Blind Spot

I saw this wonderful film 14 years ago and I'm still looking to find a way to see it again. It's a shame it has always been shown in festivals and never been released for a cinema distribution. I hope the producer or the director will release it in any way in the future. I hope to see it release on blu ray or any UHD format!!! Well done to Stephan Woloszczuk!!!

It reaches the minds and feelings of everyone driving them deep in the black desert. A brutal but beautiful world that is explored through memories and edgy layers of sound and score. The landscape develops its own persona, paralleling the inner geography of all three characters as their stories unfold. The stark void of lost love, the fear of the unknown, and then transcendence of emptiness through the very openness of this desolation. Three misguided souls fighting to find something absolute and positive in all that negative space. The drama is compelling. James Franco and his co-stars deliver deft performances. Naive schoolboy, suicidal blonde, embittered car thief -- all converge with unexpected twists. Together they create an explosive portrait of fractured love -- one that unwittingly conspires to mend amidst the hardest forms of adversity and illusion -- the blindness of human emotion.

I agree with the leading notes, this is a splendid film, and remarkably well balanced when one considers the side tracks that could have been taken. All the performances are fine, particularly that by James Franco as Danny, who's convincing despair at having found love and lost it so quickly (and so violently) is very moving. Apart from his good looks, he essays considerable depth of character that should take him a long way as an actor. Only the ending was somewhat frustrating. It was too rushed, as if once the shooting was over, so was the film. I had become so immersed in Danny's story a little more fleshing out would have helped, for he did go through a visceral experience and lost his first love. To have him happily turning up back at school as if nothing had happened was simply unbelievable. Nonetheless, this is an excellent and mysterious thriller. Perhaps a little too ambiguous for the huge cinema audience that has been fed on pap for so long. I hope it does well, and I sure hope it makes it to DVD as soon as possible.

James Franco is totally cool in this movie. Not just handsome and charismatic but genuinely open and vulnerable in a sincere kind of way. At the Tristan screening some folks were on his back for being pouty and sullen and doing the whole James Dean thing but I don't think this true. Blind Spot is proof positive of his tremendous talent. In this film he carries himself with a different sort of weight entirely. It's a unique performance. Bittersweet and really moving. The lines from his journal cut you like a knife. You sense a sharp intelligence of observation behind his words. The tone is everything. He carries it through the action and suspense as well as the grim bits of gallows humor. I like the other two actors a great deal too. The blonde girl is totally gorgeous and the man is hysterical in his twisted tough guy stoicism. Some of the thugs seemed a little sketchy but this is a mini-point really. The film is totally solid and Franco is way cool all around.

Blind Spot's images are great. The action draws you in completely, even though the movie is a bit long. By the end credits all that you can think about are the film's positive high-points. The lead actors have the most incredible screen presence. The story is heart-wrenching. The film score is nicely understated . Completely moving in its own powerful way. Not your standard melodramatic cuing. Trance-like moments add poetic resonance to the engrossing narration and terrific visual compositions. Hope you get a chance to see this film. It delves into some dark territory but you come out of the tunnel seeing nothing but white light.