The Natural History of Parking Lots

The Natural History of Parking lots is a very good film I loved it. It is hard to find but it is entirely in black and white which I believes adds to the serious nature of the Film.

The film is about Chris (Don't know who plays him) a troubled 17 year old boy who gets his excitement through stealing cars in Los Angeles. One day he gets arrested and is left in the custody of his rich but neglectful father, who couldn't care less about him, and makes his older brother Lance (B.Wyatt) take care of Chris by paying him 2,000.

Chris an Lance at first don't get along that well but eventually do. The film more or less is about them bonding and getting to know each other. Anyways Lance invites his girlfriend Kelly over and Chris finds them in the bathtub together and gets angry at Lance and feels Lance is neglecting him. The ending is really sad and Chris has to now live with is awful father. At one point Chris asks if his father loves him and says yes in the most uncaring unenthusiastic way possible. I felt sorry for him.

Lance/B. Wyatt steals every scene he is in with Chis and I think is the heart and soul of the entire film. He has great chemistry with the guy who plays Chris. I recommend this film.

When i saw this movie i was extremely impressed with the look of this film. I'm a hobby black & white photographer myself and i just can give congratulation's to the movie makers. The story and all the things seen in the movie work perfect in black & white. It also is a good symbol of the story, a friendship between two brothers. The black & white contrast is a way of expressing the different feelings with up's and down's shown in the movie. When this young teenager get's to hang out with his older brother after having problems with the law cause of stealing cars, he gets all happy and exited. After he finds out that his brother was paid by their father he is crashing. the movie has a lot of turning around and twisted feelings. One of my favourit movie's.

Clearly influenced by `Rebel without a Cause', this is the story of a Chris who gets in trouble with the police. His absentee dad hires Lance, Chris's older gunrunning brother to `Baby-sit' at the rate of $2000 per week. Chris soon develops feelings for Lance and begins to clean up his act. These feelings are not entirely brotherly and Chris gets very jealous when he catches Lance in the bathtub with girlfriend Kelly.

In some ways this is a typical film school project with all the common errors, overexposed black and white `not-at-all steady' cam work, and under-miked dialogue (no ADR work) and overblown music. Characters have dialogue that is in no way motivated or in character with their personae. E.g. Toward the end when the money obsessed father is discussing his financial dealings with his son, his dialogue is definitely not finance savvy. Also there are obvious continuity errors. The police make Chris strip. Next scene he's still at the police station wearing different clothes than what he was arrested in (definitely NOT police issue)

The two main actors are attractive and the boys are constantly changing clothes, taking baths or showers and going skinny-dipping. I'm beginning to believe that the first lesson in any film class is `when the plot is thin show a little skin'.

Because of the obvious flaws, particularly the long stretches of unintelligible dialogue; I'm rating this movie lower than I normally would. It's a shame. I think that there was a good story here, I'm just not sure the film was able to tell it.

"Natural History of Parking Lots" has got to be one of the finest films I have ever seen. Shot on a non-existent budget in ultra-stylish black & white, the film has the look of a Bruce Weber photo. Proof that sheer talent, and artistic vision are the keys to good film-making, and not lots of money. The story follows Chris, an angry teenage loner who gets his kicks stealing 1950's cars. When he gets arrested, his sleazy, money-grubbing dad calls on Lance, Chris' older brother, to spend some time with him. Lance is a very cool, leather jacket wearing "bad guy," and his hard rebel attitude really impresses his younger brother. Of course Lance fails to mention that dad is paying him lots of money to hang out with him. Naturally Chris is thrilled that Lance is paying him so much attention, and he becomes a happier kid as a result. He stops his car theft and even improves his performance in school. Things begin to fall apart though when a girl enters the picture and Chris feels that she is stealing his brother away from him. This is a very well made story about the bonds of friendship and brotherhood. A particularly memorable scene has the two brothers driving down to Mexico in a convertible, and partying all night. Energetic, stylish camera work throughout, and the black and white film works so well here. Features some great music throughout, it is hard to describe just what makes this one so good. The story is fairly simple, but the whole thing just looks so great. There is a sad and violent ending, which i won't divulge here. This film is nearly impossible to find as it has never been released on DVD, and only very limited VHS tapes were circulated. I was lucky to tape this one from the Sundance channel years ago, and that video tape remains one of my favorite possessions. Reminiscent of films like "Rebel Without A Cause', and "Rumble Fish". Unfortunately it has fallen into obscurity. But if you are a fan of underground cinema, and coming of age dramas, I recommend hunting this one down. A million times cooler, and more honest than anything Hollywood can offer. The other reviewers who insulted the film's limitations due to it's small budget, commenting on things like "poor sound quality", perhaps should stick to the blockbuster garbage. 10/10 stars.