Cleveland in My Dreams

I had the pleasure of viewing the movie at its premiere. The entire theater laughed and applauded throughout the entire film. It was a sold out house and everyone left with a smile. The actors involved were local thespians that did a fantastic job working on this project. My personal favorite was Chet Fritz who played Dr. Loebner. The music was creative, original, and very well done. The average viewer had absolutely no idea that this film was made quite simply with a Mini-DVD camcorder and edited on a home computer. It is unbelievable they were able to pull it off so well! Truelly amazing! I received my copy of the film yesterday and was absolutely delighted by the outtakes on the DVD version. I am very anxious for the next project from Mark K Sullivan.

Cleveland in My Dreams

By Bobby Neal Winters

There is an ageless debate about which is better, store-bought or home-made. There are good arguments to be made in either direction. While home-made offers great variety and distinctiveness, store-bought offers us uniformity and reliability. Besides, while we might like the taste of home-made better, there is comfort, while you lay writhing in agony from food poisoning, in the thoughts of suing a large corporation with deep pockets instead of someone's well-meaning grandmother.

Those thoughts aside, there are large corporations who glowingly claim their product is "as good as home-made," but on the other hand, I've seen amateurs praised that there work was "as good as store-bought." I am saying all of this now because I've just seen a home-made movie that was a good as store-bought.

Cleveland in My Dreams had its world premier on Tuesday, August 2 at the Route 66 Movie Theatre in downtown Webb City, Missouri. This short (30 minute) film was the brain child of Mark Sullivan who hails from Pittsburg, Kansas, USA.

It is my guess that we are going to be seeing more efforts like this one coming from the sea of would-be movie makers out there. The consumer level technology has developed to the point where a gifted amateur can do a creditable job capturing a story on video. Hollywood-style special effects are still out of reach, but this is a blessing in that it forces the emphasis is focused on the story rather that the action.

And Cleveland in My Dreams is a good story. The screen play, written by Pittsburg's own Olive Sullivan (catty-corner neighbor of the critic), is a skillful adaptation of a short story by Lawrence Block. The importance of the screenplay in an undertaking such as this can't be overstated. While the director, actors, and technicians all add their own beads, the screenplay is the string on which they all hang together. Though the screenplay was based on a short story, it is a work of art that stands on its own.

As for the rest of the film, everyone involved did what was required in the telling of the story. The sound was indiscernible to my ears from any Hollywood film, and the same was true for the photography. All of the acting was credible, but, among the strong cast, there was one stand out. Todd Loudis of Joplin, Missouri, who played Dr. Krull, has something they call personality. I don't know what they'd think of him in Hollywood, but I thoroughly enjoyed his performance.

The story itself, which does receive the full focus of this film, is about a man who is visiting a psychiatrist because of a recurring dream about driving to Cleveland every night. There is nothing disturbing about the dreams, but the act of making an eight-hour round trip every night is leaving him exhausted.

After innumerable fruitless sessions, his therapist dies and he is sent to another—Dr. Krull—who tells him to give him a call from inside the dream and he will help him with the driving.

If you hadn't guessed, this is a comedy. The script has been seasoned with humor evenly, tastefully, and subtly throughout.

The great thing about store-bought products is that you can go to the store and buy them. Home-made is harder to come by. The same thing is true about home-made movies. I saw this at its world premier in Webb City, and will be shown again at the Route 66 Film Festival in Springfield, Illinois, where it has already been awarded prize for Best Comedy. Other than that, public showings will be hard to come by. For my part, I am going to camp out at the film's website until September, when I am told they will be marketing a DVD.

I liked it that much, and I hope there will be more efforts from Mark Sullivan and his Spark Digital Media production company.

I just watched the short film on DVD called "Cleveland In My Dreams".

Wow! It was really, really cool.

It was adapted from Lawrence Block's classic short story "Cleveland In My Dreams". I'm very, very impressed with it. Terrific direction and crisp editing! A first time film by an obviously gifted director.

The two biggest flaws were minor: 1. The greenscreen scenes didn't work perfectly. 2. The acting was not as polished as it could have been.

I loved the integration of the music into the flow of the film one of my favorite directors, Michael Mann, is a favorite for the exact same reason - the deep integration of score with visuals.

Mark (the director) and his sister (the scriptwriter) translated a Lawrence Block tale to film and it works perfectly (unlike many other adaptations of Block's work). A feat unequaled and unrivaled. Well done!

If you get the DVD be sure to listen to the commentary track. I'd have liked to have seen the addition of English subtitles to the DVD but what extras you did have are really great! Loved the behind the scenes stuff too.

One other thing, after watching the bloopers during the credits stick around for a final easter egg (the punchline to a very funny joke told in the film).