Candiland

Woman and man meet, they like each other, and they move in together. Man is bitter over his domineering dad and bum knee, while woman is quick to get over things and struggling to be cleansed. They go on a spiral of paranoia, a complete disregard of time and the outside world to their detriment. Are there such people in this world? If yes, then may they be rescued. At least they weren't preaching their 'gospel' to others. The fact that they kept to themselves shows that they had a bit of respect for their fellow humans. Quirky, but overall, not a big kick.

The Plot. Peter, a failed tennis star, is struggling to rebuild his life after a car accident forces the end of his career.

Angry at the world's consumerist values and his controlling father, Arnie, who he blames for being absent during his mother's dying days, Peter is desperately searching for a moment's peace.

In an attempt at normality, he heads to a bar for a night out, where he encounters recently divorced and grieving Tess, abandoned and lonely. Finding solace in each other's brokenness, they withdraw to Peter's apartment and begin a sensual love affair.

Days of bliss pass by, and when Tess reluctantly tries to leave to deal with the aftermath of her divorce, Peter proposes an idea: isolate themselves in his apartment to create their own reality - CANDiLAND.

Now cut off from the world, the tormented lovers embark on a dogmatic quest for a higher existence.

But their possessive love descends into a surreal savagery as Arnie attempts to reconnect with his son and put an end to CANDiLAND.

I was looking forward to seeing this movie given the rave reviews. Should have known. The two good reviews are clearly written by people who have skin in the game.

This movie is well nigh unwatchable. It's poorly written, horribly directed and the acting is horrendous.

The only good thing about this movie is that it's colorful. Period.

I like low-budget films, and especially those with a horror bent; Films like 'The Greasy Strangler', 'Blood Car', or the original 'Cabin Fever'. So I thought I might like this. The film did have a few comedic moments, where the awkwardness of the dialogue felt real, genuine, and funny. But overall, there was a lack of coherency to the point where it just felt like a half-hearted student film project from a lower-level class at a second-rate film school. The acting had funny moments, but for the most part it just seemed like bad improvisation. I appreciate that films such as this one are made, but this one just more or less belongs in the dust bin - it's not memorable and it will be forgotten and never achieve the cult following that a film such as this one strives for.

This movie haunted me it is so bad. I watched it online where it was misrepresented as having a high IMDb. I would have turned it off in the first 30 seconds, but thought there has to be something good here with such a high rating. The idea that this turd had 8+ rating was eating at me, so I found this site, where the rating is actually much lower.

The film is composed of what seems like 20 second scenes. Each scene may include different characters at a different time frame. The short, scattered scenes would normally be even more annoying, but they are so bad that the viewer is happy to see them end.

The plot summary is more than a spoiler. It is more understandable than the actual movie.

I recently had the opportunity to screen this indie film based on the book by Elizabeth Engstrom and produced by Motorcycle Boy Productions. Additionally, I interviewed the two leads, James Clayton and Chelah Horsdal, and I knew that in screening this film, I would be stepping further outside my comfort zone than I ever had before. And that is entirely correct. I am not a fan of psychological thrillers as a rule–except Hitchcock, if you can call some of his films that–but I was determined to go in with the mindset of a reviewer. I do want to warn you that if you are offended by gratuitous sex (no nudity, thankfully) or superfluous profanity, you may wish to skip this film. On one level, I could have done without either of those. However, I set aside all that for the purposes of the review, and the remainder of this review will be spent on the content and acting from an artistic standpoint.

For the entire review, please go to the link on my website: http://mydevotionalthoughts.net/2017/02/candiland-film-review.html