Battlecreek

One of the better films that I have seen recently. A great screenplay and the acting was superb .A slow burning film that keeps you glued to the screen right until the finale and with several gut-drenching surprises along the way. This is superb entertainment.

This film is mediocre in every way, and the only element it excelled at is pushing and exploiting stereotypes and clichés about disability. Anti-social, emotionally undeveloped and insecure, desperate, shut in, angry, all packed into the lead character. I am not surprised it has had to be re-edited over and over, for years. Really it is disgusting. The makers ought to be ashamed. The two twists and the end (I wont spoil them) are truly groan worth and patently contrived to try and button up the story.

Almost without fail their are two signs of a cheap production. One is an opening prolonged scene of a car driving down a road. OK, that's out. The second is no subtitles - check; poor audio level & in this case it seemed to be dubbed in after the movie was filmed (hollow, distant sound) - check; poor enunciation w/added southern dialect to be slightly less understandable - check. Third is lots of camera focused talking heads time - check. Script - small town (w/the typical small town issues) local young male is introverted because of a slightly noticeable skin problem; falls for girl (when her car brake down in said small town) who's running away from abusive boyfriend. 95% of film run time is just talking heads until the final few minutes when old meets new love interest. At that point I'm script redundantly script bored and could care less about the outcome which, of course, is predictable.

Intriguing from the start, Battlecreek is one of those rare discoveries you make on cable TV every once in a while. Great casting, a wonderful atmospheric soundtrack and a story that makes you want to know more about what happened to the three lead characters.

I had high expectations for this. Though I wondered why, considering this movie was shot in 2014, it took so long to release. And that it was finally released when Bill Skarsgard rightfully got recognition for his role as Pennywise in IT. It could be to do with the fact that Battlecreek is a let down. I am a fan of most of the actors in Battlecreek. Bill Skarsgard has proved he has acting talent. Unfortunately, I felt the actors were let down by poor directing and what may of read well on paper, didn't portray so well on screen. It probably also didn't help that Bill and Claire literally had 5 days from being cast to shooting the movie, and the was lack of chemistry between the the two main leads, didn't help at all.

The movie didn't know what or where to go, it was drawn out and never got going, neither did it actually go anywhere at all. Was waiting for something to happen throughout, but there was no fuel to get it going. It lacked that punch. Then you ended up with a rushed ending, after half of the movie failed to pick up any pace.

If you are expecting a love story with warmth and heart, you may be disappointed. And it becomes apparent why this movie sat on a shelf for a few years.