Set in the period between WW2 and the Korean Conflict in a town where 'a person can't sneeze in this town without somebody offerin' him a handkerchief', this film plods through the “coming-of-age” for two best friends: Sonny and Duane.
Sure, the theme of coming-of-age is a veritable one and not every film can be all action, but I want to tell Peter Bagdanovich that making a film with:
• a boring town
• boring people
• boring lives
will equal a boring film. This recipe is one for drooling chins and agonising pauses only.
The content is not awful, just sad: sleeping around for kicks, sordid pathetic affairs, trashy naked pool parties and copious amounts of indecent groping, but the way it's filmed is painful. I sat waiting for each scene to pass over with every reaction and action was slapped onto the screen with no reason but to extend the running time.
The only scene that didn't fail to send to into another fit of 'when will this end' was when Louis talks about her affair with Sam. It is strangely touching to see this woman, past her prime, talk of the one time she has ever experienced love with such resignation.
Although there was no plot to speak of, and some scenes should have not stayed in the film (where was there a need for child abuse?!), what I took away from the film was that you always go back to who will always wait.
This film is character-driven and even though there is no classical plot, it has the merit to try and honestly explore teenage relationships, I'm not sure how many film makers have this ambition nowadays. You may have found it boring because it doesn't speak to you, not because of the quality of the film.
ReplyDeleteI didn't find the film boring despite there not being much in the way of action; alot of the way it is filmed is quite painful to watch but then again, there's nothing more painful than awkward early teenage sexual relationships!
ReplyDeleteAmelie - there was never a point at which I felt that I learned very much about any character. I could see their surfaces and see what they were doing but I never saw why they felt this way. Why is Jacy so manipulative? Good films that are character driven, for me, would give me those answers. It would explain to me why Sam the Lion didn't go after Louis and claim her for himself and why does Sonny stay in this dead beat town?
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