3 Backyards

From the writer and director Eric Mendolsohn whose only other film is one of my favorite movies of the last 10yrs or so(Judy Berlin) comes this humble charmer of a film, '3 Backyards'. Here we have in the span of a single day in a mildly upper class neighborhood on a bay in Long Island, three stories unfolding at the same time but that never directly touch each other. The movie is beautiful, humble, small-scaled, well acted, and refreshing. Though it may be disceptably simple, it never deceives; the moving camera being just as intrusive as we want it to be as it floats in on the scene, the characters or the clouds or the leaves on a tree, the somewhat old fashioned dissolves used liberally yet tastefully. Three little gems; three little peeks into the lives of these folks on this particular day. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that at an hour and a half, the movie ends too soon. I wish it could have kept on and on. One story is about a man (played by Elias Koteas) having marriage problems who when his business trip gets cancelled last minute, instead of returning home, hangs out near the airport hotel and begins to follow a mysterious woman One is about a little girl who on her way to school loses an expensive bracelet of her mother's and who must retrieve it from a seemingly dangerous backyard before she can return home. The third story concerns a lady (played by Edie Falco) who is given the honor(much to the envy of her neighbor) of driving a local, semi-famous movie actress to the waiting ferry. We go back and forth between each tale seamlessly and by the end, though the characters do not literally ever interact, there is some heart-pumping, unnameably agreeable cohesion to it all. Now that I realize this sounds awfully similar to a mundane movie review, I will stop and simply encourage anyone so inclined to go see it. It's playing now at Cinema Village on 12th st. near Union Square.

Was such a waste of time .No Aim , no sound track , no connections , not even philosophical.I wish I could buy back the time I wasted watching this film.You will get board waiting for something interesting to happen.There was one scene when Falco was trying to find out whether the lady who was in the restaurant was the same lady who got hit with the car accident and you say oh here it comes , this is the threshold of the film.The scene ends suddenly with no explanation , and absolutely no connection to the next scene. This film is really a shame on the film industry and a disrespect for all viewers because it does not respect their time.

Of the 2 rating - one is for Edie Falco, who plays the only character that has any (in this film) and whose vulnerability isn't accompanied by a musical score that is reminiscence of Psycho and/or the Perils of Pauline! I liked the neighbor, too. (Note to Edie - You should have tossed her a-- out of the car.)

The other is for the beautiful images and photography,in this indulgent waste of time.

The rest of the characters were mere contrived vehicles for emotional manipulation and senseless studies in unrealistic settings. NIMBY!

I resented being taken for such a ride, but what really infuriates me, are self-impressed reviewers who have the "magic" to see into the true and deeper meaning of the film and rave about it. Yuck!

Three separate stories that never intersect and never really align to explain why these stories are in the same film. Sure, you can say that the main characters all have "challenging days" and "learn a lot about themselves", but that does not help this movie FEEL like a movie. Rather it feels like three short films strung together with flute music. We never learn enough about these characters to really care about them.

Yes, some of the photography was beautifully done but much of it seemed self-serving as if the Director made this movie to amuse himself. 10 minutes in, you are already tired of the slow zooms and fades that are "played with" throughout the movie - something you might expect from a 20 year old, student filmmaker. It is almost as if, after the shooting was over, it became obvious that there was nothing compelling on the celluloid so it became necessary to distract the viewer with optical effects.

Critical reviews have been positive though - I can't help to think these reviewers are just so sick of main stream Hollywood, they find it necessary to prop up every art house film that takes a chance.

The actors do what they can with very little to work with, but their efforts can't save it. There is very little here.

So... no prizes for guessing that '3 Backyards' did indeed also bore me to tears too. The contrasting reviews here are interesting: there are those which praise the gentle tones and sensitive depictions etc. of real 'non-Hollywood' life. And then, there are those reviews which most artfully hit the nail on its proverbial head: the movie is boring, self indulgent, and stretches the limits of one's concentration span just to get from scene to scene - never mind to the movie's end! While watching this movie, I was reminded of sitting at a table in a restaurant which is sited inches too near to the next table, while my infinitely more interesting companion is late. Thus, I must be forced for a certain period to listen to the most gruesomely banal conversation, leaking from the suited bores beside me; that is to say, people who couldn't string one original idea together - if their very lives depended on doing so. Alas, the screenplay writer from this movie must've learned much from folk none too dissimilar to those nondescript inanities, sitting beside me then - because this movie lacks even half of a moment's worth of brilliance.

A miserably boring, exercise in futility. "2/10", is its true rating, this reviewer declares, and not "1/10" - solely because the production and acting were not at all bad. Watch this movie if you must, and if only to know how an arty movie can also fail to engage its audience. Gladly, I very much know that not all Art movies are as boring as 3 Backyards, for I'm no 'Trashformers' fan!