Dublin Crust definitely has a great idea somewhat, in the sense of a band that gets back together and finds new life in themselves, a sense of excitement. The big problem is it's not set up, launched or paid off well at all, and that's down to quite a few issues in the storytelling.
Firstly, in the setup we see the main character rob a shop, get arrested and go to jail for a few years, and it has pretty much no need to be there, nor does the drug issue, it really has no bearing on the plot. It is mentioned near the end of the film as a potential escalation to the band touring, but we don't experience any of that, so, again, no need to be there, wasted screen time.
When the film is in the second act, it fails to launch, in the sense it is missing some major context, there are no stakes driving the plot. If the band fail to start their band, play a gig and tour, they don't lose anything, nothing of any consequence comes to pass, they end up where they already were. The reason that isn't good is because the characters can essentially just keep trying at getting the band going to get what they want. It's not gonna hurt to try again and again, no price to pay for trying again, so there's no threat, no tension.
This story needed the main character really suffer in some way related to something that really was personal to their core and played a part in the plot, like if his passion is drumming and play in a punk band, what if he was outed by the Dublin scene and called a fake to Punk underground, gets in an accident, hits his head and can't keep rhythm no matter how much he practices, gets kicked out of his band.
His true calling in life has been destroyed, and it's been destroyed by something beyond his control, and things get worse and worse from there, something happens beyond his control and he cant pick up his sticks with his left hand, I'm just spitballing, but he is not going to stop and he is going to be in this band a tour the country/world as a brilliant drummer somehow...now I'm interested...see the difference? Things like that, where someones most core fear in life ever comes to pass and escalates, that is how you grab a viewer and make them care. The character being homeless and having cancer, they are awful things but they don't bear anything on the plot, the latter does feel awful and does stop their goal, it does have subtle hints to it with his coughing every now and again and that was nice, it could work, it just coming so late, it was hard to feel its impact, see it effect him physically and mentally, emotionally through the film and test his resolve to get what he wants.
The whole film felt like it had a plot, it ended and I didn't feel it was saying anything meaningful to really impact me, plot for the sake of a plot and not serving a meaningful story, which is a shame, because the punk movement grew out of so much feeling, rebelling against the system and things like that. After I watched this, I thought, what did all that plot serve? Make me experience? Playing in a band is fun? There's nothing meaningful that the plot is serving. Good writers outline, great writers figure out their objectives, what they want the viewer to meaningfully experience, then they explore the best events to serve that experience, so that the plot is impactful and memorable.
Firstly, in the setup we see the main character rob a shop, get arrested and go to jail for a few years, and it has pretty much no need to be there, nor does the drug issue, it really has no bearing on the plot. It is mentioned near the end of the film as a potential escalation to the band touring, but we don't experience any of that, so, again, no need to be there, wasted screen time.
When the film is in the second act, it fails to launch, in the sense it is missing some major context, there are no stakes driving the plot. If the band fail to start their band, play a gig and tour, they don't lose anything, nothing of any consequence comes to pass, they end up where they already were. The reason that isn't good is because the characters can essentially just keep trying at getting the band going to get what they want. It's not gonna hurt to try again and again, no price to pay for trying again, so there's no threat, no tension.
This story needed the main character really suffer in some way related to something that really was personal to their core and played a part in the plot, like if his passion is drumming and play in a punk band, what if he was outed by the Dublin scene and called a fake to Punk underground, gets in an accident, hits his head and can't keep rhythm no matter how much he practices, gets kicked out of his band.
His true calling in life has been destroyed, and it's been destroyed by something beyond his control, and things get worse and worse from there, something happens beyond his control and he cant pick up his sticks with his left hand, I'm just spitballing, but he is not going to stop and he is going to be in this band a tour the country/world as a brilliant drummer somehow...now I'm interested...see the difference? Things like that, where someones most core fear in life ever comes to pass and escalates, that is how you grab a viewer and make them care. The character being homeless and having cancer, they are awful things but they don't bear anything on the plot, the latter does feel awful and does stop their goal, it does have subtle hints to it with his coughing every now and again and that was nice, it could work, it just coming so late, it was hard to feel its impact, see it effect him physically and mentally, emotionally through the film and test his resolve to get what he wants.
The whole film felt like it had a plot, it ended and I didn't feel it was saying anything meaningful to really impact me, plot for the sake of a plot and not serving a meaningful story, which is a shame, because the punk movement grew out of so much feeling, rebelling against the system and things like that. After I watched this, I thought, what did all that plot serve? Make me experience? Playing in a band is fun? There's nothing meaningful that the plot is serving. Good writers outline, great writers figure out their objectives, what they want the viewer to meaningfully experience, then they explore the best events to serve that experience, so that the plot is impactful and memorable.