The Month of August

I saw this film at the San Diego Film Festival. It's pretty straight forward in terms of a romantic comedy. A little too much sarcastic dialogue from the Nick character, although well played by Mackenzie Astin. The shining spot of this film is Ali Hillis as August. She has great instincts and skill as an actress that make you wonder if she's a forty year old in a twenty-something's body. Between Ali and writer Scott Benefiel, August was a very orignal and loveable character.

The one good thing about this movie: Ali Hillis, the actress who plays August. She's quite good. But the script -- with vague, unlikeable characters, tiresome film school dialogue, ridiculous misunderstandings and tedious redundancy -- is a sin.

The most baffling thing about the movie is that the August character is repeatedly described as "weird", a "freak", etc., but the script never explains what exactly is weird about her except that she has pigtails. Honestly -- the whole movie is about how some dull guy (a movie critic, we're randomly told in one dialogue exchange) can't bring himself to date her because of this "weirdness" represented by the pigtails. What, does he hang out with Dukes and Earls and types like that who would consider pigtails socially unacceptable? If the movie were about high school sophomores, I could understand the obsession with weird hair, but for full grown adults it's a rather odd thing to fixate on. (Or maybe San Diego is just a really conservative town.)

Anyway, this is a fairly awful, amateurish picture.

I had the opportunity to see The Month of August at the World Premiere during the Phoenix Film Festival. What a wonderfully charming movie! It's not a blockbuster, but it is an excellent date movie. Ali Hillis as August is, perhaps, the most refreshingly beautiful and adorably quirky girl-next-door that's EVER been captured on the big-screen. She is a STAR in the making! MacKenzie Astin anchors the film with a very good leading man role (and much more mature than what I've seen of him previously), as does his co-star Randall Batinkoff. Although the movie is very "cute", it also contains some adult sexual humor. If you get a chance to see this movie, DON'T MISS IT! Ali Hillis' performance alone is worth the price of admission!

The amazing thing about this script, I learned while talking to the director after the showing at the 2003 Hollywood Underground Film Festival, was that it was the writer's first attempt. The story has a good pace and doesn't drag in the second act the way so many romantic comedies do... August is a well-drawn character, and the scene where they meet in the men's room is really a very strong example of solid comedic writing.

There are a few issues I had with the film, but they were not enough to deter the fact that it was solidly written, well acted, and competently directed. Very nicely done.