7/12/09

I review two kinds of movies on this site:  everything I see in a theater and anything I receive in the mail as a DVD screener.  Screeners, for those who don't know, are DVD copies of movies, generally prior to their release, sent to critics, press or voting members of bodies that grant awards, hoping to call attention to the movies in question.  Lamar's Movie Palace, of course, is a long, long way from the Chicago Sun-Times, and as such not a whole lot of screeners come my way.  In fact, it shocked the hell out of me in the fall of 2007 when I was approached via e-mail asking if I'd like a look at my very first, Eric & Jeffrey Leiser's paranormal fantasy Imagination.  Last year, around the holidays, I heard from writer/director David Spaltro about his then-unreleased dramady ...Around.  Keeping with the Palace's "We review all screeners" policy, I responded with a polite "Hell, yeah!" and gave it a look.  On December 16, I quietly posted a rave review:  had it played in even a single US theater, it would have merited at least a mention in my Best of 2008 article.  I also had a chance to exchange a couple e-mails with the filmmaker and his star Rob Evans, so you could kinda say I've put in more time as a "real" critic with ...Around than any other movie.  Heck, I'm even blurbed both on the official website, www.aroundthefilm.com: ("A great independent surprise; heartfelt, well-acted, and emotionally convincing...") and on Evans' official site www.robertwevans.com ("Write Evans' name down because you're going to hear it again:  he's subtle, charismatic, and totally in command of the screen").  All of which is, incidentally, true, even if Rob's webmaster did misspell my name (it's three Ks, two Us, Rob).

Therefore, it's my duty and privilege to shed a little light on the film now that it's finally available to the general public.  On July 2, it became available as a rental/download through Amazon.com thanks to an outfit called Cinetic Media/Cinetic Rights Management:

http://www.amazon.com/Around/dp/B002FQ8NEM/ref=cm_rna_own_review_prod

iTunes, Netflix and conventional DVD releases are also planned, so if you've got some kind of grudge against Amazon, you'll get your chance down the line to view it through your service of choice.  It's a shame nobody outside of a few film festivals ever got to see ...Around in a theater.  I can and have gone on and on about the decline of the independent film business and what a shame it is.  But the Internet will provide great new chances for original filmmakers to have their works seen by a mass audience too, so we should get used to taking advantage of the opportunities it presents.  

So, all well and good, you might say, but why should you take 104 minutes of your life to sit in front of a computer and watch ...Around?  Because it's the rare indie flick that takes advantage of the opportunities of the genre to go to dark places no Hollywood movie would but doesn't abandon its' obligation to entertain (it's actually quite funny).  And because you're going to see some really great acting.  Readers of this site know that I'm a man who champions underrated and obscure actors (when is Rhett Giles ever going to get a chance to show what he can do in a movie that doesn't premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel?), and Rob Evans has totally joined my list.  His is a great, great performance in a kind of role that usually drives me crazy.  His Doyle Simms makes mistake after mistake, pushes the people who care about him away, and generally tries to keep from going down the drain he's circling, but because Evans always keeps us inside his head, I never felt like giving up on him.  Maybe smacking some sense into him, but never giving up.  I see a lot of Ryan Gosling in him (a few other blurbs on his site do as well), and I really do think he's got a shot to be a star if he can ever break through.  Veteran actor Ron Brice is also just terrific as a long-term homeless man who defies all the movie stereotypes by being as frighteningly intense as he is wise.

David Spaltro told me he thought I was too hard on leading lady Molly Ryman in my original review, so I'll say something here I considered pointing out about her originally but opted not to.  It's really hard to judge an actor you've never seen before.  The Italian Neo-Realists believed everyone was perfect for a single role:  themselves.  And when we see someone hit a role out of the park, we tend to think "Hey, that's her!"  That's what typecasting is all about.  But in a low-budget indie where not every performance is perfect (for instance, I didn't really care for Berenice Mosca's film debut as Doyle's crazy, crazy mother), it's also easy to find yourself asking where the actor ends and the performance begins.  Because it's entirely possible that Ryman is GREAT in this role.  What's most unusual about her character Allyson is the way there seems to be something really damaged and off about her that the movie never mentions because it's not her story.  She's twitchy and anxious and nervous even when it seems like she has no reason to be, and it's really hard for me, watching the DVD at home having never seen Molly Ryman in anything else, to answer the question:  "Is this a bold decision to flesh out this character who could come off as nothing but a port in Doyle's storm or would she play the Queen of England this way because that's just her?"  Because the movie doesn't delve all that deeply into Allyson or her issues, it's hard to say how much of what I'm picking up there is the production's and the actress' intent, making the performance itself difficult to judge.  None of which is intended to suggest that she isn't good either way.  I felt for Allyson, who's clearly on her own hard journey just out of the camera's range.  But while I stick to my contention that she "can't always keep up" with what Rob Evans is doing in the lead (which is no insult, given how great he is), I also don't really have a baseline for exactly how much acting is going on.  I do know that first the performance and then her director's enthusiasm for her work make me curious to find out when, hopefully, I see her again in another role.

Back to the topic at hand, ...Around probably never had a shot at securing more than a token theatrical release (how many low-budget movies with neither stars nor Sundance buzz do these days?), but it will be around, available to rent or purchase on an Internet near you for the foreseeable future.  I've read on at least two different websites that this Kukuk guy (three Ks, two Us) knows what he's talking about, and he really liked it.  Maybe you should check it out.