posted by xenascully on Random

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I had the rare pleasure to sort of “watch” the progress of this movie development, as it went, from afar. Now, one might say I’m too biased to be writing an objective or nonpartisan review for this. Any point before seeing this movie, I might have agreed. Christopher Marriott, who plays Judd in the movie, is my cousin. One of my favorite cousins, at that. As kids, a group of us would make funny videos in various places (I keep saying “in the basement”, but that makes it sounds really awkward). It was fun; some of my fondest memories of childhood, in fact. Seeing him carry through with his dreams, as far as he already has, fills me with an amount of glee I cannot express in mere words alone.

Marriott is talented. He’s funny, a great actor, an artist with music, and as it turns out, not too shabby a writer, either. The shorter videos he’d put out before this one, I followed, watched and was thoroughly impressed by. So of course, when I heard about this movie being made, I immediately jumped on the wagon for getting the word out, and carting myself up to Hamburg from my home, which is about a 500 mile drive; a bit over ten hours. No hesitation, whatsoever. I will support his work, because I totally believe and have faith in him.

So yes, perhaps I was a bit biased.

Then, I actually saw the movie. Now, Marriott’s abilities, I had faith in. These other guys, I had no idea. So I was definitely studiously watching everyone else, with a judgmental frame of mind. I’m ecstatic to say that I was blown away by all of their performances.

Marriott’s character, Judd, is this very outgoing guy who will say and do pretty much whatever is on his mind. Not all of his friends are happy about this specific trait. But it’s almost as if Judd is equipped with all of the motivational “juice” that his three friends in this group seem to lack, completely. I’ve got a lot of love/hate going on for Judd. I walked away feeling like there’s this whole other side of him that exists, but that we don’t get to see. I’m not sure if he was written to be that way, or if Marriott gave him that feel. But it’s definitely there, and it makes me want to know more.

Kyle Scritchfield had this shy demeanor about him that, at first, I assumed was just some sort of acting jitters. But as the movie went on, I realized that this is the character’s personality; this is who Lenny is. Lenny’s past, which is explained in the movie, formed him into this person, whom Scritchfield did a spot-on job personalizing and bringing to the screen. In fact, Lenny’s story is one I really left the theater wanting to know more about; I wanted to see where he went from there.

Christopher Bretchtel plays Mike. Bretchtel has this really awesome overall look about him, that really made him fit with this character. Part of me wanted to head-slap him, at first. But as the film went on, I really felt for him, and found myself wishing good things for him. Like Lenny, I really wanted to see more of what happens in Mike’s future.

Mitch, played by Christopher Scherr, really completed this ensemble of friends. Scherr did an awesome job with this part, and I really like how he developed his character. There’s so much more I want to say, but fear giving away parts of this story, and I’d rather people go and see it for themselves.

Matt Lorentz did an amazing job with this story. I can appreciate this aspect, as a writer myself. There was a clear purpose for telling this tale, a message for the audience, and the amazing job of making us fall in love with the characters. I walked away wanting more, in a good way. It gave enough answers to be satisfied, but left me craving more to watch. Perhaps it’d be selfish to request a sequel…but I want one! I’m not familiar with directing, but I do know there’s a huge job behind it. So I will give a giant thumbs-up for that, as well. Everything flowed together quite nicely.

I can’t wait to see the final result of everything, once the re-shoots and what have you, is finished. There were minor technical things that needed perfecting, but nothing that distracted too much from the heart of the story. All in all, amazing, and well worth the journey up there to see! Now I hear it’s going to Buffalo Niagara Film Festival! Much deserved, of course! I wish I could go back up and see it again, so soon. Yes, I really did like it that much.

posted by xenascully on Random

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April…has been a month despised in our family for years. This started 6 years ago, when my beloved grandmother died, right after Easter, on the 11th. Easter was never really the same. It became one of those “things we only still do, for the sake of the kids”.

Then, last year, unbeknownst to us at he time, on the night of the 29th, my brother died. Though we didn’t find out until May 2nd, the fact still remains. I’ll have flashbacks and all of that awesome stuff on May 2nd this year, of that horrible day finding out. But it doesn’t negate the fact I know, and the facts I experienced on the actual night of his death. April is psychologically going to suck…if I let it.

Now, the dilemma is, instead of just sulking through the month, I’ve got good friends’ birthdays in this month. One of them, just the day before the anniversary of my brother’s death.  The other TODAY. Well, this…isn’t a dilemma as much as I’m determined NOT to ruin the vibe or happiness of said friend’s birthday (the 30th. The one whose birthday is today, already celebrated this past weekend, and I couldn’t go because I was deathly ill with freaking food-poisoning. So SO MUCH FOR SUCKING IT UP EMOTIONALLY!). But said person is also determined not to celebrate their birthday. I’m fairly certain that it’s partly, if not totally, because of my dilemma. I feel bad about that… I really do want them to celebrate. I think we’ve come to a compromise to at least get drunk.

I got a call from my daughter’s father last night, just calling to chat. We were talking about random bouts of not being entertained, in general. I told him how I was trying to plan it so I can have a sitter on-hand so I can stay pleasantly drunk from the 29th until May 2nd. He asked why. I reminded him, and he sorta wigged out because he’d forgotten. But in all reality, it really doesn’t seem like it’s already been a year. It keeps feeling like it was yesterday…only, less paralyzing than the actual day after.

Now, as usually happens when I’m talking to someone, I thought of a slightly less depressing thing to do. Granted, getting drunk is still involved, but somehow doing so with a group of my brother’s friends, seems less pathetic. Baby-daddy suggested maybe I could go somewhere that made my brother happy, and…reflect. I told him that traveling to California isn’t in the budget… So, I think I’ll be inviting a bunch of people out at some point over that course of days, that I right now realize I have no idea what days of the week any of them fall on… ::checks calendar:: Damnit. What are the odds people can drink on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night? Guess we’ll find out!

Just another thing to add to the list of April dilemmas, I suppose.

In the meantime, I’m attempting to not allow the ENTIRE month to be so depressing. This weekend, I’ll be traveling up to upstate NY to see my super-awesome, talented cousin star in an independent comedy movie premiere. I’ll be going up there with my daughter and another cousin. Should be back on Monday. Plenty of time for being depressed about my grandmother’s death-iversary. Honestly, that date doesn’t effect me too much anymore. I’ve got another one to be a lot more upset about, so I’ll save up the angst for the end of the month