Levelland

Levelland sums up high school life in a suburban town very well and is to be appreciated by skate fans. The film is far from slick, but relies on the strength of the acting talents of the two brothers and the stifling boredom of subdivisions and strip malls. The actors are not Hollywood pretty boys - they appear to do their own skating - and after a few minutes I was settled in to see a film that did NOT feel the need to shock or insult the audience. Life goes on, but there's no easy way out.

The soundtrack is impressive, but more geared for those in their 30's and 40's than high school kids. Texas Instruments, Big Boys, Replacements, Defenestration, and Meat Puppets are just a few bands to be featured.

A small part of me wishes it could have had a bigger budget, but all in all it will be a good archive for the time and place.

It's ironic how most films portray teenagers inacurately, and then are attended by many teens. She's All That, probably the prime exsample. I was glad I caught Levelland (at Tribecca Film Festival) because it didn't suck, it wasn't pretenous, and it was very accurate. This is a film teens all over the country can releate to, enjoyable without sidestepping darker issues. Sure it had a few very small flaws, but this film lived and breathed. The cast was effective, as was Clark Walker's direction. The skateboarding footage was well done and some montages did play on a little too long (with in exception for one that coems near the end, which is great). Ultomatly I hope Levelland will get some level of distribution, and soon: it's the movie that teens should see, it's not escapest entertainment but it sure is inspiring. This is probably the best teen indie since "The Adventures of Sabastain Cole".

I was VERY hesitant on renting this movie. I am a big skateboard fan, but movies about it usually suck, but I said what the hell and rented it. I found the first 5 minutes to be very "sudo", trying way too hard to have sophisticated, intellectual dialogue. And the whole scene with the teacher talking about life with the pyramid of V's on the chalkboard made sense, but it was pretty stupid. But, the plot was pretty good and the acting was decent. Levelland also had a pretty good soundtrack featuring Black Flag and I thought I heard some Bad Religion, but I could be wrong. So, if you like punk rock, cool skate scenes, and can handle some annoying dialogue and mediocre actors, then I suggest watching Levelland. I'd probably watch it again.

Remember the Summer of '42? This is supposed to be the Summer of 2002!

It's pretty obvious from the beginning of "Levelland" that Texas writer/director Clark Lee Walker is sucking at the tit of Linklater. His dialogue is straight out of "Slacker" where disenfranchised teenagers talk disparagingly about their hometown and their lives. Trouble is, Walker doesn't have nearly the ear for teenage realism that Linklater has, nor does he have the ability to cast actors well, so his film sounds more like some stilted, sophomoric attempt at being Linklater than it does the genuine article.

And before I'm accused of "easy criticism," let me offer this truth: I saw "Levelland" before I knew who Walker was. And I conceived of these criticisms in my own mind, well before I knew that he even worked with Linklater. This was before I realized he was in "Slacker" and co-wrote "The Newton Boys" and worked on "SubUrbia" and "Before Sunrise."

There are other Linklateresque things about the film as well. After opening with dialogue that is obviously inspired by "Slacker" (and continuing it throughout the film), Walker turns the film into a remake of "Dazed and Confused." The focus here is a group of teenagers (albeit getting the whole summer rather than just the last day of school) discussing their lives and the meaninglessness of it all. There's even the resident "stoner" type goof who says things like "Dude" and "Party" and stuff. (In an even more horrifying moment, he's shown to be a "Mexican" who has a ratty house and a "crazy" mother. But that's okay because, as we've learned from "Raising Victor Vargas" and "Real Women Have Curves," all Mexicans have crazy mothers, right?)

""Levelland" starts off with problems. Not only is the acting and the dialogue stilted, but the film begins as if it is going to be some sort of skateboarding movie. And, lets face it, the skateboarding in the movie is downright dull and event-less. These kids couldn't skateboard their way out of a wet pool, let alone a dry one. But, this criticism begins to lack merit as the film evolves. After 30 minutes or so, it becomes obvious that Walker here is trying to present a story of disaffected youth during a Texas summer. His characters aren't supposed to be master skateboarders. They're supposed to be na > spends far too much time lovingly caressing their skating moves with his camera. It gets boring. And at 2 hours, "Levelland" needs all the help it can get to not be boring.

Another problem with the film is the use of music. For a while, I thought maybe Walker was presenting a story supposedly set in the early 80's because the film is peppered (assaulted, really) with late 70's punk music. Now, I love this music, but I find it hard to believe that kids today in East Texas are spending their summers jamming to "New Waves Greatest Hits" compilation CD's. I had to do some head scratching and try to remember things in the film that proved to me that this was supposed to be modern day. Eventually I remembered words like "DVD player" being used. And then a new Volkswagen Beetle appeared as a character's car in the film, so I knew this was supposed to be present day. Ipso facto, the music is really unrealistically used in this film. That isn't to say I didn't like it or that I thought it wasn't used effectively during music montages. A scene that uses Elvis Costello's "Peace, Love and Understanding," is indeed quite nice. It just doesn't seem realistic when the characters are sitting listening to their portable CD players and they've got some old 70's punk song.

This film goes on way too long and has a lot of problems but I couldn't help liking it for one reason and that reason is Marie Black. Recognizable to Austin film aficionados immediately as the female lead in Jeff Stohland's "What I Like About you," Black is perhaps the best actress working in Austin films today. Her character here is bold, well drawn, realistic and emotionally raw. Her interaction with young actor Matt Barr, who gradually gets better as the film gores on, are so open and real and blatantly emotional that the film almost becomes embarrassing. In fact, the audience of tittering idiots I saw the film with at SXSW in 2003 couldn't stop giggling at Black's character every time she appeared on screen because her motivations and her feelings were so real and obvious. This is not to say her performance is lacking, rather the audience that I saw the film with was lacking. What a bunch of sophomoric jerks.

Of course, Walker's script and his editing job didn't help Black much. When teenage Barr's mother leaves on a business trip and Black's car appears in his driveway immediately afterward, it rings horribly contrived. When she sneaks in his house, disrobes and seduces him, seemingly without knowing who's in the house, she appears to be an idiot. It is only Black's amazing performance that bolts through Walker's bullshit and poor work to suspend this film above the "Levelland" of mediocrity that it often sinks to. She even helps Barr to elevate his talents almost to her level. Their scenes together are fierce and unafraid and the duo deserves many accolades for the chances they were willing to take with the material.

"Levelland" is a pretty bad film and Walker shows that he has much work to do to be taken seriously as a filmmaker. Still, as the film went on, and the actors got better and the plot got more interesting, I became more involved. And as the focus turned onto Barr's Zach character and his relationship with the older Black, the film eventually started to win me over. Too bad the actors were in a film by a filmmaker who did seemingly everything in his power to negate their work.

Notes:

Also with Jessica Schwartz and newcomers Simon Bingham, Logan Camp (or is it Logan Taylor?), Jason Juranek, and Erik McKay.

Richard Linklater is thanked in the film as is The Dobie Theater and its current manager Keith Garcia.

Viewed in March 2003 at the SXSW Film Festival.

Report Card

Script: D+

Acting: B+

Cinematography\Lighting: C-

Special Effects\Make Up: D-

Music: D-

Final Grade: C+

I was surprised by 'Levelland.' Despite the synopsis of the box which, at least for me, alludes to a depressing coming-of-age story in the tradition of 'Kids,' this movie is actually a light, much more realistic approach to teenage confusion. While, unfortunately adhering to some of the usual suspects of recent coming-of-age tales (the young student having an affair with an older woman or the subplot of teenage pregnancy--which was ultimately cut from the movie, but can be seen in the DVD 'bonus materials'), it does without the conventional teenage stereotypes. The characters, though possessing some of that teenage crassness, as teenagers naturally do, they lack all unnecessary stereotypes and actually turn out to be very normal mediated versions of a real teenager. There's no set aside roles that they fit neatly within and, best of all, they're hardly obnoxious characters. They're very likable characters that we may empathize with.

This is a story that plays true to punk ethic, using skateboarding as the metaphor for escape in the story of a handful of friends in a depressing suburb in Texas (it is a cleaner version of 'Suburbia' and 'Over the Edge' in a sense). Zach, the main bildungsromane character, is necessarily more complex, especially for a teenager (though all of his friends appear to have more depth than the usually teen fare likes to make known), knowing that the freedom of skating and his love of the activity is the only thing keeping his from going insane in the bland suburban environment. I think someone in the film accurately defined skating as their survival.

Matt Barr, a fine fellow, was perfect in this role and hopefully, will be able to show off his craft in other features. As the atypical concept of the "skater," at least as stereotypical as Hollywood (and the indie circuit, too) likes to define them, that was the most enjoyable feature for me. Clark Walker gives us real characters, and real teenagers to deal with. Though, he probably would have to if the story is to be about transcending the mundane atmosphere of the suburbs.

One other viewer writes that the supporting cast was left largely underdeveloped. If you hear the commentary for the deleted scenes, you'll see that writer/director Clark Walker wanted all the focus to be on the main character, Zach. This is essentially his story and everything told from his point of view. Nonetheless, there were some moments where we do gain some insight about the supporting characters, but not enough to really think about. Maybe Walker wanted to avoid the multi-character function that Larry Clark, for example, provides in his films of teen angst.

Nonetheless, this was a surprisingly good drama. I would definitely recommend watching it. Skate fans should also appreciate ample skate footage and nice old punk soundtrack.