Borderline

Samara Weaving is a delight to watch. She's let down by a bad script and direction that is tonally all over the place. Ray Nicholson is campy and over the top, so if that's your thing you're in luck. He's too zany to ever be truly threatening. The characters behave in irrational ways just to make the plot happen. It's quirky and off beat but none of the humor really lands (the funniest bits are Ms. Weavings facial expressions to the craziness around her). The only reason this was set in the '90s is tonget around the ubiquity of cell phones. I'm not sure the movie knows what it's supposed to be and just ends up being a muddled mess. The film was competently shot and does look good.

This film starts out okay, with a great cast, decent acting, and a premise that one feels might be a pretty entertaining black comedy... but the whole thing doesn't really amount to anything.

The writing here feels improvised, like random wacky and edgy ideas are being thrown into a blender to hopefully result in a crazy modern cult favourite.

You can almost hear somebody wetting themselves at jokes that your uncle might tell at a party that no-one laughs at, or like an SNL sketch that never made the cut and was not broadcast.

The confidence in this material to produce and release this film seems as delusional as the title character.

It's probably not as bad to other viewers as it is to me, but sometimes disappointment in something I thought was going to be great feels like I'm being ripped off or something.

What a disappointment.

Good over-acting by Ryan Nicholson, Samara Weaving was better in 'Ready or Not' or 'Azrael'. Here, she has not that much to do.

The movie has some heavy issues concerning the script and the storytelling: The script starts with a lie and Ryan Nicholson as the first person narrator. The lie tricks the viewer and the first person narrative is never again important for the movie. Emotions are shown through the overuse of playing songs, meaning, the narrative is not confident in its script and storytelling. It has to use this trick in filmmaking showing that the direction is not good. So it's more of style over substance thing for the first time director.

The script takes decissions for a black comedy but the ideas don't really take off.

And: Borderline has nothing to do with hallucinations, so the title of the movie makes no sense.

At the end this movie is like an overlong music video.

Ryan Nicholson is rememberable, the movie unfortunately forgettable after watching.

The trailer was promissing a hilarious, dark comedy about stalking. The movie instead is not funny, not hilarious, has serious issues in storytelling, the characters and the script, but it has some dark, black humour.

Jimmy Warden's directorial debut, Borderline, attempts to fuse a home-invasion thriller with dark comedy, but the result is a tonal mess that never quite finds its footing. The film, set in the 1990s, follows a pop star (Samara Weaving) whose mansion is invaded by a delusional, sociopathic fan (Ray Nicholson). While the premise has potential, the script oscillates wildly between genuinely tense moments and jarringly misplaced attempts at humor, often undercutting the very suspense it tries to build. Nicholson delivers a committed performance, channeling a certain unsettling charisma, but the character is too cartoonish to be truly menacing. Samara Weaving is, as always, a magnetic presence, but she is often left to react to the film's chaotic and nonsensical events. Eric Dane is largely wasted in a supporting role. The film's biggest flaw is its inability to decide what it wants to be, resulting in a confusing and ultimately unmemorable experience.

Is it worth watching? No, it's a frustratingly inconsistent film that fails to live up to the promise of its cast and premise.

I'm starting to think Jimmy Warden films are not for me. I haven't enjoyed anything I've seen of his to date. His films seem to find an awkward middle ground between serious and humour, and instead of being the best of both worlds, it's the worst of both and just becomes painful to get through.

That's how I found 'Borderline'. I just couldn't find any element of it to grip on to. When it's trying to be funny, it is rarely funny. When it's trying to be serious, it comes across very flat and uninteresting. And when it trying to be stylish and crafty, it just doesn't work.

The one thing I will give it credit for is some good song choices along the way. Otherwise this one was a complete miss for me. A very generous 4/10.