pfate12
After being so impressed with "It Follows" I decided to have a look at David Robert Mitchell's first full-length feature. Basically what we have here is an attempted update on "Dazed and Confused" + "American Graffiti" (particularly the subplot of one male teen glimpsing a gorgeous blonde early in the movie and then spending the remainder of the runtime trying to find her) infused with a drop of 80s John Hughes sentimentality. Unfortunately "The Myth of the American Sleepover" falls well short in quality by comparison to those classics.For a movie like this to succeed it needs interesting, thoughtful characters that have interesting, thoughtful things to say. We also need the director to effectively capture dreamy nostalgia and youthful vigor. None of that is here. We're stuck with dull cookie-cutter teens and trite dialogue that is delivered by every character with a surprising level of boredom and absence of passion. The character Maggie comes closest to providing a spark but she shares screen time with too many others and is still restricted by the script.We know from "It Follows" that Mitchell is an excellent cinematographer, skillful in pacing, mood, and creating tension. We also know he is capable of portraying the human condition, traumas, and sufferings with insightful depth. He needs to improve his ability to write good dialogue, particularly when a movie is strongly dependent on it.
brandinfennessy-77531
THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER ~ 2010 ~ Directed by: David Robert Mitchell ~ Starring: Claire Sloma, Marlon Morton, Amy Seimetz~10 *s out of 10
Dear David Robert Mitchell, You are a god, sir .. and, although you may never get the truest recognition you deserve for, perhaps, some time, it's obvious to me that your films are brilliant. as well as absolutely, utterly drenched to the core with a heartbreaking, idiosyncratic style personal to you and you only .. you are a special filmmaker Mr. Mitchell, and this here is one of my all-time favorite pictures; it is, in fact, the greatest coming-of-age that has ever been made .. before seeing this in 2015, a few months after the equally brilliant IT FOLLOWS was released widely, I had dreamt of a film just like it for years and years; I'd dreamt of making one like it one day .. and seeing the film was basically seeing these own dreamscapes of my head realized .. and, of course, realized with more elegance and brilliance than I ever could have dreamt of. ~~~ I'm not going to be naive and pretentious enough to start trying to break down, on a technical level, why this film is a full-fledged (American) masterpiece, but I will say this: the fact that its production budget was a truly borderline micro one (according to basic sources) only goes to strongly exemplify a conviction that this film is a godsend of the heavens, and that it'll eventually go down in history as one of the great (cult) debuts of all time .. this film really feels like living inside of a dream for an hour and forty minutes - a dream from when one is seventeen or eighteen years old .. it explores, with a powerful synthesis of style and substance, the majesty of innocence and the theme of demystification .. I do really hope that it gains full-fledged cult-status one day, b/c this magnificently gloomy, low-budget masterwork damn well deserves it ~~~ If I were to try and break things down technically, I'd start by saying that the cinematography is off-the-effing-hook; the guy that 'DPed' this also did "Moonlight", and the magnificence of his work speaks for itself - along with his oscar nomination, of course!; Mitchell, however, is the visionary here, and, the way I see it is, he essentially looks aesthetics RIGHT in the damn eye, and successfully captures these essences of beauty like a photojournalist in the jungle that manages to photograph rare animals; the way it's shot is Mitchell searching for heaven here on earth, and, through his own unique sense of style and mise-en-scene, he finds it ... furthermore, the unique, divinely peculiar way music is used is perfect and poignant, always enhancing the film throughout; the score-work, sound-design and soundtrack are, seemingly, all blended into a single 'sound' for the film, and everything that's heard truly does seem destined for, and integral to, their respective images ... moreover, Mitchell's casting seems to be heaven-sent, as if these mostly no-name actors (Amy Seimetz not being a no-namer, but just as perfect for this film as the others) were born for this picture, and are as integral to it as anything; they really, truly seem like regular kids and young-adults, almost as if they were just real kids living there in those Detroit suburbs during filming; still, they ARE performances - hyper-realistic ones, and very much unlike the documentary-type performances from young actors and actresses in films like those of Larry Clark ~~~ basically, though, this film is definitely an example of the 'whole being greater than the sum of its parts' .. it's hard to try and put into words why it is honestly as good a picture as "The Godfather" (lol I'm serious) and/or "Citizen Kane", but it most certainly is - by at least any and all standards I can think of .. it is magic, and truly is the pinnacle of the 'coming-of-age' genre .. it really does simply just work, and is as stylish as a picture can get before being avant-garde. 10 *s out of 10
Red_Identity
Yeah, I sought this out because of It Follows, and trying to seek out what else the director had done. This is definitely not your ideal coming-of-age story. it seems like these days there are set rules on what those types of films are, and as good as they can be (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) they are also pretty predictable and follow a specific formula. This really strayed from that. Not all of the story lines work perfectly, but it very much feels like a film trying to show actual people interacting and trying to make the whole thing as honest as it could be. The characters are well-painted for the most part, and the film doesn't have the restraints of having to hit certain spots of points that a Hollywood film would try to do. Much of the human touch here would be further explored in It Follows, and so in that sense it's not entirely different. Very surprising, very good film
movieman_kev
Various teenagers go to various parties, each longing to make the last night before school starts up again memorable in the slice of life drama. Those who are expecting American Pie type shenanigans to follow are best to look elsewhere as this film has more realistic, and dare I say, more noble goals in mind.Almost every Tuesday Instant Netflix has at least one film streaming on same day as released on DVD, this week it's three films (this one, Wolf Town, and Beneath the Darkness) and while I can't vouch for the other 2 as I still have yet to watch them, I can give my enthusiastic thumbs up for this one. I found the film to ring true of the teenage experience of the average American teenager. The pathos, the awkwardness, the long & uncertainties are all on display. And frequently well-acted to boot. Writer/director David Mitchell is one to be on the lookout for if he continues to put out films of this caliber.My Grade: B+
