I have talked recently on some of my Netflix reviews about how they seem to have a big release of a week and go over hype with their advertisements about the film. You know, so people can watch it. Because they rarely have commercials for their movies.
But they also are now releasing a ton of films without all of the fanfare, and just letting those niche groups find them on their niche recommendation slides.
I think that is the type of idea they had for the movie 6 Balloons. A very simple film, with like two big names in it, neither of which are the “lead”, and a drama.
If it isn’t flash sci-fi action or comedy, they don’t get the big treatment. And that is why I am hear to talk about the film.
Where the fuck are the balloons at?
Katie (Abbi Jacobson) has a plan and she is going to make it work. No matter what, she has a plan. Her current plan? To throw a kick ass surprise party for her boyfriend, Jack (Dawan Owens)! He is returning from something or another. She is a perfectionist or something. Everything must be right. She can’t trust all of her friends with the basic tasks, because they might do it wrong. Her parents (Jane Kaczmarek, Tim Matheson) are there and bickering, but they wont get in her way.
But there is her brother, Seth (Dave Franco). She heads out to pick him and his daughter (Charlotte and Madeline Carel, twins for legal reasons I guess) up. He is divorced, and has issues, and the current issue is he is high on heroin when getting picked up by Abbi. Drugs are not part of her plan and a big distraction. She is going to have to put him in a rehab place immediately so she can continue with her plans.
Even if the daughter has to see it. Even if he might lose custody. Even if his insurance isn’t going to accept the close place. What? It doesn’t? Shit. That is actually not okay. That is a problem. And she has a party to fix. Fuckin’ brothers, right?
Oh hay, homeless crack addicts. What a surprise party!
6 Balloons is not going to win awards. It is not going to be sought after in most circles. Super fans of Dave Franco are not frothing at the mouth to see him in this movie (although honestly, he plays it really well. I blame it on his naturally high looking face). But in all honestly, it is a really solid movie.
At times I wasn’t sure where it was going, and at times I thought it didn’t have a real end goal. Well, I had one idea, but that was me being a movie pessimist and hoping for the worst possible case scenario.
6 Balloons felt like a movie about real people dealing with all too common issues. Not just the addiction problems, but the insurance problems, the having too much on their plate, and just extreme anxieties associated with dealing with your family. Can you just sell out your family to the cops? How much emotional abuse would it take for you to snap? And really, who is to blame for the addiction? Could over bearing parents cause many of these problems in their kids?
It is not a funny movie, but it isn’t fully sad either. If anything, 6 Balloons is just a small idea for a plot, and acted very well by the two leads of Jacobson and Franco. There are worse ways to spend 70 minutes of your time.