Mustang92 Some colleagues of mine raved over this film when they saw it on the festival circuit, and then the DVD/VOD release was held up in limbo for years by IFC after an initial theatrical release. I can see why. The movie failed in its limited release, although, granted, most independent films do without stars in the cast. But this film has nothing inspired in it. Not the acting. Not the directing. Not the writing. Nothing to recommend, and if a film in theaters isn't recommended, it will die.Whoever ended up releasing this to DVD and TV in the U.S., whether IFC or another company, was clearly not confident, because they decided to colorize the film. This is ONLY done to make a B&W film more acceptable to an American Public -- which they must have felt they had to do to sell it.Perhaps the writer/director of this film has talent, I don't know. It was not present here, save for a couple of very early scenes in the film.Some of the biggest issues with this story, is that "story logic" is missing. We are given a "real" story, and then must suspend our disbelief at the absolute stupidity of the main character. The girl he meets and then starts spending the day with? After she flips out over a confession the guy makes -- after she insisted they each make a confession -- and the ensuing actions include her hitting the guy in the face... what man who is not totally F'ed up is going to chase her through the streets of LA? Which belies one of the other main issues of this story: There is NO ONE in this film that most people can identify with. Not the psychotic girl, not the (apparently) pu**y-whipped guy, not even the guy's roommate who is also a wimpy, clingy, pu**y-whipped guy. If this was a comedy, okay, maybe that could work. But it's not a comedy.Back to story logic. There are numerous other things that make absolutely NO sense, that no guy in his right mind would do -- yet our "hero" does. After the chase mentioned above and they're together again, it's evening, and the girl's ex keeps calling her cell phone. This bothers our hero, and INSTEAD of him suggesting she just turn the phone's ringer off, he insists she answer the phone and put a stop to it. What guy in his right mind -- on New Year's Eve and after having already gone through a lot with this girl already -- is going to throw caution to the wind and insist she speak to her ex? How could anyone think this would go well? And of course it doesn't.Later, once various issues are resolved, we're now back at the guy's apartment. He and the girl arrive, he turns on the music, gets some wine and hits the "play" button on his message machine. Okaaaaay. You finally have a girl in your home after 6 years of no dating, it's New Year's Eve, and now you're going to listen to phone messages that will be audible to the girl? Are you F'en nuts??So this is the character we are supposed to be able to, if not identify with in some way, at least have empathy for. Well, I had none. And while this particular actor apparently works a lot now, he did nothing in his performance to pull me in. I wasn't rooting for him, I wasn't rooting for anyone, I simply didn't care about any of these wimpy (and in the case of the girl, psychotic) people. Hey, I'm all for sensitive characters in film. But not self-pitiers / whiners. This movie is not worth your 100 minutes.
clairebear933 I watched 5 minutes and couldn't really handle the vibe It felt very low-budget, it actually looked like they were just messing around with the camera? I can't judge fully due to not watching the whole movie, but it really didn't make me want to continue watching I'm giving it a 2 because I feel mean giving a 1 I have watched some movies lately and judged them by their ratings, was that a bad idea! I wouldn't go by the rating for this one the cover also made it look better than was so as the saying goes never judge a book by its cover and yeah i'm now trying to fill the lines up so i can post this and yeah hopefully this review will be helpful to some that is all
RickeeBoy I'm not going to go through what the movie is all about as others will do that far better, I only wish to describe the excellent Photography in the movie. It's a contrasty Black and White movie but if you read the reviews many don't even mention this or actually enjoy the B&W medium.The Director has used every trick in the still photographers book to direct your eye where he wants them by the use of background lines / settings and / or a myriad of other best practices . As the camera is constantly on the 2 leads, this therefore makes the movie really about 2 people and luckily the actors are great so the movie works really well.If you watch it with a photographers head on then it's all a little bit over the top BUT at the end of the day the B&W and his settings along with the urban environment adds to the film.( also the actual photography portion in the film as the Director semi parodies himself.) The Director has made this contrasty film work well – Watch it for scenes and the touching story ( and the backgrounds ) - It's great.Give yourself a treat and simply watch all the scenes to see how to use the backgrounds to best effect.Any still B&W Photographer will appreciate this film..
bondboy422 'In Search of A Midnight Kiss' directed by Alex Holdridge mines a different track in the genre of romantic comedy. It is lovely to look at with beautifully clear black and white photography with some romantic shots of couples kissing and then we meet Wilson trying to transfer Min's head on to a model's body on the net and we are certainly in uncharted territory.Scoot Mc Nairy's Wilson is not in a nice place to be on New Year's eve and is encouraged by Jacob (a nicely desperate though subtle performance by Brian McGuire) to on a dating site.'Misanthrope seeks Misanthrope'- Her name is Vivian and she startles -- she is edgy and aggressive --Wilson and she go on a journey that is surprisingly romantic although never predictably so which as the layers are peeled off and the characters soften it becomes even more poignant and romantic!!!!Sara Simmonds as Vivian gives a performance beyond her years (I especially enjoyed her 'smile'for Wilson) and Scoot McNairy has some brilliant re-active acting to the outrageousness of the situation that his character finds himself in.It has dark moments and when the brighter situations arise they are more heightened -- the bunch of flowers from the bystander for Vivian-- This film is one of those classic romantic comedies like 'When Harry...'--always worth another look at!
