Hard Luck Love Song

A gritty, slow-burn tale about the dark underbelly of everytown USA, this film tells the stories of characters who chose not to throw their fishing lines into the mainstream. Compelling characters are fueled by a finely crafted musical landscape- a dark place where the audience is rarely comfortable, and always anticipating an unwelcome knock at the door.

Buy the ticket, take the ride. Chances are you'll want to do it again.

Pool hustler Jesse (Michael Dorman) moves into a low-rent motel in a rough neighborhood. It's a dangerous living. He spots an escort ad in the papers and recognizes something. It's Carla (Sophia Bush) from his past.

It's a grim life. Dorman could be more downtrodden. He smiles a little too much. I do like the first act with its atmospheric danger. The movie takes a slight tonal turn with the introduction of Carla. It may work better if she joins the film sooner and she could go with him on his pool games. Then there is the cop. I can understand the attempt at a different kind of cop character. He's just in the wrong movie. He's slapstick comedy when the movie is a grim dive into the underworld. On the positive side, he's only in two small sections and one can ignore him. All in all, this is a nice vision of a grim life.

The details of the characters were very thoughtful, it was spot on! Soundtrack was great, and of course the song that the movie is based on is an excellent tale. The color palette and cinematography was perfect. Overall I can't complain.

It's all about the music. The movie was based on a song's lyrics, and the scenes go from song to song, somewhat telling a story while being dominated by performances and music and scenery. This is a different type of experience, certainly independant. I loved the imagery but felt wanting for substance, which the movie does not appear to be about.

As a movie, this is very average, but I thought the music was great, which gave it another star. The story and acting are so-so. A lot of very highly scored reviews from members of the production team, it's rating will plummet.