Wildflowers

I am pleased to see such a well-made film come out of such limited resources. The boat where I lived was briefly featured in the scenes where the women jumped/were thrown into the water. Seeing my beloved Marin shot so carefully, so richly, was most satisfying.

The music was also quite touching and appropriate.

I liked the story, but one criticism is that the pacing was too languid. It could've had more ebb and flow in the timing, and perhaps a stronger story ellipse.

Otherwise, I'm happy to see the communal counter-culture accurately represented, by somebody who knows it from the inside. I look forward to seeing more work by Clea and Mellissa.

Wildflowers is a film that examines the aftermath of 1960's counterculture and the hippie movement. The free love sentiment produced many children who were raised unconventionally, and in some cases outright abandoned by their flower power parents. Cally (Clea Duvall) is one such girl, a wild tomboy who lives with her sometimes employed father ( Tomas Arana), and spends her days cavorting around with adolescents in similar situations. It's rare that Duvall gets a starring role, and she's absolutely wonderful here, steering Cally along with longing, resentment and just a bit of touching 'lost girl' emotion. She's an actress who needs to be cast in more stuff to showcase her talent, and not just thrown into lesbian roles because she identifies as such (grrr!). She steals the show and proves what a magnetic presence she is. Cally never knew her mother, and hope arises with the arrival of mysterious Sabine (Daryl Hannah) a woman old enough to be her mother and seemingly connected to her somehow. Sabine is a free spirit with a turbulent mindset, a result of the fragmented lives that people led back in that time period, often leading to wayward souls with no sedimentary existence to slide into after the show finishes and they realize they aren't as young as they used to be. Cally's story plays out beautifully, a girl just coming into her own and realizing who she is, via experimentation and intuition. She meets a drug dealer named Jacob, played by Eric Roberts. He's the friendly drug dealer, a cinematic archetype often sought after by filmmakers. Roberts could play an evil dictator and still come off like Prince Charming, he's just that likable, and as such is perfect for the role, a kindly rapscallion with lessons and advice for Cally which don't quite play out as one might think. In the end, it's Duvall's show, one of the only lead roles she has that is even out there to hunt down, such is the rarity of many films in her career. It's filled with terrific scenery, a whimsical yet real world aura and performances of emotional truth. Worth tracking down for Clea's fans (I'm proudly a die hard) and a delight for the casual viewer.

This is a beautiful film about real people spanning two generations -- that of the counterculture of the sixties, and the children they bore, and then reared or abandoned. There is a refreshing absence of sixties-bashing, stereotypical characters, phony hippie artifacts, false emotion, and all the other trappings of Indie or Hollywood films desperately searching for an audience. This is a novel on film. I'm grateful to the film-makers because I had despaired of ever seeing the lives we led ever portrayed realistically on film.

From the opening moments, this film promises to be unlike any of the slick, commercial "product" being made today. The style of the film harkens back to the turbulent, adventurous, somewhat dangerous times of the 1960s and the movie itself reveals how the events of days gone by continue to reverberate through the lives of the following generation. The photography is breathtaking; the editing is masterful; the performances far more than memorable. This is possibly one of Daryll Hannah's finest character portrayals. The story is a very private one -- yet it reaches out to touch the experiences of many who were swept up by the events of a certain time. It has the startling ring of truth throughout. The beautiful ... the sublime ... the tragic ... the heart-breaking. For those whose lives have spanned this period, this is an unforgettably compelling film journey.

Wildflowers was a film with a simple but moving story. The characters made sense - they were eccentric but down to earth and convincing and the dialogue was realistic and engaging at the same time. Cally and Sabine are wonderfully acted and their relationship is truly fascinating to watch. The peripheral characters, too (Cally's friends and some of the commune members), were great to watch - they had their own personalities and some good lines. One of the best features of the film was definitely the camerawork - stunning shots of Pacific scenery and really evocative lighting in the scenes with people.

However, the movie did get slow at times - don't expect anything truly exciting. And maybe it's just me, but there did seem to be some plot holes that never resolved themselves; i found myself wondering "how does Cally know so-and-so?" and "how did she get from point A to point B?" sometimes. Also, I would have liked to find out more about Cally's past, what life on the commune was like, and other details about the characters that were never revealed. That would have given the events a lot more context.

Overall, "Wildflowers" was thought-provoking and simply a good film to watch. If you concentrate on what is is rather than what it could have been, I predict you'll love it.