Indie Films A Bit More Disappointing than Wished For

"A Long Way Down"
starring: Pierce Bronsan, Imogen Poots, Aaron Paul, Toni Collette, Sam Neill
written by: Nick Hornby


I love(d) Nick Hornby's books, about 10-12 years ago. Especially "High Fidelity" and it helped that the film adaptation was pretty spot on and perfect, thanks to great performances by John Cusack and Jack Black. I read this book, "A Long Way Down" quite a few years ago and I was surprised that they made a film out of it because it's a rather depressing subject to tackle- a group of down-and-outers create a suicide pact on New Year's Eve after finding each other on top of the same building one New Year's Eve. We get small glimpses at their reasons for wanting to die.

Martin (Pierce Bronsan, rather unlikable in this role) is a disgraced TV talk show host, caught up in the aftermath of his underage sex scandal.
Maureen (Toni Collette) is a single mother handling the home-care of her disabled teenage son.
Jess (Imogen Poots, who should be on to better roles, as I've seen her in several indie films now and she takes on her small roles rather well) is a party girl and daughter of a Senator, clearly looking to rebel against her straight-laced father, wanting to embarrass him as best as she can
JJ (Aaron Paul, who does a good job in his role, one of the first ones after his great stint in "Breaking Bad") is a failed, mopey musician who tells the group he is dying from brain cancer

Jess convinces the group to put off her suicides until the next, equally depressing holidays- Valentine's Day- in the hopes that they stay connected with each other.

The subject matter of the film is a hard one to tackle appropriately, without making jokes or taking itself too seriously and unfortunately the filmmaker's tone is rather off-putting and emotionally haphazard because of the characters' supposedly ironic detachment issues. I think the biggest flaw of the film is that the characters are not really likable (minus Maureen, of course, but even still) and with something like a suicide pact, the story needs to make sure the audience doesn't want the characters to actually commit suicide. They come off as obnoxious in their self-actualization, because they feel like they deserve better than this life. The characters never really leave their outer shells and expose themselves, except for JJ, who admits to Jess that he made up the story about dying of cancer.

The fact that these four people have found each other and stay close enough to each other just bothers the viewer, inside of comforting us. Then, they even take a (much needed) vacation from the world and their lives, as well as some sex, which minimizes the severity of suicide.
The direction of the film is rather listless, at best, and steers the viewer to feelings of discomfort and almost wishing for these unlikable characters' demise.
I was disappointed by this film, minus the performances of Imogen Poots and a little bit of Aaron Paul's stock.
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"Filth"
starring: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots, Brian McCardie, Emun Elliott, Gary Lewis, John Sessions, Shauna McDonald, Jim Broadbent, Joanne Froggat
written and directed by: John S. Baird (and Irvine Welsh, book)


"Filth" the novel was written by the same author as "Trainspotting" and although the films were directed by different people, the Scottish-based films are very similar, indeed. Both films have sharp editing and soundtracks that the film seems based around. Both rely heavily on voiceover narration from the main character- which can be detracting and a turn off for viewers like myself who just want the story to play and explain itself. The main characters are also nihilistic sociopaths who tell us outright that they are not interested in redemption. The major difference with "Filth" is that McAvoy's character is hoping to garner our sympathies by the end of the film after taking us on a bizarre trip of human depravity perhaps in its finest form. Unfortunately, here is another film that falls flat and is rather unconvincing.

Bruce Robertson (McAvoy) is a policeman located in Edinburgh looking for a promotion, while simultaneously spiraling down a staircase of insanity and human depravity. He wants to be detective inspector, which is a big deal, somehow, and could apparently allow him to get away with even more of his shenanigans. He is actually given the role of acting detective inspector on a murder case, all he has to do is solve the murder mystery before any of his five colleagues, who are coincidentally hoping for the same promotion.

What follows is Bruce's self-created game of shame, scandal, and blackmail all at the expense of his unsuspecting colleagues. The murder of a Japanese student at the very beginning of the film really takes a backseat to the film's main acts of Bruce behaving rather badly, indeed. McAvoy certainly does his best to breathe life into this clearly unlikable character. And Imogen Poots (again) shows up as his closest rival, and the fact that she is a lady (a gender that Bruce clearly thinks very little of), that just boils his blood even more. Poots is stellar as his rival.

The film, though, is clearly trying too hard to be like its Scottish predecessor of debauchery "Trainspotting" with its own level of vulgarness and grotesqueness, but it just falls short. The film is its own detriment.

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"Refuge"
starring: Krysten Ritter, Brian Geraghty, Logan Huffman, Madelaine Martin, Juliet Garrett
written and directed by: Jessica Goldberg


The definition of refuge: a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble.

The problem with this indie film, starring Krysten Ritter (whom I generally like and enjoy watching) is in the filmmaker's inability to see its contrivances. It tries to be something it is not, and unfortunately tells a story that by the end of the film, you are left to ask, "why?" because it all feels completely meaningless- with a story that really tells nothing (much) and does not go anywhere, other than to fulfill a single girl's fantasy of escapism from her own sad reality with a seeming Prince Charming who appears out of nowhere, drifting through her town, only to pick her up in the local bar and be taken home by her, for an extended one-night stand.

Amy (Krysten Ritter) is a college drop-out who's raising her siblings in the aftermath of their parents' inexplicable disappearance. Her brother, Nat (Logan Huffman), is of legal age, but he has considerable complications that have arisen from a brain tumor. Amy's sister, Lucy (Madeleine Martin), is a high school student weathering the usual problems of truancy, light drug use, and, much more alarmingly, of self-inflicted physical abuse. Amy loves her siblings, but understandably feels trapped, and takes to medicating that hopelessness by getting sauced at the local watering hole and taking home whichever guy shoots her the most promising looks—a cry for help that eventually leads her to Sam (Brian Geraghty), a hunk with great abs and that perfectly disheveled mixture of movie-star hair and three-day facial stubble.

I do have to give the fimmaker, Jessica Goldberg, create for not making Geraghty's Sam into the sexually fantasized "perfect" man. Instead, he is a lonely and directionless drifter. He clearly has his own issues that he is attempting to work out (or is he actually trying to escape his issues and just simply sweep them under the rug) through his "relationship" with Amy. Sam is a dull character who really does not bring any light into Amy's life of regret because she is very clearly settling on him, in order to hopefully make her life slightly, somewhat better, even just a little bit, as she's dropped out of college and whatever kind of good thing she had going for herself (which seems to just be the fact that she got to escape for hometown for college life, but even that probably did not satisfy her), in order to take care of her younger sister and disabled younger brother, because their parents are no longer in the picture.

Unfortunately, the characters in the film have given up on themselves perhaps even before the film began, which does not really allow the viewer to wish better for them. Nothing's at stake here in this film, its ultimate fatalism. Krysten Ritter should have known better to breathe a little more life into her character because you want to want something more for her.

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"For Your Consideration"
starring: Catherin O'Hara, Ed Begley Jr., Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer, Christoper Moynihan, Christopher Guest, John Micheal Higgins, Carrie Aizley, Jennifer Coolidge, Parker Posey
written and directed by: Christopher Guest


This is the last of Christopher Guest's great mostly improv films which started with "This is Spinal Tap." This film came out in 2006, and certainly is not his best film (that honor of course goes to "Best in Show" if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it immediately), but it still resonates because of its satire (this time on the film industry and actors).

The basis of Guest's film is a Hollywood movie production of a film tentatively called "Home for Purim" that is turned on its head when rumors surface and spread like wildfire on the set of one of its cast members potentially getting some Oscar buzz and a nomination.

For an actor, I can only assume, nothing justifies the long slog of auditions, commercials, dinner-theatre musicals, bad reviews, and countless rejections more than an Oscar, and at the first mention of her name as a possible nominee, aging actress Marilyn Hack (O’Hara) dives into a long-awaited ocean of theatrical self-satisfaction and painted modesty, much to the disdain of her jealous co-stars but much to the delight of the army of publicists, agents, and studio heads who feed off the production like barnacles. Soon, that tiny acorn of a rumor grows into a mighty oak of overblown publicity and media saturation, and that’s when For Your Consideration begins its descent into broad, mean-spirited satire.

Christopher Guest is clearly disinterested in having or invoking any kind of affection for these actors/characters. Everyone in the film is a grotesque, albeit perhaps overblown caricature of real-life actors (which really made me wonder who he had in mind when he dreamed up this script). All the actors are insecure, petty, and very self-involved- perhaps not much of a stretch in real life, since many people who get into acting purely for the attention and affection of others, as well as being self-congratulatory, I mean just look at how many different award shows are out there during "award season."

It's not Guest's finest film because unfortunately what should be a funny satirical film about an industry he finds myself mired in on a daily basis, only has a few shining moments of pure humor. Parker Posey is always great in his films, and she is not given much to work with here. I guess, one of its forgivable qualities is that Guest only maps out the script and tells the actors some of his expectations for each scene and then let's the actors improv and play off each other, which they usually do quite well. Here, it just seems like nobody gets completely comfortable in  the scenes with one another.
Being a Christopher Guest film, I perhaps expected a little too much from "For Your Consideration" because it fell slightly short of being entertaining.

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"About Cherry"
starring: Ashley Hinshaw, Lili Taylor, James Franco, Dev Patel, Diane Farr, Heather Graham
written and directed by: Stephen Elliot


Here's a story of an 18 year old girl (played by Ashley Hinshaw, all surface beauty, including a perfect body and a killer smile and mesmerizing eyes, with no other substance to her like inner beauty) who flees her unhappy home life in Long Beach, CA and ends up working in the porn industry under the surname "Cherry" in San Francisco. Likely backstory for any of these girls that can be found making porn, I guess or assume. We even catch a quick glimpse of her stepfather, who is a mean drunk and supposedly abusive to the girls (mom, younger sister, and "Cherry"). Typical.
What isn't typical about "Cherry's" story though is that she is not exploited or victimized while working in the porn industry, as much as real life porn actresses would tell us and/or have us believe if we were to sit down and listen to their stories. Knowing this, it makes "Cherry's" story a bit more unbelievable and/or relatable to the audience, because as a critical viewer, we should all know better than to believe Cherry's naivete and rise to power in an industry that so clearly is looking to expose and manipulate its female workers. Cherry is, by contrast, fully in control and happy with her choices and what she does for a living, really finding no need to hide the truth. The problems that arise in the film have to do with everyone else around Cherry coming to terms with her career choices. And they do have some difficulty, especially her platonic best friend, played by Dev Patel who clearly is suffering from a classic case of unrequited love. And then, there's her coke-snorting lawyer boyfriend, played by a perpetually high James Franco, coasting in this role defined by him. Heather Graham, another female and coincidentally director at Cherry's porn company, Bod, as well as being a lesbian who so clearly has developed a major crush on Cherry and wants to be around her at every turn. Graham's character helps affirm Cherry's life and career choices, because she compliments Cherry all the time and shows her the greatest that could become of her career.

Cherry is clearly a very strong female within an industry of very insecure women, but the film and the story fail to explore the idea of Cherry's demand that everyone accept her as she is, as well as her choices in life. This could have been something more than a fluff piece. The film could have moralized the porn industry a bit more, by ultimately exposing a bit more of the truth behind pornography that we, as a society, tend to believe more. I wanted to see more than sunshine and roses.

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