rob-m-neilson

Oren Shai's The Frontier is a slick Americana genre throwback, that truly makes me pine for the good ole days.

I was lucky enough to catch this film at SXSW, and it was glorious to watch on the big screen. Shot on gorgeous Super 16mm with wardrobe and production design that leap off the screen like a pulp novel come to life.

Laine arrives at The Frontier motel on the run from her problems, and she encounters a cast of characters with their own secrets to hide.

Jocelin Donahue is superb as Laine, the girl on the run who uses her wits to stay one step ahead of everyone. This is truly a demanding role that she excels in, as she's on-screen for virtually the entire film. If this were a pulp book, I'd gladly read the next 10-20 episodes of her story.

If I watched this in a drive in I'd have a hard time not thinking that I've gone back in time to 1974. So forget whatever tentpole blockbuster schlock that you're going to pay exorbitant prices to see at the local megaplex. Instead, let's turn the dial back and settle in to watch interesting people, behaving badly.

After viewing the trailer since it first came out, and showing it to all my friends I would say I was VERY MUCH looking forward to seeing this film.

Man was I disappointed...They threw every good part of the film into the trailer and all of the good lines in it just ended up being throw-away dialogue in the actual story.

There are a few good scenes in this film, but they could have turned this into an amazing 15 minute short instead of making me suffer. It's crazy to think that from an original 5 hour rough cut they couldn't find better material to pack into this film. It also didn't help at all that there must not have been a focus puller for this film, and roughly 1/4 of the film is all out of focus. The sound mix is barely audible as well.

Save your money, watch the trailer...watch it again and again so you may imagine that Gone With the Pope is a great film.

This film reads like a noir, and looks like a beautifully gritty piece of 70's exploitation cinema...so what's not to like!? I usually really dislike films that rely on voice over...but here it is very effective and pairs itself perfectly with the tone of the visuals.

Margaret Anne Florence plays her characters struggle really well...and Aprella is great in her role, and has in my opinion the best line in the film. Ashlie Atkinson is really memorable, and nearly steals each moment that she is on-screen as the sadistic night guard! The only way to improve this film, would be to give it a feature length treatment. Like every good short, it left me wanting more!

There are few milestones left in this modern age.

First day of school, first kiss, first car....and now the first time you've seen C Me Dance.

With production values straight out of a public access show, and acting that is as wooden and stilted as a tele-novela C ME DANCE is a must see if you enjoy bad movies.

I myself was a little disappointed in the final "speech" that beats the powers of evil, but there's a few great laughs throughout the movie. Perhaps my favorite is the reaction shot of Greg Robbins as he wakes up from a "nightmare". My friends and I played it back several times in slow motion. Genius! There's also lots of Ed Wood style day/night continuity problems, as well as some very bad montage editing.

The worst part is that the producers believe that this Christian film, will move people towards religion. Wrong! This only preachers to the choir...and even devout Christian's will probably be offended by the gooey, backwards, and Saved By the Bell style sentiment that this film gives off like a bad odor...