Broken Poet

I am really not sure which is worse - The writing, or the acting! It is really not much of a film... and it certainly isn't very engaging! I didn't really like it! I thought it was pretty boring actually

I sought this out after becoming a fan of Elliot Murphy's music. This review has nothing to do with him. In fact, had to stop watching before he showed up. This is one of the worst movies I have ever tried to watch. The pacing, dialogue acting are horrid. There is a scene near the beginning of the main character, a journalist, walking from her NYC apartment to the offices of Rolling Stone magazine. And it seems like it is shot in real time. It takes FOREVER. The first 20 minutes are filled with shots like that. Pointless and seemingly unending.

It's as if someone gave a 13 year old a couple of million dollars and said, here kid, make a movie. Somehow, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa show up. And are awful. There is some good Elliot Murphy music, but you're better off just putting on a record.

I love this story of life imitating art - the star and writer (and consummate musician and journeyman) wrote the story on which the film is based in early 80s -- then ended up moving to Paris. Also starring ever enchanting Paris.

See this movie. It is excellent. Broken Poet has it all. It will keep you engrossed and seem like you are a part of this awesome story.

I have no idea where these 10 star reviews came from but this mess of a movie certainly doesn't deserve them. This film is barely watchable beyond 5 minutes due to the terrible, wooden acting and awful dialog not to mention the overwhelming feeling you're watching someone's first attempt at film making. But the blame can't fall only on the acting. The editing is atrocious with no sense of rhythm and takes that could have been trimmed of several frames to create flow are left complete so conversations have a "stop and start" vibe that feels fake and unreal. The main actresses voice is dubbed in and it's so uneven and distracting it just kept taking me out of the movie. The continual over use of every overwrought cliche in the artsy director's playbook is distracting and transparent leaving this mess feeling more like an art school student's C grade project instead of an experienced director's output. People don't act like this. People don't talk like this. And good director's don't direct like this. All in all this is an amateur attempt at filmmaking that falls horribly short and is a cringefest to endure until the end. Even for a music lover like myself this was too much of too little to find anything redeeming in.