The Craving Heart

In an age where most movies are all about the big budget, technical standpoint while the storytelling and acting is often overlooked, comes a breath of air. Finally, might I add. Too often do I see indie flicks that try to "push the envelope" or try to do something that nobody has ever done before. Whether it involve a raunchy plot, buckets of blood, or the only driving force behind the film is its mega-star lead, indie films are not what they once were. Enter the guerrilla filmmakers, who just want to tell a story. They do so with the most minimal of funding and resources, and still come out making a great piece of film.

The Craving Heart is such a film.

The Craving Heart focuses on the one thing in life that truly deserves any kind of focus: love. Love, and its many forms, twists, and surprises. Another user on IMDb claims that explaining the plot would give away too many spoilers. I disagree. The film is about a man who is confused about the woman he's with, while he meets another who may or not be the woman he is actually meant to be with. It sounds mundane, but that's the beauty of the film. Take something that's been done to death, and show the audience something new. Obviously, there's much more to the film (much, much more) but if you're a reader who's on here to find out the entire plot of a film, then maybe you should be on the page of a different film. This one is different. All of the characters are written full of life and meaning, and each deals with their own personal confusion about love and life, and all of their confusion is answered at the film's finale, although it may not be in the way they had hoped.

The cast is superb and the music by Katy J. is emotionally haunting. Director/writer/star Stan Harrington has really paved the way for filmmakers out there who wants to be heard. He proves that it can be done, and I can imagine there will be a flood of new films under the guerrilla style film-making will be all over the country. Hopefully more films like this will survive.

As an Independent filmmaker, I think it's only right to promote other independent filmmakers. I hope that with this review, as negative as it, people will seek out this film. Help the producers make money, and finance another film.

But it's a horrible movie. First of all, it has a plot that cannot be explained without giving away some major plot spoilers. It's about a man, Alex Tom, who is well educated, has a beautiful wife (who is a District Attorney prosecuting a child molestor), and has John Saxon as a father. Seems like an ideal life, right? Alex recently saw his best friend die. He also has a recurring dream about a woman he met the day his friend dies. Okay, so we are getting somewhere. The rest of the story is explained through Pseudo philosophical monologues spoken by characters in the movie, that contradict themselves so much that the overall philosophy of the movie is almost lost.

Nobody talks like the people do in the movie. Perhaps the worst of it is John Saxon recalling his experience in Vietnam. Great moment for a soso actor. Really well done. Except there is almost nothing that brought up the war. It's like the director thought "Hmm... A Vietnam Monologue might be dramatic." Now, maybe it was just setting up the fact that he went to Vietnam. Made sense, seeing that it is important in a seen later. However, his service would have been best explained through context clues when he explains why he never shows off his metals.

In another independent film Cliché, Self mutilation is brought into the tragic story of Alex Tom and his mystery woman. Quite Gratuitiously, I might add. Here's my thing: We know she's cutting herself. We don't need 5 minutes dedicated to it where nothing changes. At this point, I started wondering if she was watching the same movie we were.

Ultimately, it was poorly shot, poorly edited, and poorly written. And, with a few exceptions, poorly acted. I don't have anything nice to say about the movie period. And I hop to god the film is a success, i want to see all independent films succeed. However, this is the type of film that Independent films are stereotyped as being. It's simply 80 minutes too long.