North Beach is ultimately a love story--that's edgy and gritty and hard. At first lick it's a movie that tastes like candy, but under the surface, it gives you something meaty to chew on. Like the question: What do you do when your boyfriend cheats on you and, frankly, you don't really care?
The answer would be easy if you didn't really love him, right? Ah, but you do.
That's the situation Paige (Jennifer Milmore) finds herself in. Of course, we don't figure this out until the end because the movie is from the perspective of her screw-up boyfriend, Tyler (Casey Peterson), who's madly trying to wrap his mind around what he's done, recover from his raging hangover, and make things right.
The entire movie takes place in a single day, beginning with Tyler coming out of the stripper's front door in the morning. (Stripper? Yes, he cheated with a stripper. The jerk.) Tyler attempts multiple times to talk to Paige, but she rebuffs him. And so he has to come to his ultimate conclusion--that he really does love Paige--on his own.
It's the quirky occurrences that besiege him on the day's quest that really give you a giggle: A drugged out friend (played brilliantly by Richard Speight, Jr.) who considers himself a Rock Star. A scene with a large man, missing pants, and last night's condom (eeew). A philosophical treatise from the local lush (another strong performance, played by Jim Hanna) that's interrupted in a way that made me laugh out loud. And an awesome musical (yes musical) finale where Tyler improvises on stage a song about the day's events. (OK, so it's a rock song with a funky base-line, not a Guys & Dolls tune, but as this high-cheese-factor scene cued up, I was thinking, How are they gonna pull this off? Well, they DID. Makes me bop my head and smile just thinking about it.)
In the end, while you're not convinced that Tyler and Paige are gonna make it for the long- haul, you are convinced that they'll make it through another day. And that this day might be better than--even different from--the last. Which, in a movie about hard-drinking, coffee- shop-hanging slackers, is enough.
North Beach is a fun, rough-around-the-edges independent film. And it's partly this small- budget, diamond-in-the-rough feeling (a lot like Tyler himself) that gives the movie its charm.
The answer would be easy if you didn't really love him, right? Ah, but you do.
That's the situation Paige (Jennifer Milmore) finds herself in. Of course, we don't figure this out until the end because the movie is from the perspective of her screw-up boyfriend, Tyler (Casey Peterson), who's madly trying to wrap his mind around what he's done, recover from his raging hangover, and make things right.
The entire movie takes place in a single day, beginning with Tyler coming out of the stripper's front door in the morning. (Stripper? Yes, he cheated with a stripper. The jerk.) Tyler attempts multiple times to talk to Paige, but she rebuffs him. And so he has to come to his ultimate conclusion--that he really does love Paige--on his own.
It's the quirky occurrences that besiege him on the day's quest that really give you a giggle: A drugged out friend (played brilliantly by Richard Speight, Jr.) who considers himself a Rock Star. A scene with a large man, missing pants, and last night's condom (eeew). A philosophical treatise from the local lush (another strong performance, played by Jim Hanna) that's interrupted in a way that made me laugh out loud. And an awesome musical (yes musical) finale where Tyler improvises on stage a song about the day's events. (OK, so it's a rock song with a funky base-line, not a Guys & Dolls tune, but as this high-cheese-factor scene cued up, I was thinking, How are they gonna pull this off? Well, they DID. Makes me bop my head and smile just thinking about it.)
In the end, while you're not convinced that Tyler and Paige are gonna make it for the long- haul, you are convinced that they'll make it through another day. And that this day might be better than--even different from--the last. Which, in a movie about hard-drinking, coffee- shop-hanging slackers, is enough.
North Beach is a fun, rough-around-the-edges independent film. And it's partly this small- budget, diamond-in-the-rough feeling (a lot like Tyler himself) that gives the movie its charm.