Montana Amazon

If you think your family's got problems wait until you meet The Dunderheads. From the backwoods of the Rocky Mountains, this illiterate, socially dysfunctional family roars across the American west leaving a trail of mayhem and confusion as they collide with the mainstream world. A very black comedy that gradually reveals a poignant dramatic heart leads to a very effective ending as we find out why the Dunderheads are the way they are. Alison Brie from NBC's Community and Academy Award nominee, Haley Joel Osment are outstanding while Olympia Dukakis gives one of her best film performances as the very eccentric grandmother. Brie and Dukakis won acting awards for their roles in this film which was also selected as "Best Feature Film" at NYC's Big Apple Film Festival.

I just watched this movie. Good grief. Three weirdly combative, unstable creeps (a mute grandmother and her bickering grandson and granddaughter) attempting to drive to Canada (without any sense of direction or knowledge of how to drive a car) after the grandson accidentally kills a man. Along the way, there are more accidental murders, weird dreams about the kids' long-missing father, and, for a flick Comcast billed as a comedy, there's not an ounce of humor. In other words, we have unlikeable characters in a meandering, aimless plot. There's a metaphor for purgatory here, that is a bit too blatant to be called sub-text.

The only positives about the movie: the actors do a good job, even though the material itself isn't worth it. And, outside of that, even as an emotionally stunted dirtball, Alison Brie is still so pretty she could sell a glass of fire to a man dying of thirst. And the ending was pretty good. But getting to that ending was such a chore.

I loved this movie. First and foremost for the acting of such original characters. Also, the look of the film is rich because of the locations and even the costumes. The amazing Olympia Dukakis as I've never seen her before--unforgettable. It's not a spoiler to say that Olympia has almost no lines; everything is done with grunts, looks and screams. All the acting is uniformly memorable, with a sexy and breakout performance from Alison Brie, and a surprisingly touching one from Haley Osment. The score and songs were energetic and fun, but never too dominant. An added plus is a very funny and gently ironic narration done by Phil Proctor, of Firesign Theatre fame.

I randomly came across this movie one day. After seeing who's in it and reading the reviews here (8/10!!?) I thought I'd try it out. I'm still dumbfounded this exists. The performances are.... ok given what the actors probably had to work with. How this ever got billed as a comedy, I'll never know. Plucky music behind a scene doesn't make it comedy. Full of mental illness and murder, it felt like some bizarro world fear and loathing. Like a train wreck, i couldn't look away.

But it's right up there. Terrible from beginning to end.