Sem Destino

How compelling is it to watch Keanu eat a cupcake?

After a night of hard partying with her roommate Mia (Adelaide Clemens) and the driver John (Keanu Reeves), Violet (Bojana Novakovic) is sleeping it off and doing drugs. Then John steals a camcorder and record interviews of best friends and escorts Mia and Violet about their lives.

Sometimes, Keanu is great. Then sometimes he's like this. He's listless, tired, and lifeless. I know it's the character but he infests the movie with his lifelessness. Director/writer Mark Mann hasn't made this compelling. The first half of the movie scraps along in a grinding waste of time other than a couple of interesting scenes. And no, Keanu eating a cupcake is not one of them. The first half should probably be chopped down to a shorter 15 minutes opening.

The interview meanders. It doesn't have structure to build the tension. They're just sob stories. I like both Bojana and Michelle Williams doppelganger Adelaide. But even as it gets to an interesting place, it took so long that it has no tension. It's a movie that needs more meat on the bone.

I get what this film was trying to do, and I could see how it was going about it, and that is what spoiled the film; it seemed too contrived. Or was it? On paper, it must have been a great idea but more for new up and coming actors to cut their teeth on and show their mettle, and there were some very good performances, or was everyone wooden and emotionless? Generation Um... is about life in the generation/social class where nothing really happens, although a lot does, just not necessarily good stuff, and where life hope, expectancy and future are limited by indecision, lack of direction, and feelings of being beaten down constantly by society. The story - the documentary, if you will - follows three friends/colleagues and as is the case amongst people who know each other, they don't explain their connection or their back story for the purposes of the viewer. You have to guess, piece it together as the story goes on. It's a bleak film, and hard to watch as it is so intimate, so warts and all, so brave. There's no soft lighting, no airbrushing, nothing for the actors to hide behind. A brave choice for the ladies, and for Reeves - where most actors his age are going for more glamour and youthfulness he steps out in grim NYC back streets with a hand-held camera on him, watching him eat a cupcake and just sit. And think. Or not. Look at a squirrel. Smile at a dog. Look at a puddle. Walk along.

It's not a nice film. It's not therefore enjoyable. I felt tense all the way through it, partly because I admire Reeves and didn't want to see him engage in "24 hours of sex drugs and indecision" and also because it just had that feeling of impending catastrophe about it. You were waiting for the painful scene, the breakdown, the violence. But it was actually quite quiet and tender interspersed with the almost relieving "art shots" from John's (Reeves') hand-held stolen camera and yet again Reeves plays the benign, safe, wall of calm. The canvas on which the two girls lives were painted. Almost. Novakovic and Clemens were not known to me as actors, but are clearly very talented.

I would like to give this film more stars, as the story stayed with me for days after watching it. I wanted to think it through, see more layers, even watch it again (which was a shocker, as after watching it I felt as if I never wanted to sit through that again and it was a SLOW film)... as a film, it was pretty dreadful. As art it was superb. You FELT the 24 hours, you FELT the lacklustre grimness and dirtiness, you FELT the hopelessness and the complete lack of direction, you felt the frustration with John's monosyllabic non-responsiveness and saw all the opportunities that he let slip by, the questions you would have asked the girls... it was SO lacking, that was clearly deliberate and that shows Direction and Writing of such scope and imagination... or it was really that awful. You see? I'm torn.

The best parts of the film are some superbly artful editing (Squirrel/Cocaine especially) and the end credits (no I'm not being cutely rude), but do watch to the end... there's a bit of filming at the end which sort of ties the story up. It looks unscripted, all the characters are more relaxed, happy drunk, Reeves is suddenly his charming self, the girls less intense, there is chemistry between the actors, they are smiling and joking and you finally find something out about John. It becomes a little more rounded...

I don't know... Um... I'm undecided; good or bad film; brilliant or apathetic acting; art-house or schmarthouse? Artistically minimalist or trying too hard? You decide. Please... YOU decide and tell me what to think ;-)

I really didn't want to watch this movie. The low rating is an absolute no go. But thanks to some user comments i saw a potential.

I'm happy that i took the chance. It's a movie about life in a certain age - my age. Maybe thats the the reason i liked the movie. It was true. I had a good feeling watching it. I didn't always like the way the camera was moving, but in the end it gave the movie an innocent touch.

This movie takes you into the life of some people you get to know just a little bit. it's like going to a party and listening to other peoples conversations without yourself interrupting. It's a pure view of the world in the eyes of John, Mia and Violet. It's so pure you see their skin 'unphotoshopped' and thats refreshing.

I often feel being betrayed or lied about how things look like, how people look like or how locations, bars, streets look like. All the lights, all the make up, all the color boosts... sometimes its just too much.

To view a movie about kind of a real life story - it's a nice idea to do that with real faces, real streets, real situations. And with that comes no explosion, no special close up event, no beautiful candle light sex scene... etc..

That said, this movie is definitively underrated. If you like Lost in Translation or Vicky Christina Barcelona - you may like this movie too. Just don't expect beautiful colors, perfect romance or a Hollywood type movie in general.

Low user ratings are to be expected when the names of Keanu and Bojana fuel edge-of-your-seat anticipation. This however documents (partly videotaped by Keanu's character) a 24 hour stretch in the lives of three people who are beyond clueless, they don't even care if there is such a thing as clue, purpose or direction in life. They don't even bother to define the relationships amongst the 3 of them. They don't even care to find words to describe their feelings and their lack of any accomplishment gives new meaning to the word void. I do believe this to be a socially relevant document of the lives of some of the 20- or 30-something generation who are one level below the entitled ones. It's there, it's real, no comedy nor drama, but it did powerfully communicate awareness to me as a viewer.

Initially after watching I was confused as I could not understand what was happening to the characters in the movie. Once I finished the movie, it began to make sense. I was surprised. This is not a movie that one understands initially after viewing. It is like peeling an onion. After watching the movie twice, I have learned a bit more about the what the symbolism means. Each member of this pseudo family reveals a little bit more about themselves, which takes time to develop. The director and the actors are patient as the undertones of the movie are revealed one by one. It is through this patience that one learns of the real issues that face each member of this cast.