Station to Station

I saw this film at the Las Vegas International Film and Screenwriting Festival on the first night. Like most of the films at these festivals, I hadn't heard of it before and I found the description was intriguing, but vague (intentionally so, when you think about it afterward).

But I am glad I didn't know anything going in. I don't really think any description could describe it, but if I had had it described to me, I might have watched it in with some preconceved notions and assumptions, which as it turns out, is the entire point of the film, or at least a big part of it.

All I know is I spent the next day thinking about it, about the characters, and some of the convos they have with each other. This film is really well acted and the best work is in the quiet back and dorths with each other, which happen in a way that starts the wheels turning in your head It got me thinking about a lot of the ways movies don't do that now and that made me realize how hungry I was for the kind of conversations and characters we see in the film, which is a modest attempt at making a blockbuster Hollywood film, but an A attempt at making an indie like this.

The acting is... terrible. I'm talking worse than community theater. Worse than a middle school play. I'm not trying to be funny. It's embarrassingly bad. Not one person in this is a good actor. Not a single soul on screen is meant for this.

I am the exact target demographic of this movie, if you know what I mean, and I have plenty of favorites in my collection of "so bad it's good" campy movies. This is not that. This is just really, really bad.

EVEN if you just want to watch it for the eye candy, it's about on par with fruit stripe gum. You'll only get about 30 seconds of flavor out of it.

And it's over two hours long. Could use a HEAVY edit. But then it might only be about half an hour.

This movie was unexpectedly moving for me. It's weird, because I don't actually know why. I keep coming back to it in my head and thinking about different characters and scenes (they are almost like little short films with the Las Vegas "Boy Bunker" setting and main character "Major Tom" as the common elements). It's this really adult, conversations-based film where you learn about these characters from all these different walks of life and circumstances and each of them either really resonated with me personally or helped me see other people in those circumstances in a different light. I liked that a lot. There was a really good mix of "show" and "tell" and the dialogue was really, really good. I like that the lessons and that experiences are the journey, not a contrived beginning, middle, and end. Like you spent this time with these people and then it's time to go home, but you know there's more still to come for everyone.

This movie also "gets" a lot about being young and male in 2022, with the freedom in many ways to do what you want, act how you want, sleep with who you want, and do a lot of it online, but really crave a sense of family or "real" connections and how forgetting how to really do those things, or that the responsibilities that come with being in a "family" (even one you pick) or friend group are important, can hold you back.

I don't know how to describe or even review this film, but I think its worth seeing. It's definitely got the sex and nudity and big dramatic stuff it builds up to in the end (the intense end is so different from the way it starts, you realize you were really taken on a journey and surprised at the end. Thats another thing I liked, not being able to predict anything) and if you don't like longer, character driven scenes maybe not good for you?

But I really recommend it. Enough to come here and write a review to encourage other people to watch it, since I don't think it had a huge advertising budget. It just really sticks with you.

I never write reviews on films, but I felt this was necessary to warn everyone. What a horrible, waste of time movie that was excruciatingly unbearable to the end, in hopes that something good would happen. The bad acting, the bad Soundtrack and stupid story line needs to be announced to future victims of this movie. I can't believe it was even accepted for Production and then, suggested by Amazon prime. I would be embarrassed to show a film of this low caliber. This waste of my time will definitely make me think to check reviews before wasting another two hours of my time. I hope this review will save others from this excruciatingly horrible film.

I am not sure what I expected going into the movie (I was asked to be a test audience member two months ago) but it wasn't what I thought, in all really good ways. It's really hard to describe this movie without either giving too much away or giving people the wrong impression, so I think I'll just say it's a really well-done drama about a young man who has a lot of growing up to do, and a bit of a chip on his shoulder, who runs to Las Vegas rather than face his issues at home, only to find and create new issues there.

The film kind of follows him for 6-9 months as he interacts with friends/lovers/colleagues/family, and while he learn a lot about them, the audience learns a lot about him (and wonders if he's actually learning, too). In that way, the film is a lot like Richard Linklater's Beyond trilogy, and I think some reviewers have said that. But I think the other comparison they make, to Paul Thomas Anderson, is better.

Mostly because of the way the film makes all the psychological drama really watchable instead of depressing or boring. The two hours mostly flies by and it does a neat trick because by the end, you realize you had no idea where the movie was going, pretty much at any time, let alone somewhere so powerfully dramatic. I think that made it really satisfying to me. I am glad I didn't assume the end in the first half because the setup was for something else.

I think there will be lots of comparisons to Boogie Nights, but I think that's mostly due to surface similarities. Boogie Nights was bigger, more salcious for show, and wrapped up in a really predictable and old-fashioned way. This does a bunch of stuff I wasn't expecting and treats its characters as unique, not tropes and that's a movie lovers dream, in a way.

In a different review, for a different film, I said you could just watch the acting only and still be ertained, because all the leads were so good. That is 100% true here. The casting on this film, especially for all the main characters or the ones with big moments is incredible. I wouldn't be surprised if any of these new faces break out, but I hope if they do, they don't lose the raw parts of their performances in this film.

I don't usually give 10s, so I gave the film a 9, mostly because it's amazing they made this to this level of quality, on both a limited budget and during the pandemic. Without those challenges, it's obvious this would have been a 10, and that's a pretty big compliment from me. But maybe the more useful compliment is that I spent money to buy a ticket to see it again at a festival tonight when I already got to see it for free!