Jimmy and Judy

Hands down this was the best film at the festival. Realistic, haunting, and down right disturbing, I couldn't stop thinking about this film for days - in a good way.

The chemistry between the two leads, (Edward Furlong and Rachael Bella) is amazing. I hear they are now a real life couple.

My friend and I saw it Sunday night at the Women's building and we were nothing short of amazed. Got to meet the directors and they were very open to questions and explained some of the challenges they faced while making the film.

This film will be known for quite some time. It really will make you think.

As a very open-minded and avid fan of film, I must say that this movie was distasteful and over the top for a variety of reasons. Basically, sociopathic teens turn to murder in the most predictable of steps while subjecting the viewer to grotesquely graphic images that only serve to disturb. It's a concept that has been done before, and done in a far more provocative way. The film has some different elements (i.e. the concept of the video diary and the extremely long, single-take scenes) and there are a few occasions where something genuinely interesting and unique is produced. But these moments are few and don't in the slightest make up for the one-dimensional, tired formula of "youth spinning out of control".

Edward Furlong is inarguably flawless in his delivery of the role, but that's really the only slightly positive statement that can be said for the acting. The directing grows sloppy in the second half and loses all the intimacy and realism that made the film mildly interesting at first. The sound editing is irritatingly unrealistic and sometimes takes the movie to a place dangerously close to kitsch. And the writing is dull at best; every scene is PAINFULLY transparent in its intended character or plot development and basic, simple points in the setup of the story (why is Judy so horribly harassed at school?) go entirely ignored.

Lacking any real style or purpose and with an irritating, smug arrogance, "Jimmy and Judy" is a self-indulgent parade of predictability and shocking images with no real counter-point. Frankly, not worth the time.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where I'd only first heard of it the very day I saw it. Seeing this dark, grungy low-budget independent movie late at night at a large-scale mainstream theater just seemed to drop in my lap. It was quite an experience. Only halfway through the film did I realize that this shot in my town. There's a scene where we see the profile of Rachael Bella in medium closeup as she drives. In the background, I saw what I had a strange feeling was familiar. Then, after she passes a few dead giveaways, I'm taken by surprise in finding that this film was shot in my city. Well, it was shot in the grimiest and seediest parts of my city, but it's my city. I then realized that that must be the reason why it's being shown at this mainstream theater rather than being confined to the Esquire or the Mariemont theaters.

Jimmy and Judy is one of those relentless gritty and voyeuristic couple-on-the-run movies. It's reminiscent of Francois Ozón's Criminal Lovers, and even Baise Moi, which was scuzzy to the point of being pornographic. Jimmy and Judy is one of those movies that, in the end, is almost completely desensitizing and fixates your mind on a disturbing and morbid atmosphere that you'd rather it not be fixated on, and you end up being under its spell for the next day or two.

That is not to say that Jimmy and Judy is not a well-made movie. It is. Otherwise, how could it put you under such a spell? Its effect is the surefire sign that it's done its job. It's about everything intriguing to that is to most people the underside of your mind. It's all about the effect of alienation, vindication most people only think of under the influence of serious bouts of anger, and other things that, in a movie, are not for everyone. Yes, there are many movies that tackle subject matter like this, but not to such a raw and overwhelming extent. William Sadler's character alone is one of the scariest and most realistic people I think I've ever seen in a movie.

Jimmy and Judy is not quite at the status where it can be called a great movie, but it has a very clear message and a very precise and innovative way of conveying it. It-does-not-pull- any-punches.

This movie was a pleasant surprise and though reminding a lot "Natural Born Killers", from which borrowed many things, has a particular appeal of its own. Both kids are mentally disturbed and the whole story focuses on this disturbance and on the experiment of videotaping everything - by the way the manner sequences are shot is similar to "The Blair Witch Project". Edward Furlong's rage and Rachael Bella's sexual drive are visible and their outrageous behavior is believable, their chemistry is quite impressive (on the other hand they're husband and wife in the real life). I'd recommend the movie for their performances and for the street theater like atmosphere.

Jimmy and Judy This clever, heartfelt piece of gonzo indie film-making is the movie Natural Born Killers should have been. It commences with a clever premise: everything we see is captured through the lens of Jimmy's videocamera. In the first reel, this conceit works a tad like Bogart's character just out of prison in Elmer Daves' Dark Passage, with the subjective camera point-of-view employed until after plastic surgery.

Jimmy (a great turn by former child star Edward Furlong, whose career seems to be headed in the right direction again) reveals himself only in the presence of Judy (Rachael Bella). Jimmy has poor impulse control. He woos Judy by exacting revenge on the kids who have bullied her at school, films his parents' gender-switching sex, and, in a very funny piece of Americana, freaks out in a fast-food car lane after pickles are improperly included with his double cheeseburger.

They hit the road for their obligatory crime spree. A bout of in-car flirting leads to a very twisted hit-and-run accident. J & J wind up in a rural commune where young folks of both genders become the playthings of a speed freak Hitler (prompting a scary monologue by William Sadler).

J & J would be truly sublime if the plot gave more attention to Bella's Judy. Furlong and Bella have that rare sexual/emotional chemistry that allows one to suspend judgment and enjoy the ride. Furlong is a smart, intuitive actor who seems willing to do almost anything to satisfy a role. The fast-food diet gives him a slightly bloated look, which is good for the character, bad for Eddie. Superbly helmed by writer/directors Jon Schroder and Randall K. Rubin, this one would make a deliciously twisted teen triple-feature with Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise and Francois Ozon's Criminal Lovers. (Roxie, 2/4; Women's Bldg., 2/12)