American Boyfriends

Poor Sandy Wilson, critically acclaimed for her first feature film, The American Cousin, then having the ENORMOUS pressure of following up with her follow-up, American Boyfriends, and bombing with that, then bombing one more time with Harmony Cats before dropping out of sight.

Having never seen American Cousin (well, maybe I have, I just can't remember now), I went into this film having some sort of background about what the film was (a sequel) and the history of it (eg it tanked).

The semi-autobiographical film takes place in the 1960's, where Sandy (played by Margaret Langrick) her two friends, and her roommate go down to the US to see her American cousin get married. During the wedding reception, Sandy and her roommate make a snap decision to travel further to California, where they meet some sort of drifter draft danger dodgers, which further complicates matters. Sandy has some hard decisions to make about her future, but before she does that, it all comes crashing down by one phone call.

I think the main problem with this, in my opinion, is that Wilson is quite comfortable with the characters she's familiar with from the original movie, that would be Sandy and her two friends and John Wildman, The new roommate and the people in California I found, I wasn't rooting for as much, if at all. All the while when the two were in California, I kept wondering what happened to her friends that she left behind. Like I said, I haven't seen the original movie, and the fact that I can pick out and root for all her home-grown characters and not the newer ones, just shows to you what mistakes Wilson made on this.

It's late 60's and Vietnam is an emerging conflict. This is the sequel to My American Cousin (1985). Sandy Wilcox (Margaret Langrick) starts at Simon Fraser University and befriends Julie La Belle. She, Julie, and two other girlfriends head across the border to attend her American cousin Butch Walker's wedding. Butch gives her his old Cadillac. After the wedding, the group splits up. At the spur of the moment, Sandy and Julie drive off to California.

Sandy Wilson continues as the writer/director of this sequel. I get it. It's personal. Nevertheless, I would like a more skilled director. Wilson makes a few filmmaking mistakes. She is not advancing far beyond her amateur status. As a story, I like this one more. The first half is a little messy but the road trip gets compelling. There is a reality of the moment. One could see that the funeral gets a bit too much for Wilson to handle. There are scenes that run too long and dialogue that comes off clunky. I like the better moments more than I feel frustrated with the lesser ones.

Compared to her first film, My American Cousin, this really stank. The lead, John Wildman, must have taken acting classes between the two films, because in this one he's all "actorish" and self conscious, really ruining the film. In the first film he was natural and boyish. In this one he's a parody.

American Boyfriends is a film that is easily forgotten, which is a sad but true aspect of a lot of films that viewers entail. The problem here is that there is just nothing to keep the viewer into the film, and make them stay completely raptured.

The story consists of a young Canadian girl named Sandy (Margaret Langrick) from Penticton who moves to the Coast to pursue her studies at Simon Fraser University. She soon meets her new "best friend" Lizzie (Delia Breit), and the two hit it off quite quickly. Soon enough, Sandy's friends from home come to visit, also making stops to search for wedding dresses for one of the girls. Before you know it, all four of the girls are off to Portland to visit Sandy's cousin Butch's wedding. The rest is just pure spontaneity, and seems a bit far fetched of what two fresh university students would do, but the preposterousness was probably intended by the director.

Don't get me wrong: American Boyfriends is not a bad film, it's just not great. The acting is decent, the storyline is a bit lacking, but in general, it's just one of those films you probably won't remember you watched until you begin to watch it again.

I brought this film to see my favorite actor, Nicholas Lea, but was left disappointed because he was only in two scenes. other than that the only reason I can see to watch this sequel to the smash hit Canadian film My American Cousin is if you have nothing better to do, it's not that bad but lacks any real plotline other than a few girls going on a car drive around California. Oh well, Maybe the sequel - My American Step-Mother will make a bigger impact - Ha Ha Ha!