Frownland

source: Frownland

This is one of those films that screams as loudly as possible, I want to be taken seriously...which sort of defeats the purpose of the whole thing. This is obviously a work of passion, which is why I give it as many stars as I did. I would not, however, call it a good movie. The consistently off-set camera angles, repetitive dialogue, and drawn-out scenes make the director's point early in the movie. These devices are then perpetuated until the point becomes mundane and the movie becomes meaningless. For the viewer, this movie is the equivalent of a lengthy email typed in all upper case by an irritating neighbor.

This is the one movie that has captured the feelings of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness so well. i would go as far as to call it a masterpiece. through the movie i felt so anxious and it genuinely made me uncomfortable. my stomach started to hurt. i cant recommend this film enough.

What happens when someone has so much social anxiety that they cease to function? How alone can one man get? When the mundane crap we have to do in order to be part of society gets to be too much, what happens? Frownland explores these questions. Definitely a startling original debut from Bronstein. The tone is strange and claustrophobic as we get inside the mind of a guy named Keith that is so messed up he can hardly form a proper sentence. We follow him around as he tries to make contact with people and function day to day. Most of us have known people like this- people that say "sorry" too much or "i appreciate it" when there's nothing to appreciate. So we know there are people out there like this but why would someone want to make a movie about them? Well, because its interesting and Bronstein and the lead actor, Dore Mann, do an excellent job. This film is about as un-commercial as a film can get. A few friends filmed it over the course of a few years as they saved money. It was shot on 16mm and the scratched film look is beautifully low budget. With no distributer, this may be a tough one to find, I think it's been screening randomly for the past year or so. Hopefully it'll be on DVD at some point. I saw it at the Silent Movie Theater here in LA. There were 10 people in the audience, among them Crispin Glover, if that tells you anything about how weird this movie is. Highly recommended.

I saw this film at SXSW with the director in attendance. Quite a few people walked out, and the audience could barely muster even polite applause at the end. Of the 60 or 70 films I've seen at this festival, Frownland is among the worst. At 106 minutes, it is at least 95 minutes too long. You get to watch the main character's failed and drawn out attempts to communicate, in extended real time. The same grimaces, hand over mouth motions, kinetic and frantically repeated words and syllables over and over and over again - WE GET THE POINT. One site actually compares this work to early Mike Leigh. What drugs would you have to be on to make that statement? Given that Frownland is a Captain Beefheart song, maybe you'd have to be able to enjoy Trout Mask Replica on heavy rotation to appreciate this film. Unbelievably, this won a jury award at the festival. You can bet it did not win an audience award.

There are so many people like Keith.. so desperate for acceptance and companionship. It's hard to watch. It's not easy to like Keith, not because he is bad but just an annoying misfit. Completely socially awkward. His loneliness has made him nuts. I know several people like this... its painful to watch ... but very real. The movie accomplishes alot by accurately displaying what being alone and socially akward can do to a persons mental health. Great performance by Dore Mann .

But I can make a better one about myself... Is this a actor with all his head tics... Pulling his hair touching his face ... Just nervous around people lives with his 78 year mother and crazy sister... Graduated from HS where there was so much pomposity it winds up on Facebook. And it's the same ... No one likes you and you fade from Facebook to a lonely life no one loves you .. I'm not annoying like the character in this film but my life went by too fast I'm in my mid 50's thinking about where I can get Fentanyl Fudge. I feel life serves no purpose half of me wants to be Anti Christ and watch humanity just die and the other half knows it's not going to happen and I will on my own will make that sarafice .. So I'm up to The Who book scene which I have personally owned since 1982 . And still sits on my shelf.. I have a room filled to the brim with music video tapes records CD's computers just crap to fill the nothingness and know it's nothing ... I don't feel anyone loves me or cares... So you do the same you stop caring .. They stop caring or never did... Yeah I can make movie that you just die in the end. As I watch... Get it.

Ronald Bronstein wrote and directed this movie. He is one of my favorite screenwriters, best known for his collaborations with the Safdie brothers. Here he tries his hand at directing as well, and while he's not in his finest form, that's okay. You can see the mark of a strong storyteller here, and his work since this one has proved that he learned from this one and just kept getting better.

This is a film about a few New Yorkers who are struggling in life. It is actually very good at moments, but not great at others. The tone of the film is very uneven and unbalanced, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it feels unintentional here. At first we think maybe this is a comedy but we realize slowly that it is not. The acting is actually very good. It feels strange at first until we realize that these are not the kinds of characters we normally see in films. But they exist in real life and here we get a chance too see them on the screen. The writer and director of this movie stated that he was influenced by the highly acclaimed film Naked, and it is clearly evident here. In both films the characters speak fluently to each other about philosophy and their opinions on life. I felt like it actually felt more real in this one. It was better done. But it never felt completely real in either film, in my opinion. But maybe that's just because I don't encounter people who talk like that in real life. Maybe they're out there. I like the camerawork a lot. The film felt a lot like Slackers at times, but maybe that's just because of the grainy 16mm look and the clothing the characters wore. The characters at times felt like they could have come from the world of that film, but at other times they felt like they belonged more in a John Cassavetes film. It feels a bit like a Cassavetes film in several ways, particularly toward the end. The ending is very good and gritty and raw and not your typical Hollywood ending by any stretch. And while I feel like the story itself could have been revised and made better, the story as it was could not have been told any better.

I truly feel the pain, confusion and sheer degradation that the main character goes through. It is painfully awkward to watch his mental state take a beating at every opportunity even though I realize there are many people in the real world who likely go through this each day. I would recommend this to a certain kind of viewer - one who is secure enough in their own life to confront the mental slaughter the characters face. At times it is all too real!