Firecracker

One review said "all style and no substance". I used the same words with my friend only 3 minutes before. Not a coincidence. This is the biggest rip-off(or pointless homage at least) of Blue Velvet(and Twin Peaks) ever created. Which really enrages me cause David Lynch is my favorite director. The acting in this is atrocious. Some of you will be allured by the indie style it's shot or the quirky/dark subject matter and I suppose you'd like David Lynch too. Or perhaps you just dig the shock value of this type of movie. I hope you see one of his films and see how it takes more than just bizarre imagery to make something brilliant. What he does is brilliant and distinctly him. Yea i know maybe i didn't do my research, it could be an homage which is a sweet gesture. Regardless, this movie is clowshoes drizzled in failsauce.

I was fortunate enough to see this film twice - both the premier screening and it's subsequent showing both at the Raindance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Jury Prize - Best Film. Unfortunately the sound was a bit problematic at the premier, due to a dodgy speaker (front left - the side I was sitting on) and so seeing it again really made a big difference to the film for me.

Karen Black (playing both religious mother called Eleanor, and a circus singer called Sandra) was wonderful in her dual roles, and Mike Patton I felt was more convincing as David (Eleanor's abusive alcoholic eldest son) than as Frank - the owner/manager of the circus.

The story centers around the disappearance and suspected murder of David, which is investigated by the Sheriff Ed (really well played by Susan Traylor), but also deals with the various unhealthy, abusive and controlling relationships that exist between the characters. The one relationship that seems to be nothing more than friendship is between Jimmy (Eleanor's youngest son) and Sandra, as they each strive for their own freedom from their abusive lives.

Eleanor tries to maintain normality in her family - despite her husbands declining health and David's abuse of Jimmy. Sandra strives for a normal life, to return home

and escape the circus, particularly the abusive Frank. The question is will they be successful?

Visually the film is quite beautiful - the opening shot of the prairie burning is just one example of the wonderful cinematography. A viewer might also recall "Pleasantville" in the film's use of B+W and Colour - the circus is always in colour, the town in black and white. It turns out to be quite a useful convention, on a number of levels, and does help to structure the story for the viewer.

I loved this film, mainly for the performance of Karen Black as Eleanor/Sandra, the visual feast of the beautiful cinematography, and the excellently plotted storyline (which is based on true events).

Co-stars Karen Black and the magnificent Mike Patton, playing dual roles, give what are without question the best performances of their respective careers (plus this is Patton's first role): deftly played, their roles provide emotionally overwhelming impacts more powerful than anything glimpsed in the film. Susan Traylor is also superb but I thought Jak Kendall's performance as Jimmy was poor. I didn't feel anything for him. Patton and Black make up for it, with strong integrity. Their battle with true evil becomes the focus in which all four characters (David, Frank and Elenor, Sandra) confront their various demons, battling for both victory and personal salvation. The screen play is itself a masterwork with intricate twists. And, finally, the composer's exquisite score is a minor classic, a requiem to lost souls.

I forced myself to sit through the entire DVD, so it couldn't have been the very worst film I've ever seen. Still, I can't think of one that's worse.

I began to wonder if was a parody: one of those arcane, in-crowd extended jokes whose humor failed to penetrate my too-serious mind, but after reading the awards (!) and reviews, I have abandoned that theory. If it is a film-maker's joke, it has taken in a huge number of viewers.

Firecracker lacks even a shred of nuance. Every emotion is troweled on the screen melodramatically; every line emoted more on the nose than any soap opera utterance; every facial expression bulging over the top like a beer belly.

The characters and their motives are trite and utterly predictable. The fact that the story is based on real events does not excuse the miserable screenplay.

Performances range from amateurish to atrocious, excepting Susan Traylor's and Paul Sizemore's. Karen Black channels Gloria Swanson at her Sunset Boulevardian worst. Jak Kendall is all over the place, and not in a good way, particularly when he tries to portray nervousness: you will have seen many a seventh-grader act more convincingly.

The cinematography is bearable, though as overblown as the script and acting--which is to say, laughably inflated. The direction and editing give us excruciatingly long scenes that say nothing, but were evidently included because they satisfied some directorial fetish or clause in an actor's contract.

Altogether, this is a bloated, high camp, reprehensible waste of film and 112 tortured minutes of my time. I still can't quite believe it is meant to be taken seriously. What is serious, however, is this: If you haven't seen it, don't.

I went to see this movie last night and ended up walking out (actually, I think I counted at least 10 other walk-outs before me). I must say I had been extremely excited about seeing it. It had no redeeming qualities, except for maybe the colors. Overacting dramatic scenes were met with laughter, that kid's face bugged the hell out of me. It was so unrealistic it was difficult to watch. I've never felt so duped in my life. The makers of this movie should be banned from ever making another. No wonder they can't find a distributor! It sucks! Don't see this movie. Don't give them your money. don't see this it's horrible! My girlfriend hated it too.