Box Elder

The guy that is heading up this tour, this is a film he made, when he was in college, for less than 70 grand. It's really honest, kind of like a Kicking and Screaming for the mumble-core generation. but A LOT funnier. As funny as Swingers, and close content-wise too. Like Swingers in college sort of. While the film definitely has it's ups and downs, the real reason to see it is for a performance by someone who I can easily see being the next Bill Murray. This actor's name is Alexander Rennie, and mark my words, this guy is the real deal.

The film has a ton of improv in it, and he is just so quick and deadpan and pretty much steals the show. There's this one scene at a Halloween party where he's so drunk he starts drinking a lit candle - it's absolutely hilarious.

All in all, it's a simple college take of four guy friends, going through their senior year, and trying to figure out what to do with their lives. It's not super dramatic or super sappy, but really just an honest portrait of the director and his real life friends. If you're a fan of films like Funny Ha Ha or Hannah Takes The Stairs, it's well worth checking out. This is way funnier than those films though.

This film is funny. No doubt. But it also sort've lacks focus at times, which I personally dug, and feel that it's done intentionally to fit the storyline. It also goes hand in hand with the heavy emphasis on naturalism in this film. Life isn't focused the way that many film plots are. That's the trouble with a lot of coming of age movies; you have to fit all of the salient information into a package that doesn't lose the forest for the trees. The typical solution is to gloss over details and highlight key elements that should be easily recalled later. This movie had more of a "stream of consciousness" style, which I thought was refreshing. It felt like a "concept album" of sketches, and I liked that various subplots occurred just to add to the idea of the film rather than a preconceived chain of plot twists at the end that you could only have discovered had you found waldo or his walking stick in each shot.

The opening few scenes do a good job of drawing the viewer into the setting. And the opening steadicam shot really places you back at college. And it is indeed a maverick shot. Then we plunge into getting to know these characters, and I felt like I had a good handle on who each of the four main dudes were supposed to be by 10 minutes in. I also liked that we already begin to meet a ton of the peripheral characters, who end up only being around a scene or two, but make their time count with tons of laughs. As far as a reflection of college life, that makes sense. There were many people who seemed important at the time whose names I'll never recall. But I remember the time they drank a candle, or the time they climbed the dean's roof on acid and thought they were in the CIA.

The acting by the main dudes is solid. The preppier of the four (Nick) struck a good balance against the main two (Scott & Rennie). I liked his constant girlfriend drama, especially since she doesn't really even come into the film until quite a way through. We've all known that guy. He has the long term relationship, but it's really just out of comfort and complacency. I felt like he did a good job of fleshing out that role while remaining believable as one of the dudes. That's not easy to do in real life, nor can I imagine it to be that easy in a film. I enjoyed the maturation from obsession to casual flings as far as dating went. It reminded me of the way that many view relationships in general. In high school and shortly thereafter, people need confirmation of relationship status with hand holding or consistent verbal praise, but eventually move from that to relationships that are what they are.

For whatever reason, Rennie felt more like a pet than a person. And that's a good thing. He was so confident in front of the camera. He was so confident, I don't think he knew he was being filmed. He did a great job of putting wacky where it belonged. The cop bit was priceless. The constant moochery was only slightly outdone by the way that it was constantly enabled. This was a sharp picture of that guy we all lived with who managed to live with us for a year without paying a dime of his parents' money for anything but duraflame logs and sticky hands, but we would definitely take a bullet for him cause he's THAT guy. He's like a puppy that was just too cute to discipline when he was small, but now is too big to know any better. I'm also glad that his character didn't change much throughout the film, as it provided a fixed point to measure how the others did.

There were some good thematics towards the end that served to punctuate and then accentuate the loose wackiness of the bulk of the piece. And I really liked when that professor was smoking next to the no smoking sign. And I liked the Opus shirt under a sports jacket too. I viewed this as partially a critique of the plain vanilla "hollywood professor". And his words of wisdom, so true. That scene stayed with me. I also really liked that that the characters spoke over each other from time to time. It may be due to improv, but regardless, it makes the characters seem more human and real. Big thumbs up to the Random road trips too, those are an essential part of any college career.

All in all, this was a fun movie, and it really struck a chord with me because of how true to form it was. Makes me very nostalgic for college.

I absolutely loved this movie! I had never heard of it before my buddies and I watched it and we couldn't stop laughing. I'm fresh out of college and it made me want to go back and do it all over again...but better. The Marti Gras scene was awesome...had some great shots. I think it's a great showcase of what college is actually like but told in a humorous way. The situations the group gets into is so unique that Box Elder doesn't resemble just any other college humor type of movie. That shows the director has some real creativity, especially with the wit of some of the one-liners. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to reminisce on stupid moments of their own lives. I look forward to more movies like this one for sure.

Seriously? This movie rocked. Hard. I saw it in Austin and felt like the boys from the cast had some real comedic talent. They portrayed "slacker-esque" to the max and line delivery was very smart. These guys have some real talent, it's hard to believe they are so young! I wish I could say I produced a movie like this as a twenty-something. I predict Box Elder will gain more exposure because I can see this movie being passed around and spread like wildfire between frat houses and college kids around the country. More than a coming of age story, it portrayed a group of dudes who are pretty confident in their lack of motivation and would rather involve themselves in shenanigans and frivolous fun than follow the rules and settle down. I also enjoyed the entire awkward "relationship" between the main female and the main guy. This is the reality of a college romance...that it's a pretty painful thing to experience but hilarity will definitely ensue. Grrrreat work.

This movie is a funny movie that told the tales of the lives of several students that went to a college, I think it's in Detroit, and it shows how they spent their years within the most hilarious of consequences.

Plot-wise, nothing much happens, but the eccentric people grow on you nevertheless, mostly because the acting is much better than what's in many debut indie features, and also because of the sweet-and-sour tang arising from the characters' rueful awareness of time passing.

The dialogue has a hit-or-miss improvisational feel, but somehow hits a nice sweet spot between studio comedy improv (think: Judd Apatow) and indie-film improv (think: Joe Swanberg) . And the characters are just great.

You've got stoic and handsome Nick Becker, who is alternately boosted and plagued by motormouth pal Rennie, lovelorn and self-destructive roommate Scott, and the cool but ultimately duplicitous Fletcher. Scott's girlfriend Laura adds spice to the mix in that she is both hot, and also a free spirit who unlike the other characters in this movie, knows when to move on.

Killer soundtrack too.