Friday 27 April 2012

Moon Point Commentary

I really like watching independent movies at Saskatoon's Broadway Theatre.  I've been fortunate to find a lot of hidden gems that no other theatre near me would play.  I've also seen some pretty bad films there that I would never recommend.  Moon Point falls somewhere in the middle.  The movie has two main things going for it.  First, the overall story and concept has tremendous appeal for an independent film fan.  It has a guy who lives with his mother and his handicapped friend taking a weekend to go a couple of towns over to find the girl the first guy was in love with in elementary school.  But they go with an electric scooter pulling a wagon.  From every description and plot point, it has this quirky and loveable aspect that makes it appealing.

The second positive aspect of Moon Point is the humour.  There is a tremendous amount of very well written comedy in this movie.  There are numerous unexpected jokes and subtle visuals that kept me laughing for most of the movie.  I never felt like I had to force myself to laugh because something was supposed to be funny.  Most of the time, I just found it funny.  The best comedy bit is definitely at the Winchester Inn.  That's where it really took off for laughs.  A lot of it is also written in the same kind of fashion as the Cooper Harris character's lines from EuroTrip.  It has a lot of deadpan one liners delivered in a cool manner.

Unfortunately, the cool manner delivery falls very flat.  The comedy and story is very, very poorly delivered.  While the jokes are written well, all of the rest of the script is actually very poorly written.  The writers just couldn't string the comedy together with good, progressive exposition.  It is also very poorly filmed and woodenly acted.  The lighting, camera angles and editing made it feel like it was a homemade film shot in someone's backyard for the purposes of YouTube.  And, with the exception of a couple of decent scenes, the acting felt much the same way.  Also, the jumping back and forth with flashbacks and added graphics to portray emotion just made it inconsistent.  Rather, there should ahve been more focus on one style or the other.

I can't say it's a good movie.  It's just too poorly made.  But the comedy gives it just enough entertainment value; especially for its length (under 90 minutes).  If you can handle poor film making, see it.  But if you are enough of a connoisseur for that to bug you, you should miss it.  So my recommendation is to see it because I try to write these things with "would I recommend it to someone like me" in mind.

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