After watching the movie my reaction was, shall we say, nonplussed. It is a low budget film shot at night and on weekends with friends by director Joe Escalante, bass player and founding member of the punk band The Vandals. I give him a lot of credit doing this on his own, the end result holds together as a story, but I didn't feel terribly involved with any of the characters. I guess you could say it holds true to his punk background with a strong do it yourself attitude.
The story follows Selwyn (Warren Fitzgerald, who also wrote the screenplay), a baker languishing in a bakery which specializes in erotic cakes. He is very good at his job, but when he's not baking he is suffering at the hands of a physically abusive girlfriend. Unable to put up with it anymore, runs off as a roadie for the punk band No Use For A Name. But life isn't any better on the road, suffering abuse from the band and their manager. Soon enough, he sets out on his own setting up shop in a small town. Here he gets his life back on track, for a while anyway, setting up one final encounter before the obligatory happy ending.
I don't really want to speak ill about the film, as it is obvious that everyone involved put their heart into it. On the other hand though, I was not terribly entertained. The film just meandered from scene to scene, never really giving me a reason to care about them. There is a goofy attraction to the film, for as nonplussed as I was, there were some funny lines in it, mainly from Scott Aukerman as Mickey the band manager.
I'm not sure what else to say about the film, it left me so uninspired to comment that this has been a struggle to right this. But still, to be fair, it is impressive for a first time filmmaker who has never shot anything before to put this together. It is not easy to put out a film from the ground up like these guys have done. The soundtrack is pretty good as well, laced with punk acts which I don't normally listen to, but this I enjoyed, it seemed to fit the film.
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Good stuff Chris. i know the pain of wanting to like something becuase its so obviously right in every way, except the quality bit, in which case it fails horrifically.
in saying that, you've intrigued me. It sounds a bit like the wonderful Clash flick Rude Boy, although i doubt it scales such decadent heights.
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
well, actually, Rude Boy wasn't all that DECADENT. grimy, perhaps.