Greedy People


Greedy People was sent to me early as a screener.

Money money money, makes the world go round, and can make people act very differently. Will (Himesh Patel) is on his first day on the job in a new area. He just moved here recently with his wife (Lily James) who is pregnant. Oh, and this job is of course being a cop. Oh man.

His partner, Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an old hat at this job and really tells him on what he needs to know about the area. Truth is, its a very low crime city, so they aren’t going to have to do much at all. And make sure he doesn’t kill anyone! Well. Unfortunately due to events, and Terry not being that great of a person, Will accidentally kills someone! And while deciding what to do about it with Terry, they also…find a shit ton of cash!

Time to cover this up and make it look like a break in. The two agree to hide the cash in a storage unit, until things die down, and then start living life a little bit better. But of course, that is NOT what is going to happen. You see, the victim’s husband (Tim Blake Nelson) was actually already planning on ordering a hit on her that same day, so things just start to escalate from there, as more and more people get involved. That’s right. We are going to get a body count, because damn it, piles of money are just so exciting.

Also starring Jim Gaffigan, Joey Lauren Adams, José María Yazpik, Nina Arianda, Simon Rex, Traci Lords, and Uzo Aduba.

acab
Just think of how much cash you could fit in JG-L’s mouth right there.
Honestly, as a movie watcher and movie writer, and dare I say, movie critic, I get asked a lot about my favorite movies and least favorite movies. I also get asked about my favorite genre of movie. I think I finally have an answer for that, as I have hemmed and hawed in the past of various umbrella terms. I think I finally have a very specific answer. “Dark Comedies where things spiral out of control for regular people and a lot of people die.” Yeah, that might be my favorite drama.

From things like Fargo or Heathers or more recent bizarre ones like Arizona and The Death of Stalin. I almost always have a great and silly time. So, that is all to say, the same was true for Greedy People. A lot of people involved, mostly normal individuals, living their life, finding themselves a victim or a perpetuator of violence for one reason or another.

Patel is the lead of this film, but he ends up playing a mostly straight guy role throughout the proceedings. The remaining cast of characters is what really drives this movie forward. James, a pregnant and worried wife, amazing. Gorgon-Levitt, who has to play a lot of timid characters, was really let off of his leashes for this role. His character starts off as a normal shitty cop, sleazy, but becomes a scary force later on, with a just strong growling voice at times. Nelson, getting up in age, still can kick it like a Coen Bros film and give us a weird side character with special motives. Heck, Gaffigan played a literal hitman. I won’t say it is a role that is definitely suitable for him, but I will say it was notably different role for him, so its good to see him branch out and try something.

If you want main characters dying. This is the movie for you. If you like spiraling in a slightly comedic and deadly way. This is the movie for you. I had a lot of fun with this.

4 out of 4.

Art of a Hit


Art of a Hit was sent to me early as a screener. You can see an interview I had with two of the stars, here!

What happens to yourself if you get a little bit famous, but can never surpass that level? And you both plateau, and then fade away into obscurity? You were so close to greatness, and yet it is all gone.

That is what happened to our band. They had a few hits in the 90s, things were okay. But then their bass player (Rob Raco), who had all of their personality and star potential (weird for a bass player…), got offered a solo gig and took it to grow his career, and the rest of the band had…nothing!

So now here it is over a decade later, the band is sort of together, but not really. They never quit, but that doesn’t mean they play together as much. They have side projects, they still make music, but they aren’t together. But with their record label, they get an offer to head to France, to work with a mythical record producer (Charlie Saxton), to see if they can get their sound back. To see if they can make a hit song or a hit record with him. And maybe taste that sweet sweet glory.

While this happens, the band leader, Ryan (Ryan Donowho) has to manage all of the personalities, the producer, and the record label (who actually dropped them and isn’t paying for this, whoops!). While finding himself mentally, and literally, haunted at this daunting task in front of him at this spooky castle.

Also starring Allie MacDonald, David Valdes, James Earl, and Tim Jo.

band
“This is going to ruin the tour.”
“The what?”
“The world tour.”
This film is labeled as a horror, but really it is not. First, it is far closest to a drama. There are scenes that suddenly get…gorey? I guess that is the right way to describe it. Accidents, self mutilation, being literally chased. But those scenes are few and far in between, and they are almost all in the band leaders head or dreams (not a spoiler). So if anything, maybe its more of a thriller, because of all of the uncertainty they are dealing with, and how most of it manifests in terms of fears of failures.

Honestly, the real scary stuff is happening at the end, and it is literally indescribable. Indescribable because of a spoiler, and I don’t want to get into that, but the ending is definitely horror in a non traditional sense of the genre.

Instead what I am mostly watching and interested in, is the band dynamics, the secrecy of their former bandmate who left, and how natural the group feels. And hell yeah, the band feels like a real band, with baggage and history. Exactly like one would hope. Only one member was awkward with them, and that was because he is new to them for the plot. I think Donowho carries a lot of weight in his face, with his fears of mediocrity, and it shows.

I believe I have been told all of the people did re-record the music that was made for this film. The band Jets to Brazil wrote the songs for the movie, but the actual actors (who all happen to be musicians), re-recorded it and we get to hear what they actually sound like together, and that is awesome. No weeks of intense strumming camp for these folks.

Either way, Art of a Hit I think would be better if they focused less on these few horror elements, and more on the very real dramatic and scary elements of being faced with fading into nothingness, with people barely remembering your name after you were so close to superstardom. That is a strong story. But I do understand these sorts of movies are harder to get funding for, than cheap horror. You never know when the cheap horror film will skyrocket and become popular, after all. A good story, just with some dumb horror moments.

3 out of 4.

Killing Romance


Killing Romance was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Saturday, May 18th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

First, Hwang Yeo-Rae (Lee Ha-nee) gets famous! A viral person, a superstar singer, and an actress, and she is everywhere. She rises so fast, she gets put in the lead of the most expensive film of all time, and it is a dud. Her acting falls flat, she is a laughing stock. Sure, people love her for this, but she thinks this is a tragedy and her life is over.

Then she meets Jonathan Na (Lee Sun-kyun), a very rich, powerful man, who helps her out of a jam, and seems to like her. Perfect. They live away from Korea for so many years, and eventually return, Hwang now a house wife, with the world forgotten about her.

But then she meets Kim Beom-Woo (Gong Myoung). No, this is not a love thing. This is just a guy who happens to be a super fan of her work. Apparently there is a lot of them ou there. Kim is stuck in a house hold where he cannot pass the college entrance exam, and cannot go to Seoul University like everyone else in his family has ever done. He is a disappointment. But he is able to get a script to Hwang when the couple moves next door.

A script? For a musical? Can this be Hwang’s next big break? Well, no, because Jonathan says no. He cancels the whole thing. He is powerful. He is strong. He is rich. He is controlling over Hwang. He can get people killed. Hwang realizes she needs out of this relationship, it is toxic. But to do that, either Jonathan will have to die, or she will have to kill herself.

Also starring Bae Yoo-ram, Pierce Conran, and Shim Dal-gi.

power
Gosh, I am already in love with this guy myself.
I need to of course start this section talking about Lee Sun-kyun, who tragically passed away in December. I won’t go more into the story and circumstances of his death, but they were very tragic from almost every standpoint. He was famously known as the rich dad in the Parasite movie from a few years ago. I don’t know if this is his last movie, but it is certainly now one of the last ones. And it is tragic that this is a movie where the main plotline is to actually try and kill his character.

And he destroyed this role as the toxic mean husband.

Killing Romance is certainly a movie that is indescribable in many ways. It is a BIZARRE film. It is wacky. It is strange. It is an experience.

I think the offput nature of the film, the switching aspect ratios, the switching of quality, the terrible background scenes, the zany nature of Jonathan’s character, are all just certain features that highlight the absurdity of cinema. I know this isn’t a negative of Korean cinema or anything like that. This is just a movie that wants to do its own thing, and is unapologetic in the process.

Is Killing Romance itself a good film? Honestly, hard to tell. I did enjoy my watch overall, and I appreciated the creative output. And again, if this one is Sun-kyun’s swan song, it was certainly a cherry on top.

2 out of 4.

Tenement


Tenement was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Friday, May 17th as part of the festival, and it was the North American premiere of this film!

Sorya (Thanet Thorn) is a Japanese-Cambodia woman and a Manga artist, who has already hit a wall in life. She likes what she does, but it isn’t challenge, and she wants to make a horror manga. Also, her mom died. That is important. Because of the death, and wanting to make the book, Sorya wants to go back to her ancestral home in Cambodia, to the same apartment complex where her mom used to live, to help for inspiration, and her own life in general.

And heck, this place is a dumb. People seem friendly, but you can tell it has not been maintained in any level, and its just rubble. Her boyfriend Daichi (Yoshihiko Hosoda) joins her on this adventure, and she is also able to meet her Aunt Mao (Sveng Socheata), who still lives there. This surely will be a great place for inspiration.

Unfortunately, they didn’t know how apt the horror would be. With basically cults running around and rituals, it turns out their stay here as tenants might not be that long.

Also starring Sahrah Pich Manika, Rous Mony, and Touch Narady.

tenement
Exactly what I like waking up to see. All of my neighbors with candles watching me, for protection.
Tenement feels almost meta in a sense. The lead couple wants to go to this complex, specifically to get a horror feel, and of course that is what they get. They get weirdly terrorized in their sleep. They have creepy kids singing songs. They get to worry if everything is just a dream.

But all of these elements just felt like regular horror staples. It was interesting that they were so up front with the horror aspects at the start. They didn’t keep things in the dark and rely entirely on jump scares or anything like that. It just failed to capture me at all on the story. It was boring, with a few interesting scenes thrown in. And, I can also say that I didn’t like the ending that much.

Now, there can be a lot more to this story that I am unaware of. Like Cambodian history, or the area, and that all might have deeper meanings, but I am just a lost American, looking for scares, and getting a movie that felt disappointing in that aspect.

Oh well. Might still be worth a watch for the visuals, but my overall disappointment in the matter is what judged this rating.

1 out of 4.

We Strangers


We Strangers was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Friday, May 17th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Ray Martin (Kirby) has a shitty job, that frankly, she doesn’t love. She is a room/home/building cleaner. She works for a service, they provide the jobs and locations, she does the work, she gets paid. It is one of those things where she knows they obviously pay the company a lot and she only gets a fraction of the services, but at least she gets to mostly work alone and not interact with the clients.

After working on an office building that a new client bought, but needed it de-trashed, sees how she did, he wonders if he can hire her personally. Just some rich doctor guy, let her say a much higher value than she normally makes, and he said sure. He just needs his own house cleaned, and is willing to pay top dollar.

Now, during that clean? A neighbor sees her, questions her, and apparently talks to the client about it. Because now she wants a cleaner. The doctor weirdly pays for it, but hey, money is money. This leads her to suddenly more and more clients, who have their own intricacies and secrets that she is going to discover. Like, one of the clients believes in ghosts and mediums. Seems like a great time for Ray to mention she totally can do that as well, and make house calls. Talk to ghosts? For cash? Sure. Why not.

Also starring Hari Dhillon, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein, Sarah Goldberg, and Tina Lifford.

stare
Sometimes you just gotta stare off, to help find those ghost spirits.
Yeah, fuck the rich. Spending lavish money on services, but treating the people in those services as lesser individuals. I think that is a big theme at SIFF this year. Fuck the rich.

Kirby does a great role as the lead. She isn’t overacting in any sense. She just seems like a normal person. It is the rich people with the eccentricities who are acting strange comparatively, even when Kirby is talking to spirits. The secrets between the rich folk are pretty obvious to discern, and not as extra as one would hope. You know, me, a movie goer, looking for drama.

Unfortunately for We Strangers, which I can say is well made enough, well acted enough, is just an okay variation of this story. No giant “fuck yous” as the end. Everything remains subtle. Everything stays chill. Just too chill for it to have higher than a 2 rating.

2 out of 4.

Resynator


Resynator was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Friday, May 17th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

You can trip on my Synthesizer, electronic world for every boy and every girl.

The synthesizer is probably the best new instrument since…I don’t know? What was the last instrument invented after all the drums, brass, woodwinds, strings came out hundreds and hundreds of years ago? The accordion? Who knows. But the synthesizer helped transform music, and how to play music, and gave me a lot of danceable tracks and I appreciate it.

Now, for Alison Tavel, the director and theoretical subject of this documentary, she grew up hearing that her dad invented the synthesizer, and worked with all of these famous people. Her dad whom she never met, because he died when she was just ten weeks old in a car accident. She never knew what to believe, figured a lot of it was just weird lies, and never questioned it. But now that she is in her mid 20s, she wanted to know the truth, and unpacked his creation packed away in a box in their attic, the Resynator.

And this documentary is about that journey. The journey to find out what the Resynator was, why it isn’t famous, what could it do, does it still work, and what happened with her father. And you know, of course, learn a little bit more about herself along the way.

extraparts
This is when she realized she shouldn’t have lost the user manual.
As like any good documentary, Alison is going to find out some harsh things about her dad. Things her mom kept from her, because it wasn’t relevant. But things that were also great and accurate about things he did and accomplish.

And in the journey, she wants the good and the bad, she finds out what stories were tall truths and which ones were mostly correct. That’s how we get sections of this documentary with people like Peter Gabriel, who was said to have bought three Resynators, and he is able to confirm the accuracy of the story and be a nice win.

This is a feel good documentary overall, of a woman discovering herself, and coming to terms with things that were kept from her for good reason. And that is a fine idea for a documentary.

But real life can mimic other things, and sure enough, this just feels like a story I have heard over and over again in terms of documentaries. Someone going off to discover the truth about a relative, who died when they were young, and not liking the overall picture they find. For some reason, they also put this on camera for us all to see. It is a very common type of documentary. And Resynator, with some cool information on a synthesizer machine that did not get to the mainstream as many thought it might, was interesting for sure. And unfortunately the rest is just more of the same.

This is all very strange to say for documentary since it isn’t fiction, but like I said, see enough of these things and you can see the commonalities. Oh well. Plenty of people will watch this documentary and probably love it! So if the topic sounds interesting, it certainly will deliver on that front.

2 out of 4.

The Ride Ahead


The Ride Ahead was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Saturday, May 11th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film! You can see my interview with the codirectors, here

Documentaries that are slices of life feature can go so many ways. They can be dreadfully boring. They can be insightful. They can make you grow as a person. What happens with them really is more so up to the viewer. The documentary is saying here I am, this is me, take it or leave it. And then the viewer has to take it, or leave it.

Sometimes the slice of life has a greater message like. Hey. Be good to people. Or. Hey. Treat me like a person. Quite reasonable asks.

The Ride Ahead is about Samuel, who at the time of the documentary is 21, and adult, and he doesn’t feel like an adult. People treat him like a child, like someone who needs delicate gloves to handle. Sure, he is confined to a chair. He has cerebral palsy. He has epilepsy. A swallowing disorder. Talking is hard and he needs caretakers to function. But that is his life, and he is just trying to live his best life possible. Just because he has caretakers that are both paid by the state, and his parents, doesn’t mean he is less deserving of having a life, or deserves to be treated like a kid.

People suck, let an adult be an adult. That was my main take away from the documentary.

interviews
Reviewing a film about someone interviewing people?
Okay, I guess there is a little bit more. One of the main reasons this documentary exists is that Sam, being patronized his entire life, feels like he isn’t sure what it means to really be an adult, especially as someone with his condition. He doesn’t feel like one, not just because of how he is treated. Adults are meant to have relationships, to find love, to have sex, to gain jobs, to live alone, and more.

And so Sam seeks out others who have been in his position before, who seem to have figured things out, and just straight up get their advice. He interviews a ton of people, including Maysoon Zayid, Ali Stroker, Keith Jones, and Judith Heumann, who did pass away last year. Sam doesn’t beat around the edge, he asks hard questions and gets some hard answers. And some awkward questions!

I love how realistic this thing keeps things. Sure there are some celebrities and famous people here, and it is probably hard to book them for documentaries, no matter the project. But they felt welcoming, and helpful to the task.

As a documentary, like I noted at the start, this is a slice of life thing. If you don’t want to see about his life, you won’t like the movie. If you know people like Sam, it might not do anything for you. But for a lot of people, it is a great look at people in our country, whom have difficulties with basic things that there shouldn’t need to be difficulties with. The chair does a lot of work, but it doesn’t help if there is no drivable land around the town or sidewalks. A general search for equity is how many people should want our world to grow and be shaped. And this documentary does a good job of making some great points.

3 out of 4.

We Can Be Heroes


We Can Be Heroes was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Tuesday, May 14th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

See, I could go straight into making a reference to the David Bowie song. That is what the movie is referencing, right? Right? But we also had a film just a few years ago come out with the same title. You know, the strange sequel to The Adventures of Lavagirl and Shark Boy? A bout a bunch of kids of heroes, having to save the day because all of their parent heroes get trapped.

And that is sort of what this documentary is about too! But presumably these kids in questions are just the offspring of regular normal people. Maybe nerds! Maybe not. (Probably nerds). And these kids, these outcasts, if you will (I wouldn’t that is mean), meet up at a camp in the state of New York over the summer, where they get to create characters that they would rather be, with their own rich backstory, costumes and moves. And work together to tell an overall giant story, where they are able to live action role play together. That is right. LARPing. This is a documentary about a LARPing camp for kids.

There are quite a few kids in this documentary that get to have a small focus on them, but really our focus is on three kids in particular. We have Cloud, who loves to sword fight and is excited for her first time to go to this camp, even though she is on the younger end of the age range. She wants to fight, make a name for herself, try out the dark side, and make sure she leaves her impact on the camp.

We have Dexter, who is every stereotype notable for a kid who might go to this camp, including a slower droll and neurodivergence, but who has a strong fantasy mindset. He also is afraid of getting ticks on him, and is hoping on his return to camp his crush from the previous year returns, so he might even get to exchange numbers with her.

And finally we have Abby who is on her final year at camp. She is about to age out, and go to college, and is excited about doing something special. Another thing that has happened to her recently is she was diagnosed with a disease (I forgot which one), and she has a feeding tube that she has to carry around with her and a backpack, almost all the time. And she has the fear of real actual death, and almost couldn’t go to camp, but they found a way to make it work.

These three, along with many others who are going to discover they have bigger talents than they once knew, with oration, creativity, and finding harmony with other kids.

princesssword
The kid with the horns is really holding this whole thing together.

I want to go to a LARPing camp. I imagine anyone reading this wants to go to a LARPing camp. That sounds great. Is there an adult one, or do I just need to help organize LARPing events in my community. I hate organizing…

Anyways, this documentary is of course a documentary, but they also go out of their way to tell the fictional story that is created by these kids. The camera changes aspect ratio, gets very crisp, when all of the kids are in character running around. And you get to live their experience with them. It makes what they are doing seem very badass. Probably significantly more badass than it was in reality. And it was a cool nifty feature they added to the story, to make it a more fun experience.

For our three kids, I was immediately annoyed with Cloud (although my kids liked her), and did feel justified in that way based on events of the documentary, although all of them would be defended. That is *fine*. Dexter was especially nerdy and awkward, and I am glad that the documentary didn’t show his crush at all or try to shame her in anyway for not being swept off her feet over his awkwardness.

The real stars of the documentary was of course, Abby, and also secondly another girl(I think it was Miranda, who wanted to just be a princess for once). What can we say. Uplifting people with strong personalities make documentaries good. In fact, what I think this documentary really needed the most was just a stronger focus on MORE of the people at the camp. For a few people, we returned to them a few times throughout to see where they grew and what happened for them, but it was just snippets. We could have easily fit 4-6 stars in this documentary, and lessened the main three a tad bit, to give us a bigger range of kids.

Overall, hooray for LARP camps, and a documentary that decided to showcase them in a totally on point and creative way.

3 out of 4.

Gloria!


Gloria! was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the North American premiere of this film! You can see my interview with Margherita Vicario, the director/writer, here

Let’s talk about Gloria. Well, Gloria isn’t a character, so we can’t. It is however a common name/word used in religious songs, especially in Italian. You know, Gloria in Excelsis Deo? It means Glory really, but Gloria is also a nice name.

Instead we will talk about Lucia (Carlotta Gamba), who is at a school for choir music training, somewhere in Italy, in the 18th century. Like a lot of girls brought to the school, she was an orphan and so it is also an orphanage, bringing these girls to devout religion but also providing them food, shelter, and a service they can give back to their community. Lucia is also mute! That doesn’t really affect her hearing at all though, so she can still play instruments, she just cannot sing.

Oh, let me reiterate. Lucia can HEAR really well. In fact, she can imagine music all around her, in the everyday mendacity of life. Mr. Music would be so impressed. She also knows music can better than how it is currently presented, slow and dead. It can be upbeat, it can be fresh, it can have many different instruments providing different elements, and yes, even the human voice can be used to greater lengths.

But she is a woman, in a man’s world, and because this is holy music, it has to be done a SPECIFIC way. But with an upcoming visit by the Pope, yes, THE Pope, she thinks it is time to rebel, to spread new music, and to present to his greatest holiness what music could really be like.

Also starring Maria Vittoria Dallasta, Galatéa Bellugi, Veronica Lucchesi, Sara Mafodda, Paolo Rossi, and Elio.

orchaestra
Get up loser, we are going to pop-ify these sounds.
Gloria is such a cute movie! Rahhh! And I just need that to be known.

It looks amazing, from the costumes, the set, and the cameras used. It is portraying a dull religious school, but we can still see color when its needed, even in the darkest of moments for the characters, who are going to fight to overcome whats shackling them down. Overcome what? We are going to fight the patriarchy! And hell, even fight the papacy too! Men telling women what to do, how to think, what is right and wrong, its gone now! Let them live their lives!

Okay, yes, this is a work of fiction, and Lucia herself is not based on a person from history. And it is very unlikely that the sort of songs made in this movie, would have been made 3 to 400 years ago. But that is okay, because the point really is that these women were creative, and were not able to express their creativity. And apparently, thanks to some Napoleon nonsense at some point, works that were created by these women composers became lost. At the end we find out this film is dedicated to those women, who likely had a voice, but it was silenced at some point and aren’t people in the history books as a result.

That is a good enough cause for me.

Like I said, it is a very great looking film. But also, it is just fun. It is a good time to be had, while shining light on a real unspoken part of history. It is silly, it is modern, but the cast of characters feel distinct enough and well. They just want to have fun.

Gloria! is fun.

3 out of 4.

Excursion


Excursion was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Tuesday, May 14th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Iman (Asja Zara Lagumdzija) is just a girl, trying to do her best in upper middle school, whatever grade that is officially I am not sure. Just the last one of the middle school in that country. Every year the kids get to go on an excursion to another country or area, and it is a long process to figure out. They have parental involvement, a lot of politics, and a lot of worries about the price. Because sure, they could go somewhere fancy, but if the whole class cant go because its too expensive, then maybe it shouldn’t be a trip.

They mostly want to go to Italy, despite the fact that it is expensive. They are worried about going to a poorer country and getting taken advantage of, or in trouble.

But back to Iman. She is a smart girl, she studies and gets As, and helps her bestie cheat. What a friend. During a game of truth or dare, she agrees with a question that, according to another boy, they had sex. Yes of course this is true. Shocking to everyone. But it is true! This lie of course, has to be believed, so it leads to more and more lies, making things more uncomfortable, until the obvious starts to spill over.

Also starring Maja Izetbegovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Mediha Musliovic, and Nadja Spaho.

girlsroom
Just kids lying and being kids I guess.
Excursion is a very tame film. Fun fact, by the end, you won’t see the excursion happen. That isn’t like half of the film, it is zero of the film. But the discussion of said trip is a large portion of the plot, usually involved with just parents and teachers, but it pads this movies run time. It is barely over 90 minutes, and it really needs that padding.

The films other plot, about Iman’s lies are just…disappointing. This giant blow up never really occurs either. People hear the rumors and spread them as kids. There was talk of an abortion occurring. Some of the teachers also become aware of it. But nothing ever really boils over into the “this is too much” area of the film that one hopes this would build up to!

In fact, this is an independent film that really feels like it had the idea for the story, but not the idea on how to end said story. Too much is left unresolved, and this overall just feels like a bigger waste of my time. The story is unexciting, and neither of the main plot points are resolved. It was just a small look into the life of this group of kids. And sure, films like that exist. But it is wild how many independent films just decide they can end it suddenly and say that is what they were going for. At some point, you have to call it out, and that is what I am doing for Excursion here.

A waste of time, a story that doesn’t live up to its plot outline, or its title.

1 out of 4.