BLUE VALENTINE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Love is a battlefield, the poet once said.  And as in most wars, the opponents often don't even know what they're fighting for.  Such is the case in director/co-writer Derek Cianfrance's BLUE VALENTINE (2010), the story of a relationship that goes from love to indifference and finally to outright hostility.  The film, unfortunately, bypasses entertainment altogether and goes straight to outright boredom.

We join the sad dissolution of the marriage between Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) already in progress.  Dean's an unambitious housepainter who's content to be a husband and a father to their cute little daughter Frankie (Faith Wladyka), but Cindy, a nurse who once had dreams of becoming a doctor, grows more distant and disillusioned every day.  Mostly she seems to have simply grown tired of Dean, moping as he romps playfully with Frankie and rejecting his romantic advances as though he were the poster boy for bad breath.

Even when Dean books the "Future Room" in a sleazy sex motel so they can have a passionate night together, Cindy's about as sexually yielding as an anchor chain on an aircraft carrier.  Her increasingly hostile attitude drives Dean to drink, which makes her even more hostile toward him.  This vicious cycle is reflected in their maddeningly circuitous dialogue ("You should try thinking about what you say, instead of just saying what you think," she chides for no particular reason), much of which was improvised by the actors.  While this sometimes makes characters' speech sound more natural, here it simply leads to a lot of shaggy-dog dialogue that's as frustratingly pointless for us as it is for Dean and Cindy.

 

As a counterpoint to their crumbling marriage, we're shown flashbacks of how they met and fell in love ten years earlier.  While helping an old man move into a nursing home, Dean spots Cindy in her elderly Gramma's room and is instantly smitten.  After they meet-cute, he cute-stalks her until she finally gives in, mainly because the jock-jerk she's been having sweaty sex with has knocked her up and dumped her.  But their love is made sweetly manifest during a saccharine sidewalk scene in which he sings and plays the ukelele like Tiny Tim while she tapdances (also improvised for our pleasure).

Along the way we get to hear Dean and his moving company coworker Marshall (Marshall Johnson) having the kind of contemplative, sensitive guy-talk that guys in real life have, like, never, while Cindy's old and wise Gramma offers her the usual quotable soundbites about life and love.  What finally drives Cindy to marry Dean is an unpleasant abortion scene, which itself is aborted by a reluctant Cindy who then reluctantly consents to tie the knot.  Since we already know how ill-fated this marriage is, the whole thing's a downer anyway.

Shot in an informal semi-doc style, BLUE VALENTINE just sort of mopes along from one depressing situation to the next, alternating between Dean and Cindy's sappy love story and the advanced stages of their bitter breakup.  Cindy's iceberg attitude toward Dean is never adequately explained beyond the fact of her free-floating discontent (and vague "grass-is-greener" memories of the dickweed she was banging before she met Dean), with her extreme coldness during their unsuccessful attempt at lovemaking in the "Future Room" coming off as particularly unpleasant.

Dean, on the other hand, is a doormat whose love for Cindy is like a debilitating infection spreading from his heart to his brain.  The scene in which he drunkenly bursts into the clinic where Cindy works and wrecks the place has some dramatic oomph, but after that comes a weepy denouement which doesn't really go anywhere and leaves us with little understanding of these characters or why we've just suffered through all of this unresolved conflict with them. 

 

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  Extras include a commentary with the director and his co-editor Jim Helton, the featurette "The Making of Blue Valentine", a "home movie" by Gosling, Williams, and their onscreen daughter Faith Wladyka, and some deleted scenes consisting of several minutes of further improv by Gosling and Williams.

BLUE VALENTINE is the kind of relationship flick that separates people into two distinct camps.   Either you're one of those hardy viewers whose temperament allows them to settle in and enjoy this sort of meandering mopefest, or the morose antics of Cindy and Dean will have you grabbing for the remote as your eyes glaze over and clicking away for dear life.


Originally posted on 5/4/11

 

BLUE VALENTINE -- DVD Review by Porfle

LIFE OF SIGNIFICANT SOIL -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 6/27/17

 

If you took GROUNDHOG DAY, removed the comedy, and replaced Bill Murray with a young couple whose relationship is on its last legs and in need of some serious revising, you'd have something like the romantic drama LIFE OF SIGNIFICANT SOIL (2016).

Charlotte Bydwell is Addison, an aspiring dancer whose aspirations have dissolved into the malaise that is her relationship with Conor (Alexis Mouyiaris), an irresponsible, self-centered manchild who takes her for granted.

Con wants the stability of his life with Add, while maintaining a steady sex life with Jackie (Anna Jack), a ditzy blonde who lives in the apartment downstairs and has a sad unrequited love for him.

The GROUNDHOG DAY premise kicks in when Con and Add start reliving the same day over and over again, beginning with their air-conditioner conking out every morning and Add finding out, via a home testing kit, that she's pregnant. 

Eventually they catch on to what's happening--even, in one of the more interesting scenes, visiting a doctor to find out if there's some medical cause--and, after accepting it as a fact, discover it to both accentuate the things that are wrong between them and also give them a chance to work them out.

Unfortunately, Con's irresponsibility and Add's dissatisfaction present seemingly insurmountable obstacles for their continued coexistence, with Add repeatedly trying to leave him while he begs her to stay. 

Regardless of what they do, however--including Add getting an illicit abortion and then waking up later to find Con missing and presumed in bed with Jackie again--everything resets itself in the morning (including her pregnancy) and the same day must be played out yet again with varying results.

 

Writer/director Michael Irish, in his feature debut, gives the direction and photography a sort of artsy hand-held casualness that fits the low-key material.  LIFE OF SIGNIFICANT SOIL isn't a comedy, although it has its sadly amusing aspects, nor does it veer into heavy drama, though sadly dramatic it often is. 

Instead, there's a sort of resigned existentialism and wistfully meta melancholy running through the story, during which the characters engage in much introspection and contemplation of their lot in life.  Add, especially, yearns for something more, yet is continually reticent to leave the dependant Con and venture into the unknown. 

All of this must sound like chick-flick hell to some, yet LIFE OF SIGNIFICANT SOIL is surprisingly watchable and engaging if you settle into it just right.  While the ending doesn't exactly blow the doors off the place, it's just oddly effective enough to leave me a bit wistful and contemplative myself.

LIFE OF SIGNIFICANT SOIL -- Movie Review by Porfle

TARA ROAD -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online in 2005.)

 

"Sometimes you must lose your life to find a new one."  Oh, brother...

What do you do when your life falls apart around you?  Well, if you're Marilyn (Andie MacDowell), a well-to-do New England wife who's feeling estranged from her husband after their teenaged son gets killed during his 15th birthday party, and Ria (Olivia Williams), an Irish mother of two who just found out that not only is she pregnant again, but so is her husband's mistress...

...you swap houses.  Yes, that's the gimmick that TARA ROAD (2005) uses to take these two hapless women on an emotional journey of self-discovery and all that stuff.  After a handy plot contrivance, Marilyn ends up in Ria's house in Dublin and Ria leaves her kids with her cheating husband and his girlfriend and whisks off to New England to move into Marilyn's house.  But they're not just swapping houses, they're swapping lives.  And learning about themselves...and growing, and...excuse me, I think I'm gonna barf...

First of all, Ria's a wuss.  Her husband Danny (Iain Glen) makes his shocking announcement--you know, about his girlfriend being pregnant and whatnot--and all she can do is desperately clutch at him and practically beg him to stay with her.  Marilyn, on the other hand, is a cold fish who has a faithful husband who loves her, yet she rejects him because she's so wrapped up in her own self-pity.  In one early scene, she's so upset about the loss of their son that she even knocks her glass of iced tea off the table while sitting by the pool.  So these two women damn well better learn about themselves and grow and all that stuff during this movie, or I'm really gonna be ticked off.

When we see them wandering through each other's houses, it's supposed to be a meaningful "moment", judging from the soft string music and the solemnity on their faces.  For some reason, going through each other's underwear drawers and tripping over each other's kid's toys is meant to be a deeply emotional experience for them and us, although I didn't really get why.

Of course, a big part of the story will be the alternately zany and heartwarming culture shock that is generated when Ria and Marilyn encounter each other's friends.  Ria discovers that Marilyn has the standard "brassy broad" gal pal who seems to constantly flounce from one of these movies to the next--the frizzy-haired, obnoxious fashion disaster, Carlotta ("Ab Fab" script editor Ruby Wax).  There's also a funny black friend named Heidi (Jia Francis), because rich white women always have a funny black friend.  Ria is invaded by them upon her arrival and is flustered and nonplussed by their raucous American behavior since people aren't brassy and obnoxious and black in dear ol' Dublin, doon't ya know, and they get tipsy and have girl-talk and it's all just so delightful!  Not.

Meanwhile, Marilyn is ransacking her way through Ria's private photographs and looking wistful as sad music plays on the soundtrack.  At this point I have absolutely no emotional investment in this character, yet I'm supposed to be all weepy over her.  Actually, I can't stand her.  Anyway, she encounters Ria's restauranteur-gardener friend, Colm (Stephen Rea) and her other friend Rosemary (Maria Doyle Kennedy), and they're so low-key and sweetly encouraging and relaxing to be around--just what poor Marilyn needs, bless her heart.  Various other people flit in and out of her vicinity and talk Irish at her, which she finds enchanting.  It's as though she's stumbled into some kind of Tolkien fantasy full of playful hobbits.

I check the DVD time and find that only one-fourth of the movie has elapsed so far.  Oh...my...god.

Ria meets Marilyn's brother-in-law Andy (Jean-Marc Barr) and they hit it off because he's one of those fantasy chick-flick guys who is soft-spoken, wimpily handsome, and talks about his feelings yet knows when to listen, so it looks like a romance is in the offing.  I can't believe I'm talking about this stuff.  Please shoot me.

Did I mention that Marilyn has two giddy, flamboyantly-gay friends who supply comedy relief by queening it up whenever they're onscreen?  Of course she does.  Ria cute-meets them and gets a job cooking in their bakery.  Then she goes out with Andy for a romantic, emotional dinner that ends with Irish coffee by the pool.  She's finding herself!

Things get more complicated when Danny's business goes bust and he starts running around doing desperate things and turning into even more of a bad guy.  And Rosemary is revealed to be not quite the good friend to Ria that she was thought to be, so Ria must learn to be more assertive and self-reliant at last.  While all this is going on, Marilyn begins to inch her way back to happiness when she's reunited with her husband and finally learns to accept her son's death.  And yes, both women grow in the process.  Hallelujah!

This movie wants to take us on an emotional rollercoaster ride but it's more like getting stuck in traffic with a carload of people you can't stand and nothing on the radio but Barry Manilow.  The story is dotted with scenes meant to elicit instant reactions from us without really trying--a crying scene here, a party scene there, another plot complication, more crying--like a bad painter dabbing colorful flower petals on a bland still life. 

It's all deadly slow and lifeless, and when it was over, I felt like I'd just been released from bondage.  If you have a high tolerance for boring chick-flicks you may enjoy TARA ROAD, but it's definitely not my cup of Sleepytime Herbal Tea.

 

 

TARA ROAD -- Movie Review by Porfle

A LITTLE HELP -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/17/11

 

A LITTLE HELP (2010) is one of those chick-flicks that isn't all that bad once you actually find yourself sitting down to watch it--usually against your will--although if you're like me you'll spend the entire running time wishing the Terminator would break the door down and start annihilating everybody.

Jenna Fischer ("The Office") plays Laura Pehlke, a recently-widowed young mom whose life is crashing down around her.  Jenna manages to make her mousey, indecisive character somewhat endearing enough so that we can stand her for an hour-and-a-half.  Some of her more amusing scenes have her working as a dental hygienist with a parrot constantly squawking over her shoulder.  The best ones involve Laura and her overweight, misfit son Dennis, played by Daniel Yelsky in his movie debut.

Yelsky is the best thing about A LITTLE HELP.  As Daniel, he's a painfully insecure little kid with the soul of a Borscht Belt comic.  Yelsky's delivery is priceless even when he's obviously reading his lines from cue cards--he's both deadpan funny and dramatically impressive in some crackling exchanges that allow him and Fischer to really have at each other (particularly the "You suck!" scene and the "9-11 is cooler" scene).  Even the part where they sing along with "Runaround Sue" in the car is bearable (along with the "bad date with the wrong guy" scenario, the "singing along to an oldie" thing seems to be a chick-flick staple).

Laura's life is taken over by her hellishly overbearing sister Kathy (Brooke Smith, the abducted girl from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) and meddling mom (Lesley Ann Warren), who coerce her into putting Daniel into a private school and suing her late husband's doctor for malpractice.  This takes place during a brow-beating "intervention" which is cringe-inducing for anyone who's experienced anything similar.  As the litigating lawyer, the great Kim Coates ("Chet" from THE LAST BOY SCOUT) gets a role he can really sink his teeth into, which is fun to watch. 

Daniel, meanwhile, has been trying to fit in at his new school by telling everyone his dad was a fireman hero on 9-11, a colossal lie that snowballs until Laura is caught up in it herself.  This yields both humor and ultimately devastation when they're both found out.  One theme of the film seems to be that lying is just bad all around because the truth always comes out.  I learned that way back in the Our Gang short "Don't Lie" but I guess you can never hear it enough times.  

Ron Leibman's deft comedy touch livens up his turn as Laura's dad, and Sam McMurray (RAISING ARIZONA) is good as an irreverent D.J. (Dion does a cameo as one of his interview subjects).  Chris O'Donnell's okay as Laura's husband, Bob, but he's only in the movie long enough to kick off and throw her life into chaos.  As Kathy's easygoing, henpecked husband Paul, Rob Benedict plays a likable enough character until he confesses that he's always been in love with Laura and starts getting creepy.  In fact, their entire subplot is kind of icky, and the fact that it's part of the emotional heart of the film gives off a "please don't go there" vibe that's averted by mere chance.

Writer-director Michael J. Weithorn, making his feature film debut here, handles the direction and editing well but Fischer and Yelsky's performances are the main reason the story isn't as lightweight as it could've been.  Things still tend to get a little cloying and overly contemplative whenever one of Jakob Dylan's soulful songs intrudes, but that's something you just have to expect when you're watching a film like this. 

The DVD from Image Entertainment is in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 surround sound and English subtitles.  Extras consist of a trailer and TV spot, a Jakob Dylan music video, and a number of thumbnail promotional interviews with cast and director.

The main message of A LITTLE HELP is the usual stand up for yourself, darkest before the dawn stuff.  We see the darkest but we don't see any of the dawn due to a somewhat abrupt ending, so we're left to assume Laura is on the verge of finally getting her head out of her ass.

A LITTLE HELP -- DVD Review by Porfle

NEVER -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/20/16

 

I figure if a chick-flick doesn't have me wanting to tear my own face off after 15-20 minutes, it's not so bad.  And as dull and sometimes irritating as NEVER (2014) can be, it isn't totally horrible.  From me, that's a pretty good recommendation for a chick-flick--"not totally horrible."

Aside from that, though, this boy-meets-girl-meets-other-girl yarn is bland by any standards.  It starts out in the usual murky, wobbly-camerawork style of the "modern" low-budget indy pic with a very tearful phone breakup between Nikki (Robin Williams' daughter Zelda Williams, GIRL IN THE BOX, HOUSE OF D) and her girlfriend.  This leaves Nikki vulnerable and depressed for the rest of the movie, which is just perfect for this kind of movie.

Enter a chipper young fellow with the irritatingly cute name of Denim (Zachary Booth, THE BEAVER) who works as a T-shirt designer and is on the lookout for a significant other.  Trouble is, he meets the intriguingly offbeat Nikki, who is an aspiring singer-songwriter performing her own songs in a club, at the same time that he's also becoming slightly infatuated with perky co-worker Meghan (Nicole Gale Anderson, "Beauty and the Beast", "Ravenswood", REDLINE), a more conventional and somewhat quacky Miss Perfect type who's also perpetually chipper.

Denim and Nikki meet-cute in a kitchen during one of those awful booming-bass house parties and then decide to platonically date-cute for awhile.  Their growing attachment to each other is so gradual and uneventful that the montage of their first day out together tends to drag, as do most of their scenes together.  This is partly because most of the interactions between characters in NEVER are like what you might hear if you were keeping people under surveillance and waiting patiently for them to say something interesting. 

In one brief vignette, a reflective Denim walks around town and stops at a bicycle store to look at a bicycle.  For a brief, exciting moment, we think that he might actually buy it.  But it's just a false alarm.

In another scene, Denim and Nikki are sitting on the grass at the park having a nice moment, when suddenly Denim's phone rings.  He gets up to take the call, walking out of hearing range from Nikki so he can talk furtively with Meghan.  Is this normal now? Have people actually become this horrible?

Later Nikki runs into her old girlfriend and has a painful reunion with her in a diner that's interrupted when the girlfriend's phone buzzes and she starts texting someone while Nikki sits there like a lump.  This is just as annoying in a movie as it is in real life. 

Nikki confides in Denim about her musical aspirations and he helps her get another nightclub gig during which she's totally ignored by the boorish patrons.  And in another scene that's painfully awkward, their attempt at having sex turns into a tearful mess. 

All of this would be better, of course, if it were leading up to something.  But the ending just sort of peters out, as though the story couldn't muster the energy to resolve itself in an interesting way.

While not a great actor, Zachary Booth is ideal for convincingly playing a wimpy metrosexual like Denim.  Zelda Williams' Nikki is so anti-cute in her deliberate "me so plain" kind of way that I became rather fond of her after awhile.  Nicole Gale Anderson as Meghan is...well, chipper. 

Placed together in this tepid tale, the three characters don't exactly generate a firestorm of drama.  But this is writer/director Brett Allen Smith's feature debut, so hopefully he has nowhere to go from here but up.

NEVER is the kind of movie my sisters used to bring home from the video store and make me watch with them because in those days I was the only one who knew how to run my VCR.  In fact, these were the only times I actually regretted having one. But if you love chick-flicks so much that you derive some mysterious sustenance from even the lesser ones which I don't understand, you may want to check this one out.

Runtime: 85mins
Format: 1:85 Flat (35mm)
Sound: Dolby SR
Rating: R
Country: USA
Language: English
Website: www.IndicanPictures.com
Genre: Drama/ Romance

NEVER -- Movie Review by Porfle

JUST ONE MORE KISS -- Movie Review by Porfle

To be honest, the premise of JUST ONE MORE KISS (Indican Pictures, 2019)--the ghost of a woman's recently-deceased husband appears to her and tries to help her withstand the tragedy of their prematurely aborted love--sounded like a gateway straight into chick-flick hell.

Which only made it that much more of a pleasant surprise to find myself watching one of the most thoroughly engaging movies I've seen this year.

True, the first ten minutes or so subject us to the double whammy of (a) painfully uncomfortable social awkwardness when friend Barry gets obnoxiously drunk and makes a fool of himself at Max (Patrick Zeller) and Abby's tenth anniversary party, so Max has to drive him home, and (b) sudden unbearable tragedy of jarringly maudlin proportions when Max gets killed in an auto accident while driving Barry home.

Seems like this is going to be a tough and emotionally manipulative slog as Abby flees to the country cabin she and Max used to share, eschewing any attempts by loved ones to comfort her and rebuffing anyone who tries to befriend her in her new surroundings.

And when Max's ghost starts to appear to her, we get the unpleasant feeling that we're about to see a rehash of GHOST with a dash of THE SIXTH SENSE.

However, just when things are looking really bleak, something unexpected happens--writer-director Faleena Hopkins (who also plays Abby) sidesteps all of that predictable stuff and starts delving into some really interesting emotional and metaphysical territory.  This is especially true when Abby stumbles over the edge of a cliff and the incorporeal Max can't do a thing to help her as she hangs on for dear life.

She also explores the more playful aspects of the situation such as Abby seemingly talking to herself while onlookers look on in concern, and Max reacting with a bit of old-fashioned jealousy when a local bachelor takes an interest in Abby.

But that's nothing compared to what happens when Abby's sister Lorna (Emily Bennett) and the now-sober Barry (Joe Barbagallo) show up at Abby's doorstep to implore her to forgive Barry for being indirectly responsible for Max's death, and to urge her to let Max go and get on with her life. How will Abby react to this? What's more, how will Max react to it as he stands by observing it all unseen?

It was at this point that I realized that I was not only tolerating JUST ONE MORE KISS, but voraciously devouring it. Faleena Hopkins has done a masterful job not only putting this keenly enjoyable film together but also giving a fine lead performance.

Bennett and Joe Barbagallo as Lorna and Barry are stunningly good in their emotionally resonant scenes, as are Frances Mitchell and Erik Parillo as Max's long-suffering parents (and, of course, Patrick Zeller as Max himself), and when they delve deep into Hopkins' rich dialogue it hits hard.  The story builds to a wrenching conclusion that really pays off.

JUST ONE MORE KISS wallows not in maudlin sentiment and a by-the-numbers plot but in love, loss, guilt, forgiveness, suicidal thoughts, and spiritual uncertainty. Not only is it not a rip-off of GHOST, I actually think it's way more interesting, and one of the best true-blue chick flicks I've ever seen.


Buy it from Indican Pictures

TECH SPECS

Runtime: 91 minutes
Format: 1:78 HD
Sound: Dolby Sr.
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: Pending

JUST ONE MORE KISS -- Movie Review by Porfle

VIRGINIA MINNESOTA -- Movie Review by Porfle

A single movie can be chick-flick heaven or hell, depending on your point of view, and VIRGINIA MINNESOTA (2017) is plenty of both.  I could easily imagine many viewers thoroughly enjoying, on a deep emotional and intellectual level, the very same sequences I found hard to endure.

That's just the way these things work sometimes, and if the movie's really well-made, as this one is, then both reactions tend to be even more extreme and conflicting.  I found myself going from gag response to wonderment within minutes, aghast at how sappy and indulgent it was one moment before melting with genuine sentiment the next.

Rachel Hendrix plays Lyle, a young woman journeying back to the boarding school where she grew up because the woman who ran it has died and put four of her former charges in her will.  All must be present for the reading, however, and sure enough, the most headstrong and troublesome of the bunch, Addison (Aurora Perrineau), fails to show.

It falls to Lyle to go and fetch her, and, as you might guess, their trip back to the home becomes one of mutual and self discovery during which they encounter lots of eccentric people and situations and have weighty discussions leading to the searching and baring of souls.

Old wounds are reopened, especially concerning the death of little Virginia, a former housemate who drowned mysteriously one night while out with Addison.  Guilt and recriminations fly, and we begin to understand why Lyle naturally assumes a more levelheaded and sensible demeanor while Addison is so insufferably obnoxious and anti-social most of the time.

Their trip lapses into an improbably odd sort of "Alice in Wonderland" experience that's steeped in finely-aged quirk.  (For a few minutes there, it even turns into a monster movie.)

After Addison breaks up with her fiance by setting fire to his boat, they flee in a stolen car and end up with a traveling theater troup traversing the forest in a horse-drawn wagon before ending up at a dance party at the foot of a lighthouse where Addison runs into an old lesbian lover.  Whew.

Helping to make all this more fun is the presence of "Mister", a GPS-tracking robot who's supposed to be passed from traveler to traveler across the USA but whom Rachel won't give up since he's become a surrogate companion for her.  This friendly little robot is like the film's R2D2 and is actually its most likable character.

Returning to that great, dark old mansion for the reading of the will brings on a series of touchy-feely scenes as the former housemates gush over each other until it's time for a dramatic resolve of old issues.  Here, writer-director Daniel Stine manages to draw everything together into some potent melodrama which is played to the hilt by the two leads.

Beautifully photographed and directed with understated flair, VIRGINIA MINNESOTA isn't anywhere near the kind of movie I would normally watch, but finding myself doing so gradually went from a chore to a surprisingly tolerable experience.  All that finely-aged quirk aside, it's an engaging story that's well acted and technically superb.

VIRGINIA MINNESOTA -- Movie Review by Porfle

BEFORE THE LIGHTS COME UP -- Movie Review by Porfle

Two chick-flick reviews in one month?  I think my masochistic tendencies have become inflamed by the dreaded inevitability of spring or something.  Good thing I watched the cannibal epic EATEN ALIVE between the two to help retain a semblance of (in)sanity. 

Still, BEFORE THE LIGHTS COME UP (2013) is amiably tolerable as an example of its genre, at least enough for me to get through it without actually jumping off a roof or anything.

Its male protagonist, former rock idol Ben Nelson (Ryan Schwartzman), is, on the other hand, so distraught that such a self-destructive course of action would come as no surprise.  (How's that for a segue?) 

Believed dead by his fans after some horrific accident, Ben has made the full slide into Skidsville to the point of selling both his super-strong pain meds and his prized guitar.

So what's left for him to do than move back in with his aspiring-actress sister Sam (Vanessa Rose Parker), with whom he has a volatile relationship, and her roommate, Ben's former lover Casey (real-life wife Jennica Schwartzman, RIDGE RUNNERS, PARKER'S ANCHOR) who still carries a torch for him despite having a boyfriend? 

Nothing potentially awkward about that--oh wait, yes there is.  In fact, the potential awkwardness of this arrangement will fuel the film's dramatic momentum like a speed freak on an exercise bike until the eventual fadeout. 

What happens in between is your usual romantic drama stuff, smartly directed (by Marc Hampson) and edited with a lean, flowing storytelling style that holds our interest throughout--visually anyway. 

The story itself is replete with moody passages, heart-to-heart talks, meaningful silences, cleansing outbursts of anger and frustration (along with bouts of big acting), bacon, purse pilfering, and lots of contemplation, all carried along by gentle acoustic music.

The seemingly idyllic, hugs 'n' empathy roommate relationship between Sam and Casey (who live in an impossibly luxurious house for women of their limited means) starts to erode in ways both predictable and unexpected, notably when Sam seethes with jealousy after Casey stumbles easily into an acting role that she herself has been working her rear end off to get.

Ben's arrival comes with a certain amount of suspense since we aren't even sure what's going on with him yet ourselves.  He remains closed off and distant at first, a mystery man whose past injuries and present emotional pain must be either dislodged or allowed to boil over on their own. 

Desperation, along with whatever all those brain scan flashbacks signify, have turned Ben into an unknown and quite probably unstable commodity.  All we know is that he's messed up, opaquely enigmatic, and wracked with fleeting flashbacks of those pesky brain scans and other bad things.

Will Ben ruin Casey's relationship with her current boyfriend? (She assures "Greg" he doesn't have anything to worry about, which means he definitely has something to worry about.)  Will Casey and Sam's "perfect roommates" status withstand the strain?

The characters look like real people, have first-world problems, and rarely get overly melodramatic about anything, which is good since some of the bigger acting scenes might've benefitted from one more take.

Funnily enough, the dialogue sounds most realistic when Sam's nagging Ben and Ben snaps back at her.  Things get amusingly awkward when the three of them are together, trying to be casually civil to  each other.  My favorite line is when Casey asks Ben, "Can we just skip the part about us being awkward about us, and just be friends?"

After all of this conflict and uncertainty simmers for about an hour and a half, the meandering storyline finally starts to draw itself together down the homestretch for a fairly interesting and somewhat trippy finale. 

BEFORE THE LIGHTS COME UP may not send everyone into paroxysms of rapture, but those who find emotional sustenance in this particular sort of storytelling should derive a generous dose of it here. 

Rent Or Buy It From Amazon Video

BEFORE THE LIGHTS COME UP -- Movie Review by Porfle

PARKER'S ANCHOR -- Movie Review by Porfle

It sounds like classic chick-flick material right down to some of the taglines ("She's still a work in progress" and "Letting go is just the beginning").  But with PARKER'S ANCHOR (2017) we go well past that and deep into "Mommy-flick" territory. 

Anyone already bearing the title of "Mommy", striving to achieve it, or simply simpatico to someone to whom doing so is her most fervent desire should find something somewhere in this story of quiet desperation and yearning that they can grab onto and be carried along.  

Krystal Parker (Jennica Schwartzman, RIDGE RUNNERS) belongs in the category of "striving"--she is, in fact in the forefront of it.  Clearly rudderless and drifting through life at the moment, Parker needs an anchor (hence the title, as I so cleverly surmised early on) and thinks a baby will be just the ticket to smooth sailing and a clearer course.  (The movie's voiceover uses metaphors like this too, so don't blame me.) 

Her own sense of self-worth, in fact, seems seriously dependent on this, and we find that anchors are a recurring motif in her life.

Trouble is, Krystal has been diagnosed as infertile.  This wrecks her marriage and drives her back to her hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas for some soul-fortifying moral support from wise and perceptive childhood BFF Corinne (Amy Argyle), with whom she moves in.  Some familiar chick-flick tropes will provide spiritual sustenance for those so inclined, such as languidly contemplative talks over big glasses of wine.

Krystal will feel a bit like a comical third wheel when Corinne's playfully romantic husband Kevin (Jennica Schwartzman's real-life spouse Ryan) shows up to be the funny-cute guy in the story until her potential love interest appears. 

With all this going on, I was grateful that the majority of it manages to not be maudlin, and we're spared the usual over-the-top melodramatics and crazoid behavior that fuels so many similar stories.

What also keeps it from being a bummer is the fact that the aforementioned voiceover is being done by a young girl who refers to Krystal as "Mom."  So apparently things will work out (in that area, anyway) to a certain degree.  And the speaker is wise beyond her years in telling us about her mom in a fondly perceptive way. 

There's a classic meet-cute with Kevin's humanitarian brother Jared (Chris Marquette), which kicks off the main part of Krystal's story when we finally start finding out where this is all headed. 

This is followed by an eat-cute when Corinne's mom, Laurie (Penny Johnson Jerald, "The Orville", "The Larry Sanders Show") and her boyfriend Clinton (Michael Beach, "ER", "Stargate: Atlantis", TRUE ROMANCE), join them for an amusing Thanksgiving dinner after which Laurie shares some mom-type wisdom that gives Krystal further food for thought.

To reveal any more would ruin the very deliberately-paced series of life-altering events that the screenplay (by the Schwartzmans) reveals to us little by little until we begin to see that "work in progress" develop into the kind of person who's actually capable of raising a kid. 

To call this film "low-key" would be an understatement.  But if you buy into the movie's premise and the unhurried mood that conveys it, you're pretty much settled into the story already.

I've reviewed tons of movies yet still have pretty limited experience with the whole "finding yourself" genre. However, I've seen enough of them to know that there are way, way worse ones than PARKER'S ANCHOR, which is, in fact, an involving, entertaining, and pleasantly feelgood example of it. 


BUY IT AT AMAZON

WATCH THE TRAILER 

PARKER'S ANCHOR -- Movie Review by Porfle