Reviews

This movie has a really fun storyline, and a cast I just can't argue with. Mark Boone Junior and Norman Reedus together is movie bliss, in my opinion. Its beautifully shot and it appears to be well acted. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to hear anything anyone is saying. Between the VERY VERY LOUD and extraordinarily intrusive musical score, which drowns out the actors 100% of the time, and the completely unfiltered background noise ie: the surf, traffic, people talking, and an overall weird white noise static hiss, which is all every bit as loud as the background music, it's completely impossible to make out anything anyone is saying. It became exhausting trying to hear past the sheer volume of noise. Indie film or not, it seems impossible to me that anyone would release a movie with such horrendous sound mixing as to make it impossible to hear the dialog.

I didn't notice whether or not subtitles are an available option, but if they are I'll be watching it again...with the sound off and the subtitles on! It's a shame, because I've heard nothing but good things about this film. And no, I don't have a bootleg copy.

I really liked this film. It had it's issues...the name pun Lax Morales for one, and the really cool looking kid who would probably NEVER have been picked on in school for another....but it handled the subject with complexity and real class, passing on gratuitous gore and violence thank you very much, and pointing out just how much at fault everyone involved really was, up to and very much including the media circus that reduced it to "an event".

Doubtless it will not appeal to those who want action, blood, violence, and assorted other R rated movie shenanigans, but for someone who just likes an intelligently done movie that handles a touchy subject with some delicacy, it'll be a find.

I liked it.

I read so many great reviews of this movie! I was so excited to see it! If only I had been able to! See it, that is.

I have no idea if this movie is actually any good. It was so incredibly dark, and so given to artsy technique, that it made almost no sense to me. For some reason they decided that it would be effective to have everyone in such deep shadow that 90% of the time the cast appeared in silhouette. People did not have faces so much as cavernous black holes, and when they were allowed to have some light on them it was done so "artfully' that they appeared to be missing parts.

To give some idea of how "moodily,artfully lit" this movie was; Easily halfway through the movie a character mentions being ashamed of her face. I looked at my roommate and asked "is there something wrong with her face?" my roommate replied "not that i've noticed." The character then went on to talk about her birthmark, and we both realized that FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE she'd had a HUGE black birthmark covering half her face. Neither of us had noticed because she looked no different than any of the other characters, who's faces were in extremely deep shadow and mostly invisible. We simply assumed that side of her face was black as pitch because they'd chosen to "artfully" light her. Her birthmark was not even noticeable, so dark was this movie.

It was also given to pointless jumping. We see Stephen talking to someone. In the dark, of course. Then we see him in a hallway talking to someone else. Then back to the first person. Then the second. Then the first. Then the second. WHAT!? STOP IT!!! I get the feeling this could have been a great movie. But it was so given to artsy technique that I couldn't make heads or tails out of it, and I absolutely couldn't see what was going on.

I'd like to see it.