7 Chinese Brothers

source: 7 Chinese Brothers

Reaching to connect to the audience through adult immaturity, this film paints the image of bad script writing and a dull storyline. It's not inspirational at all, or funny. There really is no point to this movie.

Nothing happens. I like Schwartzman but this drek went no where. No real ending, not much of a beginning. The title has nothing to do with anything. The characters were predictably quirky. This is labeled a comedy? Is there a label of droll?

This was supposed to be meaningful in its meandering meaninglessness. It was not. As aimless as its protagonist, this movie was a waste of my time. I loathed every single character except for Arrow.

This is your usual low budget, Indie film that looks like it was filmed with a hand held videocam. The script seems improvised and the story line non-existent. The film has absolutely nothing going for it, which begs the question....why was it made?

This was a decent movie. I really liked the relationship between Larry and Major. It got me thinking. At a point, most would probably want to kill Major despite their past. Yet, Larry remains calm and gets a great offer in return. It was basically a peoples connection dramedy. Sure, Larry had a bunch of dumb, deadpan jokes, but that was the point. He did make me laugh a few times, so points there for sure. It gets slower at parts, though. It seems like it's dragging for play time sometimes. Points coming very slowly, almost to unnoticeable changes with certain story branches. Docked a bit for that. It was tempting to check the timeline on Netflix at some points. Overall, you might want to check this out if you are into movies with underdogs. It's filmed well, which is a major plus. It's clever with the drama, has a lot of stupid humor and a drug addict as the main character. My only major complaint was I just wish there was a little more information around the ending. 6.4/10

Larry (Jason Schwartzman) is a slacker with little ambition. He works a menial job at the oil change garage. He has his dog. He is joined by his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis). His friend Major Norwood gets him his drugs. It's Schwartzman doing his slacker thing. For his fans, this may be interesting. Indie filmmaker Robert Byington is not strictly mumblecore. His dialog is not mumble but it has much of the indie sensibilities. In the end, there isn't much going on with this character. It's hard to tell if he cares or is he just scared like when he runs out on a sure thing with a girl. It makes it hard to care about him.

Reading some reviews I half expected a slacker film as in something a bit like American Pie (but with slackers). But this was good - I like films that are realistic like this one. That is the main thing I liked - not big high stakes drama or clichés or tilting towards a message. The character was not pointless - the character does grow. I didn't really understand the title though. I like REM (I was really into them as a young adult - probably too much). But whilst the song might have an interpretation that makes sense in the context of the movie, it surely doesn't enough to name the film after it. A kind of random incidental-ism is fine, but it should make some sense.

Bob Byington has a following. No doubt about it. They flocked to the IFC in New York to see 'Seven Chinese Brothers'. And after the showing, to quiz Byington on his film. As everyone who has seen the film discovers that the narrative is thin gruel. Jason Bateman is plays the 'nebbish' Larry, who drinks his life away in small doses. A loner, he finds companionship with his dog Arrow. Talented that he is, he should never play against a dog nor a child. Olympia Dukakis does a cameo as his grandmother, who leaves him a spanking almost new Mercedes, but not her million dollars that goes to Larry's buddy Major, an aide at the nursing home grandma resides. She knows her Larry who won't make much of his life. In the end, Larry find a life of sorts at a lube shop with a pretty manager whom he has a thing for. But, will it work out, we cannot say for sure. One thing, Byington lets us in on is that in the end, Larry has found a sober zen moment with Arrow as this film ends after 75 minutes. What about the title? 'Seven Chinese Brothers' is a well known children's book. by Claire Huchet Bishop in 1938. Still in print today, it is a standard in library children's room. Bishop retells simply a story of seven Chinese brothers whose collective strength put a check on an evil emperor who cannot escape his downfall. No hit of a hero in Larry. Quite the contrary. Some posit, Byington had a kung fu in mind. Sorry old darlings. The nearest to a Kurosawa that 'Seven Chinese Brothers' comes to that genre is that Larry is a loner...a ronin, a masterless samurai. Forget about that thought. If the film has any strength it's Arrow and Bateman who a much underrated actor and la grande dame that is Olympia Dukakis. Wait till the DVD comes out, for the price of admission is not worth opening your wallet.

This film is a case study on why film criticism exists, to separate the chaff of it from the wheat it pretends as. Neither an evolution nor simulcrum of Lost in Translation, Office Space, or Bottle Rocket, this extended screen test of Jason Schwartzman inhabiting deep suburban environs as a narcissist layabout was likely pitched to distributors as a mashup of all three. Writer-director Bob Byington begins with an old R.E.M. song, 7 Chinese Brothers. This song, from the band's Reckoning album, was naught but a prank; it was Michael Stipe singing the liner notes to a random gospel LP he'd found laying around, which the studio engineer mistakenly recorded, and which the band, finding the track's accidental provenance hilarious, formed into a nondescript, mildly jangly tune. Does this near non-song by R.E.M. inform Byington's film in any measure? No, except that he cues the song at the end credits so that the key grips might have a mildly jangly ruffle and flourish behind their accrediture. From the song Byington derives the title, and upon the meaningless title Byington builds no story whatsoever, and by no story I mean not even a Seinfeldian non-story proposition. Jason Schwartzman is the lead as "Larry." Schwartzman, who is a celebrity and a very good actor, and who might perpetually attract some long-tail audience interested in watching him do anything--say, selling peanuts in a ballpark vendor's uniform-- for a duration of 76 minutes, is required by Byington to move in and out of bland sets (a quik lube garage, a dingy convenience store) and make slight actions (throw a hat at a Mazda, deny your grandmother a sip from a Big Gulp) that are supposed to stand in for the plot or un- plot as it were. Nothing worth filming, nothing that would be worth filming by students, is there. These are petty crimes against cinema Byington is caught at, but that should be no taint against Schwartzman, who screen tests as plumly as ever, or indeed against Tunde Adebimpe or Eleanor Pienta, who check in as friendly companions who join us in wondering just what is supposed to be fascinating about a character who is simultaneously so self-possessed and so lacking in initiative of thought, credible emotion, or stirrings. Rather than screening this movie, Schwartzman enthusiasts are better off hunting down Hotel Chevalier and spending the time gained from unspent viewing balancing their checkbooks.