Just Jim

This movie is a lot of things.

It's an homage (or a rip-off, you choose) of Punch Drunk Love, Mulholland Drive, and Rebel Without A Cause.

It's a teen coming of age film that takes every genre trope and exaggerates it to bizarre extremities.

It's a comedy and, in certain segments, it's fairly unsettling.

It has an extremely pronounced tonal shift around halfway through that totally caught me off guard.

The camera-work is quite good, and the film looks great. The soundtrack is fantastic and it ranges from jangling ambiance (Punch Drunk Love) to deep drones (Mulholland Drive).

For a movie that copies so much, it all feels very original. Look forward to Craig Robert's next.

It's quite a lonely film. Jim is clealy a very strange guy who doesn't connect with society until an American comes by to teach him the ways of being cool.

Then it all goes a bit weird. I can't work out which parts are dreams or real. The visions and then the reality. It's an isolated movie and it starts to look into bullying and important social issues but then goes on a complete tangent.

I'm just ending-up finishing lost. The ending is as empty as it started without it actually filling anything. I'm struggling to understand this concept and why it was done. It's a shame. Just rather meaningless despite the good original idea.

If you enjoy black comedy, deliberate pacing, and having to come to your own conclusions on plot ambiguity - think Barton Fink for example - then you're in for a treat. If you need a neatly resolved ending, you'll be frustrated. As the former I loved it. Excellent direction, photography, and score; tight performances - I'm looking forward to his next. Makes a good double-bill with Aki Kaurismäki's "The Match Factory Girl".

Obviously there's not much happening in that little British town. Jim tries escaping the boredom and loneliness by going to the only cinema in town where they keep playing the same old films over and over, and usually he's the only visitor. On top of that boredom he's also bullied by the other kids and, honestly, he hasn't much to offer. When that new cool American guy Dean moves in next door and tries to make friends with Jim this set-up comes across rather constructed for the sake of a plot. But the further developments seem even more unrealistic. Jim tries to come across as a "mysterious" guy but by God neither he or this film has even a hint of mysteriousness. It is one of the general challenges when depicting a boring character in a boring surrounding - the film plainly tends to get boring itself if you are not a master of subtleties or you don't bring in humor & irony. The film unfortunately lacks either of those qualities.

A lonely teenagers life is transformed upon the arrival of his American next door neighbour.

This is a very quirky dark comedy that will not appeal to everyone. After a relatively sluggish start setting up the situation things pick up with the arrival of mysterious American Emile Hirsch.

Emile Hirsch is great and Craig Roberts who bears an uncanny resemblance and acting style to Martin Freeman is also superb as the unpopular kid trying to improve his social standing.

Despite the good acting this is a hit and miss affair. There are some good ideas here and some good scenes but too many of them fall flat. The pacing isn't great and it seems to bounce from place to place without any real direction.

Overall this isn't a bad film it's just a bit too way out there for my taste and I doubt I'd watch it again.