The Battle of Shaker Heights

This is a great little film, about 1000 times better than anyone could have

expected, given the tumultuous "Project Greenlight" backstory and the fact that it was written and directed by novices. The concerns of being too melodramatic

were obviously addressed and taken seriously, given the fact that many scenes -- including the brick wall scene with the father, the group hug and Shia's crying in the hospital -- were all mercifully absent from the version I saw last night at the Arclight, where the filmmakers were in attendance to answer questions.

Also contributing to the film's success were good camerawork, excellent editing, a brisk pace, and a score that, while instrumentally reminiscent of "American Beauty" (in both its use of tablas and quiet piano notes during the romantic

scenes) helped tremendously in conveying teenage angst and confusion.

"Project Greenlight" may seem a rare and wonderful treat for struggling

filmmakers, but it also must be an ungodly ordeal, given not only the media

attention, but the difficulty of the assignment itself (Pete Jones managed, also remarkably, to come through relatively unscathed last year, though his film was not as good as this one).

So whatever you want to say about these guys (and there seems to be quite a

bit of animosity and, understandably, jealousy), the bottom line is they survived making a first feature without going insane, and did it while a documentary crew followed their every move, publicly recording their best and worst moments. To me, that alone is a remarkable achievement, and as a filmmaker myself, I can

guarantee that most moments on a low budget first feature are far less than

great.

As I told them last night before the Q and A, they should be extremely proud of what they accomplished, no matter how the film came out. The fact that it's a funny, entertaining and -- in my view, well-directed -- entry into the coming-of- age genre is merely icing on the cake, and LA and New York Times critics can

be damned -- because they've never made a film, and never will.

Kyle, Efram and Erica, I congratulate you, and wish you the best of luck.

I don't know if it was the script...or the directing...or the behind the scenes things that the Hollywood Producers did that we don't know about...but I didn't like this film...mainly because I didn't believe it...I didn't believe one minute of this film...everything seemed fake. Project Greenlight has now used 2 scripts that people don't want to see...There wasn't one scene in Shaker heights that rang true to me...

For a first time effort for writer and director(s) this was a fine little movie. Million dollar budget, no time, documentary cameras. . . . I think they did just fine. Besides, who else is giving people a shot at getting started in this business? Ben Affleck and Matt Damon could probably avoid a lot of grief if they turned their backs on this whole thing, but they're trying something no one else in Hollywood is right now. Why are the knives out for this movie more than My Bosses Daughter?

Shia is a great actor who probably saved the film in many ways. I enjoyed it. The theatre I was in was full, and people were laughing. I wouldn't buy the DVD, but I certainly think it was worth my time and money. I hope Project Greenlight continues, and maybe they pick directors by asking them to do a scene from their favorite script. Then we might find people who are more comfortable with the material.

THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS (2003) ** Shia LaBeouf, Amy Smart, Elden Henson, Kathleen Quinlan, William Sadler, Shiri Appleby, Ray Wise, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson. Sophomoric entry (in more ways than one) of the Project Greenlight experiment continues its ill-advised decision to make another predictable coming-of-age dramedy this time with LaBeouf (a combination of Dustin 'Screech' Diamond and Mark Linn-Baker) as a twerpy, sarcastic Ohio teen whose only outlet of creativity inexplicably is as a WWII recreation participant who faces his daily battles in high school by his wits while harboring resentment towards his well-meaning, yet flaky and damaged (i.e. mom's a latent hippie; dad a recovering druggie cum charity worker) folks. When he is befriended by a preppie (a seemingly miscast Henson who eerily resemble a cross between an adolescent JFK and Alan Hale) he meets his sister (the sadly underused hottie Smart) whose impending nuptials further adds insult to injury. The film suffers in many plot holes, a too-cutesy-Aren't-I-Witty main character, strange choices (Wise as the father of Smart and Henson is a collector of odd-ball items to the point he includes a nicknamed nick knack on their answering machine???!!!) and a shockingly short running time that begs to question where is the meat of the so-called 'incredible' script by Erica Beeney that scored the win in the contest and the lugubrious directorial debut by the not-so-dynamic duo of Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin (where is the drama?!) LaBeouf manages (barely) to make the rather annoying faux intellectualistic Salingeresque protagonist a few moments of humor and his puberty blues underlie some of his bankrupt rebellion. What's lost in translation is clearly a lack of communication by all involved. A real shame for something that apparently had a slim change of being worthwhile (if you can go by the HBO series).

Oh, how I tried to love this movie. I was so emotionally invested in Project Greenlight, and although the directors seemed like idiots, they weren't evil idiots.

It turned out to be an okay movie, which is almost worse than being awful. There were a few laughs, but for the most part I didn't care about the characters in the movie nearly as much as the "characters" in Project Greenlight, and that is the problem that I have with it. If someone has to see Project Greenlight in order to care about the movie, then the movie failed.