Falling Like This

Like a first crush, the film and it's characters seduce you and then take you on a journey towards tragic inevitability. The success of the film is largely in part to the character of Boyd, an innocent bad boy who can't help his good looks or having a criminal for a father. Boyd can't help stealing cars and Katie, a good girl in highschool, can't help falling in love with him. Dani Minnick's script beautifully captures the essence of a first love and the extent to which people will be willingly led down a dangerous path, particularly when the leader is sweet-natured and has no malice or ill intentions.

Deceptive in its simplicity, the film captures the delicacy of a first love and the fragility of impressionable youth. Minnick elicits beautifully natural performances from her young stars.

I wish it had been a little more to real life than it was. I was one of the g/fs to the real life Boyd. Then we married and had a child. He has since passed away this year, 04/2018 but in the movie and I was partly there when the writer Dani Minnick was getting notes from my husband Lloyd but it stated he had an affair with his parole officer and had a baby which in fact it was myself and not a parole officer. But in any case he had hoped she would do a second part before he passed but it's unfortunate that he already gone and he won't be able to see it. But Dani if you're reading this and you maybe are thinking about it and need anything look me up and I'd be more than happy to help. Alot went on between those yrs and especially between 2010 and 2018 and I was there for all of it.

I thought the movie was pretty good. I loved Brian Vaughan playing Boyd as the classic bad boy and the interaction between the characters was explosive, obsessive, turbulent and unusual, which made the story more real. I loved the character of Boyd's laid-back mother and her reaction to Katie and Boyd's relationship--pretty cool despite it all, though a bit unrealistic because she handled it a bit too well. The characters of Katie's parents and Boyd's friends could have been played up more though--they were cast into the background or skipped over quickly. Additionally, Katie's reaction to Boyd's actions sometimes was too nonchalant, as if it didn't concern her in the least. What made this film great was the dynamic cast, the charismatic bad boy character that Brian Vaughan played very well and the rough, gritty photography because this film didn't need all the sugar-coating and super-smooth filming some other movies have to depend on to make it interesting. Overall, I'd give the movie three and a half out of five stars.

I usually don't vide the Sundance channel, but last night I flipped around, stopped on this for a few seconds, and after watching the bulk of the picture realized I wasn't watching anything special, but still had that quality to keep my eyes from wandering. The acting is a big factor, since most of these people are un-professionals who act on the money basis of what most middle class Americans make. There is also a realistic feel to the pic that up until near the end stays true which also deserves credit, as well does some sequences that show the chemical downfall of these youngsters. Predictable, no doubt; I saw many turns right out of the after-school-special box of TV, but overall, it was good indie work. B+

Minnick's FALLING LIKE THIS, that aired April 12th, 2002, is a film way ahead of its time. Shot digitally on a shoe-string budget, it nevertheless has plenty to offer in terms of technical proficiency and acting. The biggest draw, however, is the way the story unfolds.

Guided by Minnick's brilliant directing, we slowly fall in love with Boyd, just as the main character does. We just can't help but to like him, even love him, despite his increasingly criminal behavior. And there is no attempt ever to make him larger than life, a superhero of sorts. Same with the main character, an ordinary highschool girl. The subtext permeates every frame of Minnick's film.

This is a film for anyone who does not need to be told what to think or feel at any given moment bur rather likes to draw his or her own conclusions. FALLING LIKE THIS should be shown in schools, specially to troubled teens that are experiencing their first falling in love.