Mouth to Mouth

(I apologize if the review contain mistakes, because I'm Portuguese)

I'm loyal fan of the movies that Ellen Page has been doing in recent times ("Juno," "An American Crime", "Hard Candy" ...)

Recently I had the opportunity to see this "Mouth to Mouth". I prepared some popcorn, sat down on the couch and started to watch it!

The first parameter to not like the movie, I noticed that happens early in the film, his screenplay was a bit confusing. Very tied up. Do not know if understood the "tied" which meant, but is a bit confused. The worst is that the screenplay will continued so until the rest of the film.

The director of the film sometimes shows strange scenes on screen (I will not say the spoiler), but who see the movie will notice this and identify what those scenes. Sometimes, the course of the film is a bit confusing. I do not have much sense of time.

Now let the good things the movie. I love the twists of the film and the performances. The cinematography is very dirty! And for being "dirty", it is a good cinematography. And the soundtrack, I liked.

Overall is good. But ... have their reservations. Have bad side. Recommend, but does not belong to my favorite movies.

I like Indie films and this one feels like a classic of the early 2000's, telling a story set in the 1980's with a gritty aesthetic and punk grunge soundtrack including The Stranglers Nice and Sleazy. I notice that Jim Sturgess and August Diehl have roles here and they both went out to have strong careers, not to mention Elliot ( Ellen ) Page. The interactions between the young street life characters feel authentic to me and I was invested to know what would happen to the vulnerable young woman at the heart of a disturbing story about how good intentions can go horribly wrong when we turn our individuality over to an all powerful leader.

Mouth to Mouth is a moving story with an unexpected twist. We follow a disillusioned teenage girl looking to find a place to belong , a journey that takes her hitchhiking across Europe and finally into the arms of a cult with a utopian project and a domineering leader. ( I heard it is based on the writer's real life experiences as a teenager in Europe in the 1980's. ) I really liked the cinematography that reminded me a bit of Chris what's his name, the British ( ? ) cinematographer of Wong Kar Wai's early films. The locations of Berlin, Spain and Portugal look amazing and also Camden Market ( I think ? ) in London. Loved this movie.

After two years of trying to find the movie, I finally purchased it for 18.99 on ebay. Right when I received the package, I put it in my DVD player. It was worth the wait.

First to note, the movie is low budget and you can tell from the poor lighting. But, it kind of added to this film. The film was very dark and gritty as it portrayed a cult that started as a party and ended as manipulation. I did notice quite a few plot holes such as how did Sherry's mother find Sherry when Sherry was over a thousand miles away. But other than that I applaud Alison Murray's efforts in this film as we laughed and cried with the lead character played by the always fantastic, Ellen Page.

It was after Ellen's performance in Hard Candy that made me want to follow her and it is quite obvious that she'll have a fantastic career ahead of her.

There is so much to say about this film. I loved the score and thought it was perfect for the film. It was very well placed and enjoyable. I loved how the actors would kind of dance to strange situations such as Sherry's mom would try to get Sherry in her car and Sherry wanted to get away from her. It was almost liked they did a tango. It was beautiful to me. What I also enjoyed about the movie was it was very unpredictable. Early in a movie you see a kid get nonchalantly thrown into a dumpster to get some food and he ends up hitting his head against a sharp object. There was no music to narrate the situation for you so it kept me off guard. I don't know what it is about indy films but they always appeal to me. I love the experimentation of the film.

So all in all, you'll probably not be able to find this movie for rent and will most likely have to take the chance and purchase the film. It was very hard to find and ebay or Amazon is the only way you'll be able to find it. This movie reminded me a little of Firecracker, House of Sand and Fog, and 11:14. Mouth to Mouth is bizarre and is really "out there" so you need to watch it with an open mind.

P.S: Congraduations to Ms. Page for her Oscar nomination and I'm sure she won't let the instant fame get to her head and she'll continue to pick original and great scripts.

What can I say about this? Nothing about it is inherently bad (well okay, most of the acting is, but aside from that very obvious fact); it's mostly just a very plodding even boring film of often silly, predictable nothingness. You have your standard stereotypes everywhere, but none of the characters are in any way likable, which in itself doesn't necessarily cause me a problem and maybe this is just the type of film where no one needs to be liked, but either way. It even fails to explore the nature of a cult more deeply (or even at all), which was a wasted opportunity.

One last thing, I've seen a few mentions of this being realistic. My a**e is it realistic! People seem to think that if a film's made on a low budget with no special effects and bad acting that it's realistic. Please stop mistaking hard to watch with realism.