Flakes

Flakes is more dry and boring than any bowl of cereal could ever be. I've enjoyed many a hipster indie movie, but all the quirky characters in the world can't save a movie that's dull and devoid of any entertainment value, whatsoever.

I think the movie was attempting an Empire Records-type vibe, where you're introduced to a few off-beat characters, and then grow to care about their lives over the course of the movie. That certainly didn't happen. Every character was annoyingly "different", and the viewer is never given any reasons to grow attached to them. They never become anything more than arbitrarily alternative caricatures. I normally love Zooey Deschanel (she's the reason I watched the movie), but she's just as un-appealing in this as everyone else. This may sound harsh, but Flakes was a complete failure. Don't waste your time with it.

This is a movie that tries to be poppy and indie at the same time. There are lots of movies that do this, and they rarely hit the mark. There's enough quirkiness to keep you watching it, but not enough to really make you remember that you actually did watch it the day after. As amusing as the concept is of guys who buy black market cereal is, there's only so much you can do with the concept, and it ends up with a story line about a nice girl with a jerk boyfriend who really doesn't have the ambition to record his mediocre songs. It is nice to see New Orleans, and to see Christopher Lloyd dusting off his Jim-from-taxi persona one more time. It's the kind of movie you could recommend to your parents when they're trying to figure out how to set up their Netflix queue, unless they don't like swearing, that is. In the end, they probably should have just scrapped the whole idea of being edgy, and gone for the poppy movie thing.

Michael Lehmann's new film, Flakes, could have been a quirky comedy, centered on a new type of concept "cereal" bar. Instead, it tries too hard to be a romantic comedy with a quirky setting, and unfortunately, doesn't really deliver anything romantic or comedic. I mean, the setting really is great. And the overlying plot--young entrepreneur threatens to Starbuck over a local establishment with a local following--might have worked, if the film had been completely different.

But instead of focusing on the fact that these guys live, eat and breathe cereal, Lehmann decides to cliché it all up by introducing the same old, badly written girl-wants-slackerboy-to-quit working-his-dead-end-job-and-focus-on-his-aspiring-music-career theme. And because of this, we never really get to learn that much about cereal, or what great toys come out of cereal boxes, or really anything cool at all. We do get some slack-off acting and a shameful appearance by Christopher Lloyd. All-in-all, it's a waste of time and plays more like a badly written sitcom than an actual feature film.

Watching this, i was not expecting much. I have to say i was pleasantly surprised. During the start of the film i was left in awe at how cool the actual set was, the cereal bar is a work of mise en scene genius. But even with an exciting set a film can still be rubbish.

Flakes is not as quirky as it looks. It's dialogue is impressive and the performances are understated and all work perfectly with the story, see Skinny Larry and Winston. There are moments that made me laugh, granted it was more of a chuckle than a hysterical laugh. The thing that strikes me the most about this movie is how well the writers formulated their characters. All very well judged with good casting in them, the only role i was left wondering about was that of Strawberry as she was pretty pointless. Christopher Lloyd is awesome in this, i read on another comment that Christopher Lloyd does his usual but if you grew up watching him as Doc, this really isn't his usual.

Good characters, good premise, original storytelling and the ever lovely Zooey Deschanel. This is worth a watch, it is not a groundbreaking concept, it will not blow your brains out, it will not keep you on the edge of your seat, however it will charm you and leave you thinking about it. Well it did for me at least.

According to boxofficemojo.com, Michael Lehmann's "Flakes" raked in all of $778 in revenue when it was released in late 2007. And although one hates to kick a well-intentioned, low budget film when it's down, the truth is that "Flakes" is a cute idea that doesn't really amount to all that much in the long run. In fact, the film is so benign and innocuous that it seems to be evaporating even as you're watching it.

Neal Downs (Aaron Stanford) is a struggling musician who works as manager of a little New Orleans eatery called Flakes (owned by Christopher Lloyd) that serves nothing but cold cereal to its loyal clientele. When a rival franchise opens up across the street, Neal's girlfriend, the self-named Pussy Katz (Zooey Deschanel), applies for a job at the new establishment as a means of getting back at Neal for refusing to hire her at his own place.

The pro-capitalist vs. anti-capitalist theme that runs through the storyline is halfhearted and underdeveloped at best. Moreover, while the cast is engaging and appealing (especially Deschanel), the undernourished Chris Poche/Karey Kirkpatrick screenplay doesn't give the actors a whole lot of solid material to work with. And even the relatively fresh and novel New Orleans setting isn't exploited as much as it could be for its old-world atmosphere and charm.