Mustang Island

Real people, real feelings, real kinda resolution. Whoever wrote and created this movie never once stepped back from their respect for their characters; never made a joke at the characters' expense; never caricatured them. I cared for the main players. And the teen-age wahoos were perfect - absolutely heartless and dumb. Thanks for pushing me to go back to working on my new novel. That's the highest praise I can give.

After he is dumped on New Year's Eve, Bill and his friends drive to a seaside town to win her back. After their relationship breaks up on New Year's Eve, Bill follows his ex-girlfriend to a town on the Gulf Coast, but things get complicated.

Boring and tedious, but it represents me and my "abigos" well, going after a love that already gave his foot in the ass a long time ago, and he's still crawling... The black and white film delivers an atmosphere of "Rome" despite being later, 2018, the humor is cold, almost non-existent, in the nuances, and in silly moments, of extreme disarray, hence my familiarity...

Dull , hopeless, bland.... Good movie to run in the background while you are picking your feet.... this review is not worth me spending my time to contain at least 150 characters..... did I hit it yet?

Heard good things about this independent film through some friends in Austin. Since it was showing a block from my new home in Dallas I figured why not check it out.

Wow! What a pleasant surprise. While it may take a little time to build in the beginning, the character development is worth it... love the stylistic black and white as it gives you a new perspective on watching those who are going through many of the same life's emotion we all have to deal with.

Anyway, it was enough to get me to write a first review here (not my last for sure). Directing was great... just enough style without being off putting. Characters were exceptional, as they spoke more through silence than dialogue, a lost art in today's world. While the acting was good or great even, across the board, special mention to the character Lee. Exceptional. Understated with depth and emotion. A fantastic performance!

Some reviewers have likened this film to the work of Jim Jarmusch, and I can see that to a degree, specifically his early black and white films that featured trios of fairly deadpan characters. The humor in Mustang Island is not as dry as in the Jarmusch films, and here the protagonist is explicitly lovelorn. The tracking shots to hip music as the characters arrive at the island reminded me of the scenes of driving around New Orleans in Down By Law. And there my comparisons end!

I thought the Mustang Island locations were great, and I thought the cinematography was pretty good, particularly the night shots. The amusement park in the background in a few shots was particularly evocative. I really liked that a lot of scenes unfolded without dialog, though there were some rather funny lines in the script, which I didn't write down, so no spoilers here! The interactions among the characters seemed realistic to me, with appropriate awkwardness.

I liked this film, though my rating may not seem so high -- I don't believe I've ever given a 10 here, and my 9s are not so common. I look forward to seeing more films by Craig Elrod.