Sollers Point

No plot, no script don't know what James Belushi got paid but they should have spent it on a writer.

McCaul Lombardi stars here as Keith, finishing up a 9 months of home detention after a prison stretch. He's living with his father (Jim Belushi), in Baltimore, with whom he has a strained relationship.

As with many other films of this genre, Keith will have to decide whether to accept some help from other family members and go back to school, or somehow slide back into his old trouble prone ways. You want to root for him, but he sure doesn't make it easy for you, with his, at times, volatile and impulsive actions.

Overall, the movie, written and directed by Matthew Porterfield (Putty Hill) , is carried along by its believable realistic characters and elements, and I was engaged enough to want to know how this was all going to turn out. However, don't expect any easy answers here or things to be eventually all "wrapped up in a neat bow".

Sollers Point is another episode of writer/director Matthew. Porterfield's independent features about working class life in and around his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland in the USA. His well - regarded critical reputation rests on his fairly limited portfolio of work, in which all of his projects seem to lie under the same melancholic atmosphere that blankets Sollers Point. To say he casts a cynical eye on the established institutions and social mores underpinning his society is probably an understatement.

I agree with much of what other scribes have written on this forum. If you're looking for a typical 3 - act storyline with this movie, you're unlikely to be satisfied at its conclusion. Porterfield writes and directs in a semi - documentary style and based on what we see here, building a strong narrative arc is not his strong suit. The film focuses on presenting us with a day in the life of recently released ex - con Keith, who is ostensibly trying to re - adjust back into the lower working class mainstream of his local community, which appears to be suffering from the effects of a terminal economic downturn. This directly and indirectly creates multiple road blocks for him.

It's a well acted movie and I agree with others who note that lead, McCaul Lombardi, who I've never seen before, does have a certain charisma and star quality. (He looks very much like a younger, blue - eyed Jeremy Renner.) And it was kind of nice seeing Jim Belushi again, playing Keith's father Carol, in a very much non - comedic, support role.

But I can also understand why lots of punters are expressing frustration with Sollers Point. We get the taste of a few half - way decent storylines with the movie, but Porterfield isn't interested in following things up. Keith just moves endlessly on throughout the day, interacting with an over - extended range of characters, some quite interesting, but with nothing much ever being resolved. It does become quite repetitive. Confusingly too, he seems to have an endless supply of different cars to drive, whilst not owning one himself. The propensity of characters at times to mumble their lines (under direction one feels) doesn't always help with clarification of what and why are motivating characters' actions.

Sollers Point is a film that feels too long, too random and inconsequential for it to have a lasting impact on audiences. I think it needed stronger editing decisions to pare down a film over - crowded with characters and allow time to create a more consequential and compelling story.

I'm not sure what the other reviewers were expecting, but this is an all-too-accurate tale of a ex-con who has come home to face his demons, while he tries to make a new life. No, there are no "superheroes" and no CGI action, if that's what you were looking for! It's all too real and all too believable to the point that that the film is a more than a little scary to watch. The main characters go full force into their roles and if you were expecting a happy ending...well, don't.

McCaul Lombardi was an excellent choice to play the lead role of "Keith" and never lets us down in his believability. The film is shot in the vein of "The Wire" and gives an accurate depiction of how sad some area of Baltimore have become.

One star subtracted, though, for all the unnecessary use of the tobacco drug, which should have been left of this and all other films!

It shoots hard in every direction and misses all angles just as hard, but i still feel that this director is going to be a real good one in time. kind of nietzschean illusion of grandness, trying so hard to intellectualise everything instead of focusing and sitting down and asking himself, what is this movies about, really, really really?

Sorry for my english. It is not my native language (from Sweden).