Don't Come Back from the Moon

Similar movie: Gummo. Highly recommended.

Divorce and family breakdown is a significant issue facing many today, yet a certain narrative has dominated how it is treated. Any movie that tackles broken homes deserves merit. As a male who at seventeen saw his parents divorce in the first wave (mid-80s) and seeing it spread and poison, my attitude has long shifted away from the standard narrative of the deadbeat dad loser. Nothing could be further from the truth and what divorce does is make the child eventually turn his sights on what societal forces enable and encourage such a destructive event.

Every viewpoint has to be considered.

Constantly moving cameras. hopefully they made enough cash from this film to buy a tripod or a dolly. if you get seasick easily, don't watch this one. Smalley (James Franco) walks out on his family in a small, dying desert town after "the plant" closes down and there's no work. and he's not the only one. more dads are giving up and leaving town. so the kids turn into juvenile delinquents. lots of pretty sunsets. and pictures of the sun and moon. should have been more story and less pictures of the moon. it's a story about leaving. do people who leave ever come back? directed by Bruce Cheung, who seems to have worked with Franco on SO many projects. novel by Dean Bakopoulos. looks like it was filmed around the edges of the salton sea. abandoned houses. ruins. mud. dead fish. it's pretty dark. it's okay.

The previous reviewer was right - this film deserves an audience and should be showing at more than one out of the way theater in a major metropolitan area. It's beautifully shot with interesting camera angles and extreme close-ups of its fresh young stars. It's set in a poor area that has been further ravaged by some natural or man-made disaster. While what has happened isn't spelled out, what is clear and poignantly portrayed is the effect poverty and hopelessness have on families and the young people left behind. Even though the landscape is bleak and the future uncertain, the movie still leaves you with a sense of hope.

From "Alien Covenant" to this. Franco seems to be the draw, the storyline the switch. If you're into watching films depicting broken homes this is for you. I myself couldn't get through 20 minutes of it.

Take a bleak, slow movie. Set it in a broken down, rural, desert town so the scenery isn't interesting to look at. Add a lead character has questionable morals who just isn't interesting or sympathetic. Then add a title and description that hint this will be some kind of sci-fi mystery. Altogether I cam confused how someone thought this was a winning formula for a film. I suppose someone felt it has a powerful social message. But the only message was that it's bad if a parent wanders off and doesn't return. And even that message wasn't clear. I try to see the good in every film, but I couldn't find anything in this film that would convince me to watch it a second time.