Mad World

This is a great film about the difficulties of growing up in a destructive and insensitive society; in other words, it revives all of those old teenage ideas and feelings from your past... I find it absolutely refreshing. As for the "foul language," sometimes you have to see a film twice to realize and understand its dark humor and clever hidden commentaries on society... like many Tarantino films, actually. If the film seems absurd at times... maybe it is actually SUPPOSED to be. In any case, it is a surprisingly insightful film, with surprisingly fantastic performances. I highly recommend it! And a great debut film from a director and writer I hope to see more from in the future...

I had the privilege of checking out this movie at the Beverly Hills Film & TV Festival and was pleasantly surprised by how good this low budget Indy was. Being in LA a lot, I get a chance to go to a fair amount of "unknown cinema" and many times I am let down by filmmakers trying to much. "Mad World" was the exact opposite. The film has a very strong message about teen bullying and school shootings yet it somehow managed to be artistic and like a really good after school special all at the same time. I don't want to spoil it, but this film does have some very dark and had to watch scenes, so if you can't take that sort of stuff, stay away, but if you can step back from the horror, I really feel like you find beauty in the very un-beautiful world the filmmakers set up. I laughed at the beginning, though I must admit I thought the flick would be campy, and cried at the end. After the Q & A, I knew that the beginning was there, to make the end feel worse and I loved that and this film. When or if it comes out, A MUST SEE.

I saw an unfinished cut of this movie and in general I like the concept. The foul language was something that they could have used less. I felt the characters could show their emotions more through actions than their words. Although, at times, maybe the foul language was appropriate. The four main characters of this movie are people that everyone has met at one point in their lives and could relate to completely. Whether you like these characters or not, there is a time that you do feel for them as human beings. There are a couple of scenes that are disturbing and may not be something everyone could watch but the scenes are truly powerful. I'm interested to see the finished product. In general, this movie has potential to be really good.

I must give respect to the team for trying something new. I know the film was shot on mini DV, they had commitment issues, and it was very very low budget. The story followed the lives of high school teens who were victims of regular bullying, and the film tried to be true to life. It feels as though a decision was made to throw as much profanity in the film as possible in order to be controversial, but it was just too much for me. Fortunately, Gary Cairns' performance managed to steal my attention away from the vulgarities. He perfectly captured the teen angst of high school students across the country. I look forward to seeing more of his work.

This movie is one that shows life of teenagers growing up in a troubled society. This movie follows these troubled kids through their teenage years. A truthful representation of what some people go through due to many different reasons or circumstances. The performances by the actors were real and spot on with those times. I would recommend this movie.