Nobody Walks

I saw this at BAM in Brooklyn and thought it was pretty incredible. Rosemarie Dewitt is so wonderful in her role (she is not the lead but somehow she stole the show for me—she is so beautiful and intelligent and refreshing to watch) and she has great chemistry with both Krasinski and Justin Kirk. It's basically my three favorite TV actors in one great film, getting to do so much more with their talents than you ever see on Mad Men, Weeds or The Office. Olivia Thirlby is excellent too as a very driven young woman artist. Her style is great and she has a very intense and unique energy—an ingénue but not so innocent at all. But I think my favorite part is how gorgeous LA looks and the interiors, too. It is really sexy and a little seventies naturalist but also completely "contemporary LA" in a way I've never seen so accurately portrayed. I really identified as a New Yorker who has visited LA and had a major crush on the parts of it that just seem like, so hip and mysterious and "how can I figure out how to live like this?!" I am a big fan of Dunham's work and actually saw this because of how much I liked Russo- Young's last film, "You Wont Miss Me." This is a smart and funny and great to look at collaboration for them as writers and I'm super excited to see what Russo-Young does next....

There is a lot of b-roll and fat that can be cut out of this film. I feel like they used extra stock film just to make the movie a longer movie. It doesn't make it better it only makes it slow and boring. The close-ups are way to close. It feels awkward and not intimate at all, which I feel is the way they wanted to pursue those shots. The start of the movie is very confusing. You don't really get introduced to the characters, you just see them. You don't know who they are or why you are looking at them. I also don't like the main actress, Olivia Thirlby. Her character is very bland. I would like to know more about Peter, who John Krasinski plays, and why it is so easy for him to cheat on his wife. John Krasinski is the only reason why I started to watch this film. I think he is a good actor and he does perform good in this film. I wish I would see more of him in newer films. You also never find out why Kolt, who India Ennenga plays, is learning how to speak Italian.

Martine (Olivia Thirlby) is a young artist making an art film about insects. Peter (John Krasinski) is a sound engineer helping her out to finish the film. She slowly draws the attention of Peter and creates conflict with his wife Julie (Rosemarie DeWitt). Krasinski is playing against his usual nice guy type. He is still playing a version of it but corrupting it. It's actually quite off-putting to see it. Thirlby is wonderfully charming as a girl who shy away from commitments. She's one of the more interesting young actresses around. She doesn't overplay the role. She neither the victim nor the aggressor. The daughter Kolt played by India Ennenga has an interesting role. All of it should add up to a very compelling movie. However it feels rather under written and empty. The characters act but without major consequences. The couple's marriage wasn't much to begin with, they didn't really fight for it, and it isn't much at the end. In the end, everybody walks.

Maybe I just got my expectations down to that special level of low, I find Lena Dunham stuff to be horrible, tiny furniture was just one of the stupidest things I have ever seen. So I think seeing her name attached to this helped me enjoy it because I thought okay this will be bad, and when it turned out to be good I was happy. What makes this movie entertaining is you can watch any of the actors involved on their own, they could have made any of the characters the lead or the main focus and you would have been into it. I actually thought the length was a huge negative, ended maybe a good 15 minutes too early, from opening to credits it was a mere 78 minutes long although it might claim to be longer. There isn't much of a plot, an artist moves in with a family she stirs things up, I won't give away too much but she's an attractive woman around men who like attractive women so its not that difficult to figure out. The movie does a good job of just sort of moving along without being about anything. One of the weak links was this sub plot with an Italian teacher, I could have done without that it was a little odd. The young lead actresses India Ennenga who plays the sixteen year old step daughter to Krasinski, and of course the artist woman Olivia Thirlby held it all together and kept it interesting even when it dragged along. I don't know why this movie made so little money, it was decent, maybe it didn't get a big release. I just found it via netflix as I am sure most other people found it that way too. I would say watch this with no expectations, and if you like movies with lots of action and dramatic arcs then just skip this one, this is more of an experience film.

Documenting the life of the rich and shameless is already dubious artistic terrain in my book. The sell points are obvious - class and lifestyle reinforcement for the people who actually live this way, fascinated adulation from those less fortunate. But unless it is handled with care and insight, it can really just seem like pretentious tripe. Unfortunately, this movie falls into that category. I enjoyed the first half of Nobody Walks, which explored the different personalities in an upper middle-class artistic household as Olivia Thirlby's character settled in. I was already familiar with Thirlby from Juno and recently Dredd, which she was great in. She is the real standout in this movie. There is an understated quality about her that is very appealing, and she's just interesting to watch on screen. Where the movie falls into trouble is in the second half. For the record, I have no problem with movies with all white casts (go Woody Allen!), even if it does seem a bit anachronistic in today's increasingly diverse America. But I do turn a suspicious eye on movies like this when the one ethnic character in the film - in this case an Italian tutor played by Emanuele Secci - winds up being so sinisterly drawn, and particularly playing into cheap stereotypes. Kolt's poem about him was nasty and xenophobic. In light of the already borderline pointless story and vapid characters, this was the turning point for me. The point where you go, "Damn, can't get those two hours back, can I?" Alas, you cannot, so I would recommend a pass. P.S. I forgot to add that as someone who generally is uncomfortable with and dislikes excessive sex scenes in movies, the romantic scenes in this movie are beautifully done and believable. Of particular note is the first kiss between John Krasinski and Thirlby.

Nobody Walks (2012) ** (out of 4) A New York film student named Martine (Olivia Thirlby) comes out West to finish her movie on insects and ends up living with a happy family. The father (John Krasinski) agrees to help Martine finish the film but soon he ends up falling for her, which sets off different emotions for his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt). NOBODY WALKS has some pretty good stuff in it but in the end it's just another independent movie that thinks it has a lot more to say than it actually does. If I had to pick one word for this film it would be "mildly." I say that because everything here could have mildly put in front of it. The story is mildly entertaining. The idea that everyone wants what they can't have is mildly interesting. The way the film gets its point across is mildly interesting. Everything in this movie manages to be mildly something but unfortunately it's just not clever enough or showing us anything that we haven't already seen and this is what keeps it from being much better. We've seen the perfect household fall apart with the site of a beautiful woman using her sexuality so that's not giving us anything new here. The way that it all happens is, you guessed it, mildly interesting because as a film buff I found it entertaining that the husband was helping the girl edit a film. The sex scene happens in a sound proof room. I'm not exactly sure if this student's film was supposed to mean something to the viewer but I took nothing away from it. The best thing going for the film are its performances with Thirlby once again really impressing me. She's certainly a very charming actress and the way she pushed the sexuality here was quite memorable and one hopes to see more of her going forward. Both Krasinski, DeWitt and Dylan McDermott are good in their parts as is India Ennenga who plays the daughter. NOBODY WALKS isn't going to appeal to too many people but I think fans of the indie scene might want to check it out even if it doesn't reach the levels one would have hoped for.

Just saw this movie today and was a little disappointed with it. The acting is decent enough, the dialogue is not terrible (except for one scene, which will be obvious), the characters were interesting. It was all enough to make me engrossed in the film, but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. I kept waiting for the sh** to hit the fan and it never did. Sorry to say that the story seemed a little under-developed to me. The stakes never seemed high enough to make you really worried for any of the characters. And what was supposed to be the climax of the film is really just a tiny spurt of nothing. I hope the writer continues to develop further, as she obviously has the ability to create unique and interesting characters, but she just needs to learn to do more with those characters. She certainly had the time to do so in this film, as the running time is short and there were definitely sub-plots that could've been cut out entirely (the Italian teacher for instance)

I saw Nobody Walks at the BAM Film Festival and loved it. It's sensual and provocative and very smart. It was written by Lena Dunham and Ry Russo-Young and fantastically directed by Russo-Young. It's great to see John Krasinsky in this kind of dramatic and sexual role and Rosemary DeWitt is lovely and perfect. The sensory details in this movie are impeccable, from the sound design and music to the cinematography and production design. These all work together to create a dreamy LA background, against which family, sex, art and work are critically examined and tested. It is a beautiful movie. I highly recommend it. It's also so great to see a movie created and starring so many brilliant and driven young women.

Nobody Walks