Ocean City Monster Building

Shakey camera work with weird angles and shots that really take you out of the movie. Horribly directed with terrible lighting/camera work. The camera shook constantly. Bad acting, story and script also felt bad, it has no focus and no balance, but it may have just been the cinematography/acting made the story impossible to be good. The dialogues are so unrealistic, it's laughable which contributed to the acting. The movie is meant to be a serious crime drama but it's bizarrely funny at times in ways the movie did not intent. I definitely feel like I'm laughing at the movie instead of with the movie. And it was set in like the 70s but didn't really look too much like it. I couldn't finish and skipped through the last third.

I gathered from the end credits that the writer-director was influenced by the Dogme 95 group from Denmark (hand-held camera, no incidental music, no make-up on the actors etc etc....all in the service of naked, unadorned 'realism'). I didn't really feel it fully. I wanted to connect with the story but just couldn't.

I don't know if it's a police drama, a murder mystery, a critique of the U. S. and its treatment of immigrants, or a philosophical statement on life as we know it. The film needs to have a more focused intent for the script. I felt distracted from murder mystery/detective story by the U. S. policy/political critique and the philosophizing dialogue. The script needs tightened up quite a bit. The handheld digital lends well to the period feeling and realistic look added to the tone of the film but it seemed that some of the "art" shots were forced and didn't fit into the flow of the film." The performances were very good which carried me through this indulgent film.

The way they made it reminded me a bit like that German movie Christiane F. I didn't like that movie too much either.

Interesting low budget thriller-drama that takes place in a small town in Upstate NY. A mayor is found dead in a car with a 15 yrs old female. A detective from Albany leads the investigation and encounters the suspicious, sometimes racist, attitude of the local sheriff. She is originally migrated from Haiti and became a cop and she doesn't buy into the attitude of the local authorities that just want to close the case exonerating the mayor post-humanous. She forms a bond with the mayor adopted daughter from Vietnam, and they find common language because of their backgrounds. The plot thickens with several twists and turns and the case is being closed under pressure, without figuring out all the details. When they are revealed in the end, a sad truth of abuse and malignant intentions are exposed. The story takes place in 1984, before the Mondale-Reagan elections, and the filmmaker definitely wants to say something about the American dream in the eyes of immigrants, but it's not clear exactly. The film is very low budget, shot in monochromatic colors, better than black and white, but stands firm enough as a whole.

There is something that I really like about this. It doesn't 100% add up, and I'm not sure what the title has to do with it or at least the first half, but the story really gels as it goes along. Also, the lead performances by the daughter Sally and detective are really good especially when you piece it all together. I was thrown off initially by the hand held camera and the mellow color, but when I read that the Filmmaker was following the Dogme 95 style it kind of made more sense, and I had to give the filmmaker credit for attempting to follow this fairly consistently despite breaking a couple of the rules as many do.

The good: stellar performances by a diverse cast. No matter how bad the dialogues are, they just won't give up and I kind of enjoy watching it. In some moments I would even say the acting successfully saved the film from disaster.

The bad: a script filled with tropes and no originality, camera shots failed to provide even a complete frame of the characters, cheap production value, little effort was made to make it looks like a period piece, sound is a big issue with muffled unintelligible dialogue and noticeable background noises. The editing is choppy and not very smooth.

The ugly: I know the coloring is a choice but it's a horrendous choice, one of the ugliest film I have ever seen. The dialogues are so pretentious and downright nonsensical I had to mute it at times in order to stomach through the entire film.

Ocean City Monster Building requires significant rework and improvements in all aspects of its filmmaking. The story is underdeveloped, lacking depth and complexity that could make it more engaging for the audience. The technical aspects of the film, such as camera movement, framing, blocking and dialogue, are badly executed, hindering the audience's ability to fully immerse themselves in the story. The shoddy camera work and off-frame shots can be disorienting, detracting from the film's overall quality. Similarly, the writing is often predictable, lacking nuance and subtlety further diminishing the film's already poor quality. The sound in the film is inconsistent, with noticeable background noises at times and muffled dialogue that is difficult to understand, this takes away from the viewing experience and makes it challenging to fully engage. The locations used in the film are underutilized and the sparse use of props added to the lackluster production value. The performances by the actors are the only saving grace, some of the monologue performances alone is worth the ticket of admission. Go see it for the brilliant performances by a diverse ensemble cast.

Ocean City Monster Building is an unsolved mystery period piece, blending the tough no-nonsense city officer with the small-town secretiveness that creates its own case to be solved.

The film uses a lot of unique cuts and angles to help tell its story. From the upside-down bedroom flip, the café scene, to the kitchen shot during the break-in, we are treated to unexpected visuals that take us out of the usual movie watching comforts. While not all are successful (the camera retreat in the house and the chase scene aren't as smooth as others), they add to the depth of the story that is unraveling as Aida gets deeper into the case.

As the film progresses, I do struggle with the lack of highs and lows from many of the characters. This becomes even more apparent when we get to Amy Miller, whose performance by itself feels like a genuine guttural response; but against the mild demeanor of the previous characters seems over the top. Similarly, Meghan's voice-over brings a spark of energy that has been missing from Aida, the Sheriff, Sally, or her mom. As we get to the turbulent third act, it is a big jump in characterization as these individuals begin to release these emotions.

While I do enjoy many of the monologues, they seem to slow down the progress of the scene versus punctuating them. I believe it's because it comes so unexpectedly; especially Jake Miller's in the police station. Sally and Amy also seem to break the fourth wall and deliver theirs almost detached from the scene partner. I'm not sure how to integrate these more smoothly, but doing so would definitely increase the delivery impact.

Finally, I'd like to see some of the "surprise" elements kept until later in the film. We're convinced very early on that the Mayor was guilty, so the revelations of the pictures, or the mysterious acting class, or Sally's history or the call from the census bureau don't have the same reveal weight as if we were still wondering what could have happened.