Undeniably artsy

Incidentally I came up with what might be a fantastic writing exercise for my students with regards to tone and narrative voice. On what would normally be an hour car ride home, instead sit in traffic for over two and a half hours with a dinner at home that is undoubtedly ice cold and then sit down and do your best not to sound angry at the world in a blog entry.

Here's my second installment of funny pauses.

Sorry, Lea Michele.

Video for the day is Insomnia by Electric President. Very pretty song. Enjoy.

How am I doing with the not sounding angry at the world?

#31: Unmade Beds

Seeing movies at IFC, however wonderful, is difficult because so few of the films have any reviews publicized before their theatrical releases and it's hard to find much information on them. You're often left with going by the movies' descriptions on the theater's website and the posters to get a feel for how interesting they seem. On this particular day I really wanted to see something at IFC and this looked intriguing. Additionally, it just happened to be showing at a time that was convenient for me.

Do I regret it? Not at all. It takes a lot for me to regret seeing a movie. Am I especially impressed? Not particularly.

While I hate to come out swinging in my approach to this film because I by no means disliked it, it's films like this that give independent cinema a negative image. Not every indie movie is pretentious and artsy. Not every one is set in some foreign city and utilizes dreamy voice-overs during love-making scenes with abstract existentialist musings. Not every one has a series of intertwining stories that only ostensibly come together at the end but are really never resolved at all. I don't mean to sound harsh, but Unmade Beds seemed more an indie movie parody than an indie movie.

My initial reaction is that the troubled, emotionally-unfulfilled youth caught uncomfortably between childhood and adulthood is getting to be a tired character. I couldn't identify with either protagonist in this movie. I don't suspect that the filmmakers hoped for the viewer to feel bad for either character, but if one can't even justify their actions or relate to their seemingly ungrounded emotions it's difficult to follow them for the duration of a feature-length film. One doesn't even necessarily want to like them because they don't offer much. The female was frustrating and the male just made me profoundly uncomfortable.

To be fair, there were some beautiful cinematic shots and lines of dialogue in here. There was also a really great soundtrack. These contributed to my acceptance of the film by its conclusion. I didn't walk out of the theater feeling as if I'd just gotten shafted. My concern is that the film's successes came fragmented. It isn't enough to like a few lines or a shot here and there. I don't even remember any specific scene from the movie. I remember the male character drank. A lot. And then proceeded to have some incredibly awkward encounters with his father. The female character just seemed completely impetuous. She had some interesting lines over the course of the film, but those could have been delivered by anyone and they would have been equally as intriguing. Looking back, she really didn't do anything.

So I guess that all this talk reveals my primary concern with the film: characterization. Plot could not have been my primary concern because there really isn't any. This isn't necessarily a shortcoming because I don't get the sense from the film that there was supposed to be a plot and it just didn't show up. Rather, the film was the study of two main characters. When those characters reveal themselves to be flat and lacking touch with reality, however, it's difficult to see the draw for the film.

Unless, of course, you're an indie movie fan.