Content
The content throughout the film is well-thought out, well-written, and well-acted. They used all SAG actors in this film (more on that in the Use of Budget section), and they really did a great job of portraying the quirky characters in the film.
Throughout the film, we learn more about each of the characters through flashbacks that show us what shaped the people who are being interviewed. The flashbacks are kind of an awkward length right now. On one hand, these flashbacks are too long to be snappy like those found in the show Scrujmubs, which slows the film down. However, on repeat watchings, the longer flashbacks gain humor the way a running joke does and are the perfect length by the third or fourth watching. I would probably recommend that a theatrical cut be made that shortens many of these flashbacks, including one of Gordon’s childhood memory of a Latino Ronald McDonald and the sequence where we first find out about Kevin’s job as a children’s singer. Then the director’s cut can have these segments at their full length, for the hardcore fans that will enjoy this.
The ending of this film is very satisfying, with a really logical moral that makes sense to anyone watching it, not just to role-players, which is very good and very essential.
Visual Look
The lighting and shooting of this film is quite nice. It was shot in six days, so shots aren’t terribly exotic, but they’re very serviceable, well-lit, and fit in with the pseudo-documentary feel of the film. The editing was clean and tight, as well.
Despite the successes in the film, there were a couple of issues that I noticed.
One issue was during a few flashback scenes where the footage was supposed to come from an old VHS camera, yet the footage quality never changed from the 35mm that the film was shot in. To make it look more like video, the director might want to consider heightening the contrast and lowering the saturation. He could then take and export ¾ size version of this scene as an AVI from Avid and then import it back in at full-size. This should yield some jagged artifacts that will more closely resemble footage that came from a video camera.
Another thing is the inclusion of a completely animated parrot named, “Chipper,” that lives with Gordon. When Fernando brings his girlfriend over the night of the big game, she is attacked by the demonic bird. The problem with this is the animated bird is a strange blend of photorealism and cartoon that didn’t quite work for me. If he’s supposed to be a real bird, then the ambient light around him needed to be darkened so that he could be believable in the shadows. On the other hand, if he’s supposed to be a cartoon bird, then make him a little more cartooney and introduce him a little earlier so that folks accept that there’s part of this movie that’s a cross between Mary Poppins and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
The final thing that falls into the visual look is the inclusion of ending story cards in the film. At the end of the film, we discover what the different characters go on to do with their lives. The ending cards are very nice looking, but they are only up for about half as long as they should be. As such, I kept having to pause the DVD player so I could read the entire card before it flashed away. A rule of thumb in the industry is that a filmmaker should leave text information up long enough for him or her to read it through three times. While that might be a little long, I would suggest that the filmmaker at least leave it up long enough for a normal speed reader to read it through twice.
