Mouth to Mouth

I like Indie films and this one feels like a classic of the early 2000's, telling a story set in the 1980's with a gritty aesthetic and punk grunge soundtrack including The Stranglers Nice and Sleazy. I notice that Jim Sturgess and August Diehl have roles here and they both went out to have strong careers, not to mention Elliot ( Ellen ) Page. The interactions between the young street life characters feel authentic to me and I was invested to know what would happen to the vulnerable young woman at the heart of a disturbing story about how good intentions can go horribly wrong when we turn our individuality over to an all powerful leader.

When I first saw the preview for this film, it looked like a trippy indie film with a great soundtrack. I decided to give it a chance and bought it. It just came in today and I have to say, it is not what I expected, but better.

This film is not about some rebel girl who runs away from home and has insane adventures. This is a movie about a girl who is desperately trying to become a part of something and the mother who follows her into a dangerous cult. It has so much more depth than I expected. The movie's hero is clearly Bat from beginning to end. However, other characters who the viewer does not expect become heroes as well. The movie shows a very scary and a very real descent into the lifestyle of a cult. The characters are unique and are uniquely duped into this life.

The acting in it is phenomenal. Ellen Page, who we now know as Juno, shows another side of herself as the resilient Bat. The character shows real strength in the face of confusion.

This movie entices and rattles the viewer. It dares to ask the question, What is a perfect world?

What can I say about this? Nothing about it is inherently bad (well okay, most of the acting is, but aside from that very obvious fact); it's mostly just a very plodding even boring film of often silly, predictable nothingness. You have your standard stereotypes everywhere, but none of the characters are in any way likable, which in itself doesn't necessarily cause me a problem and maybe this is just the type of film where no one needs to be liked, but either way. It even fails to explore the nature of a cult more deeply (or even at all), which was a wasted opportunity.

One last thing, I've seen a few mentions of this being realistic. My a**e is it realistic! People seem to think that if a film's made on a low budget with no special effects and bad acting that it's realistic. Please stop mistaking hard to watch with realism.

Not sure why this came onto my radar but Amazon recommended it so I thought I would check it out. Based on the real life experiences of director Alison Murray, the movie exists to show how corrupt social groups can become, even when claiming to do something honourable like "helping homeless youth" . It creates characters that we have all met in life and shows how the Sherry character that we all wish we were fights for freedom and basic human rights. Her character is able to challenge the mindless acceptance of abuse of power of the group leader and by the end it seems like the group may unravel because of the chain reaction she starts. Some weird choices in the visual style but overall a good looking movie also. I would give it a strong recommendation.

After two years of trying to find the movie, I finally purchased it for 18.99 on ebay. Right when I received the package, I put it in my DVD player. It was worth the wait.

First to note, the movie is low budget and you can tell from the poor lighting. But, it kind of added to this film. The film was very dark and gritty as it portrayed a cult that started as a party and ended as manipulation. I did notice quite a few plot holes such as how did Sherry's mother find Sherry when Sherry was over a thousand miles away. But other than that I applaud Alison Murray's efforts in this film as we laughed and cried with the lead character played by the always fantastic, Ellen Page.

It was after Ellen's performance in Hard Candy that made me want to follow her and it is quite obvious that she'll have a fantastic career ahead of her.

There is so much to say about this film. I loved the score and thought it was perfect for the film. It was very well placed and enjoyable. I loved how the actors would kind of dance to strange situations such as Sherry's mom would try to get Sherry in her car and Sherry wanted to get away from her. It was almost liked they did a tango. It was beautiful to me. What I also enjoyed about the movie was it was very unpredictable. Early in a movie you see a kid get nonchalantly thrown into a dumpster to get some food and he ends up hitting his head against a sharp object. There was no music to narrate the situation for you so it kept me off guard. I don't know what it is about indy films but they always appeal to me. I love the experimentation of the film.

So all in all, you'll probably not be able to find this movie for rent and will most likely have to take the chance and purchase the film. It was very hard to find and ebay or Amazon is the only way you'll be able to find it. This movie reminded me a little of Firecracker, House of Sand and Fog, and 11:14. Mouth to Mouth is bizarre and is really "out there" so you need to watch it with an open mind.

P.S: Congraduations to Ms. Page for her Oscar nomination and I'm sure she won't let the instant fame get to her head and she'll continue to pick original and great scripts.