Ed's Review Dot Com

BorderLine Films, Hidden St. Productions

Paul Sparks, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ezra Miller, Addison Timlin, Emory Cohen, Harrison Lees, Christopher McCann, Alexandra Neil, Jeremy Allen White, Lee Wilkof, Dariusz M. Uczkowski

Robert (Ezra Miller) is a shy introverted student at a private boarding school. His roommate is the opposite, wildly outgoing and a ladies man. Robert lives his life on the internet and likes to watch videos, but especially violence and porn. All students are required to take an extracurricular activity, either a sport or a club, and since Rob is interested in video, he joins the video club. He is attracted to a fellow student, Amy (Addison Timlin), who likes him as well and they become partners, filming everything that happens. By accident (?) Rob catches a drug overdose of two very popular twin girls in the hallway of the school from some bad cocaine. This turns the whole school upside down and all the students react in their own way. Some become loud and obnoxious, and others like Rob, go further into their shell and seem to lose a grip on reality.

This film is SLOW. It’s amazingly slow. There is also a “documentary” feel to it with fuzzy focus, strange shots and camera angles and weird editing. But that’s all in the purpose of the director to get us into this film. But that’s not the only thing that’s wrong with it. This is typical independent film making with no resolution and not nearly enough facts. It purports to have a shocking twist ending, but I just don’t get it. So what? I suspected it all the time, but I expected some kind of “A Beautiful Mind“, “Shutter Island” kind of ending, but it wasn’t. We really don’t know if what was real and what if anything wasn’t. It was never clear if this boy was just messed up or really nuts. It is hinted all along that he is not right, that he’s off his medication, but we don’t know if it has any meaning or relevance to the whole thing anyway. The movie just ends with an attempt to shock you, but it fails and truly doesn’t have an ending. It’s a lot like the film just ran out or the rental came due on the camera so they just wrapped it up and put it away. For these reasons, I can’t recommend this film except for true fans of slow moving independent films with no real resolution. They just did like he did, turn the camera on and let it run. Also, there is a couple scenes in the beginning of the film that are very artsy, plus a porno clip that has no bearing on the film really at all. It’s just there for the tease and is out of place in the rest of the work. In fact, the whole montage thing in the front made no sense to me. Very strange film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog