The Naked Ape

Good story, excellent cinematography, and some better than average acting at times, great locations, and good connections among the characters. From the official website: The Naked Ape is a bittersweet dramatic comedy about friendships, insecurities, rites of passage and the death of idealism. With documentary-style narration drawn from the Desmond Morris book by the same name. The Naked Ape is coming-of-age tale about trying to run away from your problems and learning that the real change has to take place within yourself. See pictures from the signing at A Castle of Books, 7159 Katella Ave, Stanton, CA 90680. http://tinyurl.com/yv7c6t

The Naked Ape suffered from a slow start and stumbled through the majority of the script in a stop-start fashion. However, in the final act everything came together. This film assumes a level of intelligence and attention in its audience normally lacking from teen road movies and demands that you read between the lines. It is definitely worth sticking with this movie until the end although I will admit that this does take some effort at times.

Tony LaThanh and Corbin Bernsen provide definite highlights and both Josh Wise and Chelse Swain handle their lead roles with aplomb. Sean Shanks, however, did not shine as the domineering James but I felt this was more due to some clunking characterisation in the script than a fault of the actor.

Overall, The Naked Ape is a good and thoughtful film, but I came away wishing that Daniel Mellitz, on debut here as both writer and director, had given the script one final polish. That said, Mellitz has outshone a good 90% of debut directors and I await his next project with interest.