Moon Dogs

I was fortunate enough to catch this film at the 2017 Newport Beach Film Festival, and it lingered with me for days. It's no surprise it took home the Jury award for best film.

There was something ethereal about the Scottish landscapes that gave this movie a sort of quietness. The performances were so strong, with Tara Lee, Christy O'Donnell and Jack Parry-Jones (NBFF Best Actor winner) dominating throughout. Even the supporting actors, in the roles of the parents, had a powerful presence.

It would be trite to call this a coming-of-age film, but in many respects it is. The situations in which the characters find themselves create a transformation and maturing of each. Well worth the watch.

Watched this as I'm an admirer of the director Philip John (he's responsible for many episodes of Downton Abbey & Being Human, the latter of which I absolutely loved) so I went in to "Moon Dogs" with an open mind & an expectation that I'd enjoy the movie... So I'm really disappointed to see the low-budget indie project (the filmmaker's first feature debut) contains such a weirdly perverse, voyeuristic depiction of women throughout... And I'm not going to even try & defend such creepy portrayals because they're totally indefensible.

For a film made in 2016, it's shockingly dated & lensed entirely through the perspective of the male gaze; women exist within the narrative solely to further the development of their male counterparts & are devoid of any personality / motivations... Other than to gratify those of the opposite sex. It's a reductive, gross experience, seeing women being objectified & dehumanised... And worse still, none of those at the helm think to question the inappropriate-ness of the two brother's actions? Sure, they're meant to be young boys & juvenile (etc.) but why must that excuse their extremely concerning behaviours? Didn't the writers consider addressing the (& this is putting it mildly) moral ambiguity? I can't say I'm impressed in the slightest. It's careless & sloppy & far below the standard I expected of him.

EDIT: in an interview, the director revealed he clashed with the producers, wasn't paid for this & didn't have control over the final cut. Consequently, an additional 30 minutes of footage (material which he described as "darker") was removed without his consent - so that might explain the tonal inconsistencies / lack of emotional development, if he intended to take the narrative in a direction which was ultimately omitted.

This is very nicely shot and has some great Scottish scenery, but it has a fatal flaw: none of the main characters is even vaguely believable as an awkward 18 year-old. Casting extremely attractive uber-confident twenty-somethings as shy withdrawn teenagers can sometimes work (e.g. Derry Girls) but more often than not it's just ridiculous.

The acting from the leads is pretty ropey (though some of the supporting cast aren't quite so bad) and the script is terrible. Almost no plot, nobody acts in even a vaguely believable way, pacing is all over the place, lots of montages. It seems very much like they shot someone's first draft; there's the beginnings of a story here, and with some serious rewriting maybe the script could have been knocked into some sort of shape.

Would give this about a minus ten if I could.

Nothing new. Nothing original. A predictable story with the expected ending. Therefore nothing special. Yet, I did enjoy this and there's some well worked out scenes within the unexceptional framework and the characters are both believable and likeable. A lot better than a vast majority of bigger productions. Watch with someone or with a group for a nice evening.

Felt like story was short. Characters with potential but not much depth. People appear out of nowhere, short clip films. But at least some good acting, beautiful views and nice soundtrack.