Downtown Owl

Downtown Owl is a film that struggles to leave an impression. Despite its intriguing premise, the execution feels lackluster, with a disjointed narrative and uneven pacing that make it difficult to fully invest in the story or its characters. The film fails to find a consistent tone, leaving it feeling scattered and incomplete.

However, amidst the chaos, Lily Rabe manages to shine. Her performance is heartfelt and genuine, a testament to her incredible talent. Lily is one of the most underrated actresses of all time, and even in a film like this, she proves her ability to bring depth and nuance to any role. Her presence is a rare bright spot in an otherwise disappointing movie.

Unfortunately, the film's overall shortcomings overshadow its few positive elements. The story lacks direction, and the characters, aside from Lily's, are underdeveloped. It's frustrating to see such a talented actress attached to a project that doesn't match her capabilities.

I wanted like this film, I really did. But there is something to be said for, "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" here, all the way around.

Age swapping Julia and Naomi in order to allow Lily Rabe to star and "showcase her acting" was not wise. Most of her scenes I found completely over the top, the breakdown on the football field was not a "career best", it was straight up embarrassing. Julia was in her 20s in the book, fresh out of college with no where else to go, and that setup works so much better than the concept of a 40-year-old woman moving across country to a tiny town for a single semester because her husband is working on his thesis?!

So much of the story felt incomplete, and yet somehow managed to be so boring at the same time. 41 minutes in and I paused the film to see how much time was left and then groaned to discover there was a lot more to go. Too many characters were thrown in for inclusions sake because they were in the book, like Naomi's faux "boyfriend" Ted, who really had zero purpose except to tell her at the end that she's not a good listener. Justice for Ted, he deserved better. The high school kids were the best part of the movie, and they were all so underdeveloped. Why bother creating these secondary characters for little to no reason?

I have so many questions about the directors' choices on what to add/subtract from the original plot. Why was the coach having a torrid affair with a student made such a central point and how is it realistic that the whole town just accepts that he does this repeatedly? It amounts to absolutely nothing. No resolution, no Laidlaw getting his. And Julia proclaiming, "but what if she really loves him?!" Yikes.

All the criticisms I've read from professionals are spot on. The tone is all over the place, weird 4th wall breaks that do not work, cartoons and hot pink type thrown in, and no, the directors claiming they just "like weird" and the rest of us "don't get it", is not a valid reason. The entire blizzard scene, the climax of the film: dramatic music, weird monologuing and ultimately changing the original ending...was it supposed to be so bad it was silly?! I honestly could not tell. "I'm saving your life, man!" Cringe.

These two should really just focus on their own acting careers rather than keep trying to force this 2fer to happen. It never goes well. As someone on letterboxd said, no one self-sabotages their career better than Lily Rabe and subsequently, Hamish Linklater's.

Why Ed Harris its in this thing? He didn't deserve this after his extraordinary carrer, i feel so sad for him to be honest. The directorial debut of the American horror storyline girl is a very mediocre one and kinda sad, the movie is just a big mess and that's disappointing because she is a good actress and the cast it's very big and experimented, but the script and history its a mess i didn't understand anything and i am a pretty smart guy to be honest so that's weird, overall this is a mess and please dint lose your time trying to understand this thing please ok, just awful movie overall ok bay.

I didn't come to this movie with much expectations, since for the time being there aren't that many features that really manage to impress me, but I was taken by surprise... The cast was somewhat stellar (Lily Rabe, Vanessa Hudgens and last, but not least, Ed Harris)... But still I had my doubts... Nonetheless I kept watching it and I did get a good surprise.

Directorial debut for Lily Rabe, I cannot but congratulate her for it!

There are a lot of average movies around ("Late Night with the Devil" is just an example of how you can waste some time), but this one is a surprisingly good one.

I was just sorry it wasn't any longer.

Give it a try and I believe you won't be disappointed!

In quirky but enjoyable 1983-based small-town dramedy "Downtown Owl" Lily Rabe (terrific) escapes her troubled marriage by taking a short-term teaching assignment (under Hamish Linklater) in the titular tiny Dakota town where she goes thru something of a drink fuelled breakdown while interacting with local characters like Ed Harris (still a class act), love interest (or not?) Henry Golding, and colleagues Vanessa Hudgens & Finn Wittrock. Linklater (on his movie writing debut) adapted the screenplay from Chuck Klosterman's novel, and also co-directed with actual gf (and fellow first-time director) Rabe - props to both of them for such an original & likeable film.