IT'S OUR TIME

Stars: Tiana Hogben, Bianca Bradey, Peter Thurnwald, Susan Ling Young and Lex Marinos.
Writer/Director: Joy Hopwood

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Like the home baked muffins featured throughout, It’s Our Time is a small, sweet confection, made with a few simple ingredients but benefitting from genuine affection. Multi-hyphenate Joy Hopwood feels like she’s stuck very close to the “Just write what you know” mantra with her story of a flaky filmmaker wannabe and the friendships, romances and setbacks that consume her daily late twenty-something life.

The endearing Tiana Hogben plays Emilia, a young Asian-Australian woman who dreams of turning her action-comedy script into a calling card film that will set her on the road to stardom. But that road presents speed bumps in the shape of Shannon (Peter Thurnwald), a funding agency gatekeeper who passes on her pitch; her bff Zoe (Bianca Bradey), whose baked goods enterprise is soaring and who has eyes for Shannon; and, her landlord Ken (the late Lex Marinos, in his final screen appearance) who is losing patience over unpaid rent.

Hopwood employs dream/flashback sequences to expand upon the relationship Emilia has with Zoe and to explore the ambitions that her immigrant mother (Susan Ling Young) has for her daughter. These provide some effective shading for our protagonist, who might otherwise have just been a reactive foil for all that goes on around her. These elements also bring a universality to Emilia’s ambitions; one could easily imagine this being a ‘00s-set story about struggling writer Greta Gerwig or fashion design hopeful America Ferrara.

Despite her money woes, Emilia’s rental abode is located on Sydney’s ultra-pricey and delightfully photogenic lower north shore, a setting that too easily recalls the ‘NYC-loft logic’ of Friends. There is a sense that the meet-cutes and single-setting locations (her bedroom; his office; her kitchen; their picnic) would perhaps better suit a multi-episode sitcom arc, where weekly obstacles and an expanded cast list can broaden Emilia’s madcap but ultimately meaningful journey. 

Hopwood, who has honed her craft helming micro-budgeted romancers The Script of Life (2019), Rhapsody of Love (2021), Get a Life, Alright (2022) and The Gift that Gives (2024), utilises her ensemble effectively, generally keeps the mood buoyant and delivers a wholly likable comedy-drama that’s the ideal add-on for that rainy weekend couch time.