Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Posted: **Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:24 pm**

Here's my actual review: http://www.oscarguy.com/Reviews/Annual/2008/Local.html

Posted: **Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:24 pm**

Puke. This movie looked at treacly vomitriciousness when that dude was shilling for it a couple weeks (months?) ago. Aside from the renewed presence of Samantha Mathis, I wouldn't go near it.

Posted: **Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:18 pm**

I can't seem to find the original thread on this, but here goes.

While a full review won't be posted for some time as I'm hitting a super-busy period, it's not a bad movie. It's about on par with Love Song for Bobby Long in terms of preachiness and about as well acted. I liked Bobby Long and I like Local Color, but not enough to elevate them very high.

While Armin Mueller-Stahl is fairly good, though not his best as Eastern Promises is probably taking that cake, he is a strong presence in the film. However, more striking, is that Trevor Morgan does fairly well standing his ground against Mueller-Stahl. He's a young star who could go places given the right management and the proper push.

Ray Liotta is just about awful taking the prejudiced "not as cruel as could be" father to no new places, relying mostly on stereotype. Samantha Mathis is underused and seems to be a far-too-tangential aspect of the film. Ron Perlman is a lisping straight art dealer. I don't know why he's protrayed that way.

I wasn't 100% sure who did the voice over (I keep thinking it was Ron Perlman, but I can't be certain), but the narration was distracting and the direct relied too heavily on it to tell the story, avoiding any chance for the audience to form their own opinion. It was probably this heavyhandedness that really distracted me most. Pair that with the sometimes rambling narrative and the general abstraction that seemed to be the plot and you have a few problems.

The direction is mostly assured when dealing with the technical elements, including the cinematography, which I could see competing for an award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Considering the size of the budget, there's a lot of positives in this technical proficiency.

Overall, there are more positives than negatives, but I doubt Armin Mueller-Stahl has much of a chance at the Oscars, but there is an opportunity if the film is submitted to the Spirit Awards.