Wake

I love a great independent, and I love Hollywood legends. Put them together and I am one happy film-goer. This film had both, the independent feel, and one of Hollywood's most recognizable face: Martin Landau. Instead of getting to heavy, not a bad little movie about the Riven brothers and their multitude of dysfunction. The cast is well ensambled, many faces I recognize from various television and indie works. Gale Harold, whos fans swooned quite loudly during the flick, was a convincing Kyle. Though the character lacked much in the way of bite. Emotionally troubled characters take time to flush out, and the time just wasn't here for a character I believe the writer's falsely made the focus of the story. More interesting and impressive was Blake Gibbons, as a stern (if that's even the right word!) Raymond Riven. Something very dynamic about the way Gibbons handled the various scenes. It's not a sex appeal (though he is quite attractive). It's not intensity (he had it at times). It's just seemed natural. He became Raymond. Just overall impressive. Not a bad flick, but not one I would overly recommend. Some wonderful moments for these actors and not a bad storyline. See it if your a straight girl with Showtime, between the ages of 15 and 50, who thinks Mr. Harold is a cinema star because you can see him naked each week on "Queer As Folk". Otherwise, I have plenty of other independents I can easily recommend if your looking for something worthwhile.

In a dilapidated old farmhouse in Maine an elderly lady lies dying while her solicitous son looks on. He is soon joined by his three brothers and a dark tale of violence and perversion ensues! The house reeks of decay and death and so do the boys as they squabble over missing money, ancient crimes, long hidden secrets. The tensions among them are utterly believable even as every attempt to reach some resolution just unearths another mystery. The viewers' loyalty shifts from one brother to another as each in turn progresses from sympathetic to monstrous; from victim to predator.

The cast is universally excellent and the script and direction would do David Lynch proud! The story is rich enough to reward multiple viewings and is a perfect example of why we need independent productions like this so desperately; it actually makes you think all the way through!

Brilliant feels inadequate to describe this film. It is beautifully filmed, superbly edited, and amazingly acted.

Basically, it's a film focusing on four brothers, with a shared history of alcoholism and abuse, inflicted upon them, and by them, and their unexpected coming together for a night of celebration, freedom, and finality, that quickly turns on it's heel. Gale Harold and Blake Gibbons will take your breathe away. As raw and intense as it is, there is still plenty of humor, though at first, you'll be hesitant to laugh, but do, because there is plenty to laugh at. When Jack says "what's the difference between pink and purple? The grip!" It really is okay to exhale, and laugh.... It's a real film that doesn't end with some pretty satin bow at the end, but makes you think, and makes you want to see it over and over again....

Dark, intense, brooding, with a little black humour. I liked this for the way it left so many things ambiguous, and didn't feel the need to spell everything out. We get just enough backstory to understand the gist of the brothers' issues with each other and their past. As the audience, we're left to put things together in a way that works for us, which is challenging without being frustrated. The dark underlying tension between the brothers feels menacing, but the dysfunction, shared history, and unresolved issues are universal for anyone with siblings or a family. This is Gale Harold's best non-QAF work. He and Blake Gibbons both shine as two brothers who are polar opposites, or perhaps the complementary yin and yang of this particular unhappy family.

Four actors who look nothing like brothers get together to do some bad acting while pretending to be brothers and after a night of pills, booze, gunplay and strippers someone ends up dead.

I'm all for keeping the audience guessing but there is nothing that these people say to each other that is straightforward, everything is alluded to and it gets old quick. That being said, you don't need to be a genius to figure out what's going on here, that is, assuming that you care.

Ex-con bro and blonde-sleaze bro are both so annoying that I was hoping the booze and pills would promptly render them null and void. Even the talented and yummy Gale Harold as crazy bro can't salvage this material -though he does do a fetching drunken strip tease and he can puke and pass out with the best of 'em. The other bro, well, his name was Sebastian and that's about all I remember.

The house looks like a studio set built too small for the actors, either that or the only thing the actors/brothers have in common is that they are tall.

In keeping with tradition started with my Particles of Truth review I'd like to add that Gale Harold looks better in a lacy housedress than any man has a right to.