Iowa

I saw this movie on a trip to Iowa, and not knowing much about Matt Farnsworth, the director (or the subject of meth, for that matter), I had no preconceived expectations, but walked away impressed and educated by a first-time filmmaker's jarring exploration into addiction.

Though Farnsworth doesn't quite explore the psychology of drug addiction as much as he could, the frenetic, visual representation illustrates the world of meth from a user's perspective, providing a sharp contract to the small town setting of the film. Farnsworth is capable in the lead role, but its Michael T. Weiss's turn as a sadistic, power-tripping sheriff that steals the show.

A couple of complaints: Fransworth occasionally goes for shock value, mistaking it for a message of rude awakening. And the hand-held, store-bought-video-camera interludes of the Iowa landscape seem forced and shlocky. The landscape means very little to the film (presumably less than Farnsworth thinks it does, since the movie is named for the state it resides in), as this story could be easily translated to any city (big or small) in the states.

I've read Farnsworth has been leading an anti-meth crusade, and while that's honorable, I hope (for selfish reason) that he has not abandoned directing for this higher calling. I can't wait to see what he does with his second go-round.

Michael T. WIESS has doggy style sex with Rosanna ARQUETTE. Michael WIESS of "PRETENDER" fame has back-door hate-sex with MILFy Rosanna ARQUETTE. And in like the first 30 seconds of the film. That should be more than enough to give this film a good watching. Anyhow a guy gets out of jail or something comes home and finds out his old place is now a burned out METH- LAB. He starts sampling some of the left over's telling his girl "You're hot and young, of course you should be doing meth." He goes to visit mom who's in cahoots with the local parole officer to have her son killed for the insurance money. Mind you his girl friend happens to be the daughter of the local sad-sack Sheriff. So the young couple goes from doing meth, getting addicted to meth, and then making their own meth. Then they get the bright idea to sell it, which adds fuel to the fire. Because now they have to associate with characters outside they're comfort zone. They also have to stay up three days partying until you run out; they're staying up for weeks on end cooking the never-ending supply, to meet demand. The never-ending demand.

As a New York City based editor and onceuponatime native of SE Iowa (about 15 miles from where this film was shot) I knew I had to see this film. I had not heard of it but was very pleasantly surprised.

Farnsworth pulled off the trifecta here of writing, directing, and acting and he did a pretty good job at all three. He's obviously a competent filmmaker. The cast did a pretty good job - I was a little disappointed to hear a "southern" accent too often. The main female lead really grew on me. At first I thought she was a little too Hollywood and too good looking but I really bought into her character.

The editing was done well. At times it was a little too "showy" when simple cuts could have told the story better. But the story kept moving forward and there were never any of those slow moments when you wish you could hit fast forward.

I expected a little more juxtaposition showing idyllic rural Iowa life and the effect that the meth problem has had on a lot of small Midwestern towns. Meth is a big big problem and it affects a lot of people who have nothing to do with meth. This movie mainly focuses on a small group of characters who deal meth, take meth, or are related to meth users.

All in all, it was very well done. Kind of reminded me of Badlands. Maybe we could call this "Badlands One State Over" since Badlands was in Nebraska. It's definitely got some over-the-top violence but done well in the context of the film.

Farnsworth should be proud of himself. He did a great job here managing all 3 duties. The writing was tight, he plays the role real well, and he had some very interesting directing choices. I definitely recommend Iowa.

Although I wouldn't say this is the best movie I've seen, I thought that it did drive home the addicting and devastating effects of meth production, sale and use. The acting, for the most part, was captivating. I've lived in Iowa for almost a year now, and some folks have been worried about the perspective this gives of the state. I think that the movie really could have been placed in any rural community and still drive home the point. Quite honestly, I think that without the sex scenes, if this movie was shown to junior high school and high school students, it would quell any curiosity to try meth (particularly, I think, the tweaking scene and its aftermath). I still think "Requiem for a Dream" is a better movie that talks about the effects of dreams and the use of drugs to attain those dreams, but I have recommended this movie to many friends as a must-see movie.

I lived in Mystic and Centerville Iowa. They're the two towns in this movie. Believe it or not there's a lot of people that have a twang because they call us laplanders. It's because Missouri laps over into Iowa. And trust me I know this for a fact. Those towns used to be coal mining towns with a lot of money generating back in the 20s through the 50s. But Southern Iowa is very poor like Northern Missouri.

P. S. And Mystic is not on the border that they present. It's 20 miles north of the border.

Plus there's two interviews in this package that will show a family still doing Meth and one who got off of it in the two informative videos. The boys family is from Centerville and it was a cheap place to film the movie.

The extra video is very sickening.