A Bread Factory Part 1: Ce qui nous unit

A series of slightly connected vignettes encased in allusion, satire, parody, sarcasms, spoofing clichés concerning a small town arts theatre & school at risk of losing funding when a famous, out-of-town, group build a larger one down the street. Seemed to me, in my uneducated humble way, as cutesy over-intellectualizing, rambling, small town gossip. But, if you're into staged theatre humor it might be your cup-of-tea.

My gosh, this is a beautifully strange one. The consistency within its presentation and performances. The sudden "wait, wtf did they just do with the... whatever" moments. The representation of the overwhelming problems of youth. The curious length of conversations that I could not help but wonder the necessity of. Y'all, this is not a typical film deserving a wide theatrical release. What would fit its "self" is being screened with a crowd of people curious to experience this beautiful humorous butterfly the way it should be--with a live audience. Like Hausu (1977)-but not that weird-and others after it, this factory of bread feels like something unmeant to be experienced alone.

Favorite Characters:

1) Jordan. For her attitude and way about things.

2) Elsa. For her gentleness and motherly concerns.

3) Jan. For her headstrong-ness and self.

Things I Like:

1) The dialogue at certain points.

2) The soundtrack.

3) The absurdity of what is May Ray.

4) The "act-tor" that is Sir Walter.

5) The family moment.

6) The constant silent background noise.

7) The cinematography.

Trailer Warning: The only parts of the trailer that spoils anything other than a certain funny moment are 0:56-1:00 and, if you lipread, 1:16-1:21.

This is, mostly, a very bad movie. Even though it's only 2 hours (this is a review strictly for the 1st part), it massively drags and often feels like a rough cut that the director didn't want to cut anything out of. It also feels like it's mostly improvised, but it's not good improvisation. Some deluded critics have compared this to the films of Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer, and honestly, they should know better. There is only a superficial similarity to Rivette, in that the film has a play in it like many Rivette's films do. The only similarity to Rohmer is that the characters talk a lot as they do in Rohmer's films. There are some scenes which are unintentionally funny. The May Raye characters are just bizarre for their own sake and their appearance at the town hall at the end of the film is so incredibly bad and unintentionally hilarious. There's also a "Hollywood actor" character which is also funny, and he goes off the rails in the town hall scene as well.

The only good things in the film are some nice performances. Janeane Garofalo is rather funny in the film, despite only appearing in the first five minutes and then disappearing for the rest of the film, and the woman who performs a scene from Uncle Vayna from Chekov is very good as well. Much of the acting is amateurish throughout, and the ending is just weird and has a very stupid, "self aware" song over the credits (lyrics like "end of part one, here's the end credits). Don't waste your time on this one.