Looking for Sunday

I saw this film at the Starz Film Festival and thought it was terrific. It was real; it was raw-- I've never seen it done like this before. It has really stayed with me.

I was drawn in to this story and the reality of the relationships. It's about those of us that choose our lives, and those of us who simply react when others make those choices. It's about friendship, love, and wishing you never had to say good-bye to anyone. The script did a great job of revealing all the characters before the film starts in stark contrast to the people they've grown into over the years (without using a bunch of cheap tricks like flashbacks or anything.) All the characters were really well developed, and the film did an excellent job of stripping away the surface layers to expose the true, raw people that all of us are, but usually only when we're alone. The best part for me was watching an honest, intimate love story between two best friends (Michael Weston and Spence Decker) without the macho clichés or the witty, in-your-face dialog. Weston and Decker pulled off the subtleties like I've never seen. Their chemistry was refreshing and sometimes explosive. The film also stars Katharine Towne, Madeline Zima, Eric Thal (who I'm a big fan of), and a really awesome performance by Orlando Jones. Everyone was really good and together made a fantastic ensemble to watch.

I loved this movie. Spence Decker attended my screening along with a producer and they sat and answered questions for probably an hour after the screening. It blew all of our minds that he not only wrote the screenplay and starred in the film, but he also wrote and performed all of the music in the movie. When asked about it, Spence humbly sluffed it off that they couldn't afford Eddie Vedder. The music was awesome. It gave the film just one more layer of realism hearing him sing his own stuff. (No fake playing or lip syncing in this movie) He's definitely one of the most talented guys I've discovered in a long time.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a true reflection of relationships in the new millennium; How hard it is to connect to people, and then when we do, how incredibly hard it is to say good-bye and let them go their own way.

Seeing as this film was set in my hometown, and some of it was filmed very close to where I live, I really wanted to like it. Really.

And Michael Weston is a terrific young actor, as evidenced by his chilling portrayal of a sociopath on "Six Feet Under." He's talented enough to carry a film, I think, but this one's flimsy plot and character development couldn't have been saved by an Olivier. At least Alan Ball hands his actors truly meaty roles, complex characters an audience can care about.

Spence Decker's narcissistic band-frontman swaggers through the film looking like Edward Burns redux, but this is no "Brothers McMullen." Somehow that story managed to have charm. Not so here.

What can I say about this movie? There's no "there" there. It's hard to care about the conflicts and life dilemmas of these listless twentysomethings when we're given so little to work with. Not a single connection between characters comes across as anything but superficial or utilitarian; the small, occasional hiccups of emotion are inconsequential, and the momentary injection of "philosophy" (the subject of Weston's character's doctoral thesis) goes no deeper than high school Philosophy 101. Then there's the tedious CW-network-drama tendency they all have to lecture one another about life, when none of them, ostensibly, has yet seen his (or her) thirtieth birthday.

Other things don't make sense to me: why does Peter (Weston) love Elizabeth? Yes, she's pretty, and vivacious, and she has large breasts, but she's also dishonest, somewhat manipulative, and emotionally repressed. Maybe when you're a guy in your twenties, all that matters is that a girl be pretty and vivacious and have large breasts. I don't know. But why doesn't a doctoral student in philosophy have at least a few more intelligent friends?

I gave it three stars for the able acting of Weston and the well-shot footage of some of Denver's local color.