made a career for the then unknown Reeve; Gene Hackman and Terence Stamp were great value as the villains, and the effects were, for the time, eye-popping. Coming in the wave of blockbusters that arrived during the late 1970s, Superman began a very successful franchise; by the time the series ended in 1987 (with Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) Reeve had earned a packet and had become synonymous with the mild-mannered superhero.
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      "Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Mans Chest" directed by Gore Verbinski [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-07-06) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      I would like to state emphatically, for the record, that I loved the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. Made by director-for-hire Gore Verbinski in 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a breathlessly entertaining Hollywood concoction in the finest comic-matinee tradition. It moved its wonderfully engaging and fantastical story along at mile-a-minute pace, it put its attractive cast through its paces in wry and rollicking fashion, and it never let its wonderful special effects get in the way of the terrific comic banter. How on earth the filmmakers thought they’d be able to top that lot is anyone’s guess, but in my opinion the effort to do so has been spectacularly unsuccessful.
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      "Jindabyne" directed by Ray Lawrence [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-07-20) Prescott, Nick
      Jindabyne is the much-anticipated third feature film by Australian director Ray Lawrence, the man responsible for the best Aussie film of the last ten years, Lantana. Despite his impeccable industry credentials, Lawrence has had an unusual career as a director. After making the flawed but fascinating feature debut Bliss in 1985, Lawrence spent a decade and a half in the Australian filmmaking netherworld, working on acclaimed shorts and commercials, and trying in vain to get feature projects off the ground. When writer Andrew Bovell crossed Lawrence’s path in the late nineties, Lantana was born. Since the release of that revelation of a film in 2000, Lawrence hasn’t looked back.
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      "Paradise Now" directed by Hany Abu-Assad [review]
      (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-08-02) Prescott, Nicholas Adrian
      As the horrifying troubles in the Middle East continue to dominate the western media, it is timely to examine a film that dramatises, in extraordinarily powerful and personal fashion, that which for most of us would be unthinkable: young men’s decisions to become suicide-bombers.