River

This film is the brainchild of Mark Vasconcellos, who is clearly the Tommy Wiseau of Southern New Mexico. Like Wiseau, he created this film because he wanted to star in a feature film. He has promoted the film, and produced the film, and indeed has produced something similar in many ways to The Room. The biggest difference is thar Wiseau paid his cast and crew. Here, the crew doubled as the cast.

The movie is nominally a crime drama set on the border with drug deals and murdered women and a main character who is disillusioned because his daughter is missing and his wife is in a mental institution. As in the 2012 television show Awake (actually a good show) the main character oscillates among several different realities. Here the difficulty of pinpointing reality is confusing and distracting rather than integral to the plot.

The acting is, for the most part, about the same quality as that in a telenovela: wooden line readings, complete lack of subtlety, actors who don't seem to know why they are saying what they are saying. There's even the occasional Anglo actor putting on a an embarrassing Spanish accent. One exception is the main actor, Andrew Gomez, who seems natural some of the time and would be fun to watch in something with a good script. Jack Lutz also has a good high-stakes moment toward the end of the film.

The script for this movie features some of the most strained and awkward dialogue written by anyone ever. "I am the guru; you, the pupil!" "Because of people like you, the church has received condemnation the world over!" "I did not hit her! I did not! Oh hi, Mark." Just kidding about the last one but you get the idea.

There are moments when it is clear that the writer of the script lacks basic knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary, as when a monsignor threatens an insubordinate priest with "I'll be brought up on charges of insubordination: I'll ruin you."

Vasconcellos emphasizes that this movie is supposed to show people the state of the film industry in southern NM, so maybe the right way to look at it is as a screen test rather than a feature film. The camera work is actually surprisingly fine as long as the cinematographer doesn't try anything "artistic." Shots are edited together well. The dialogue is audible. The incidental sound and music on the other hand is sometimes intrusive and often doesn't match the mood of what is going on onscreen. In short, this is a film that the Rifftrax guys need to get hold of. It is sure to be the next Birdemic.

The concepts and events in this film portray the realities of life for some people living on or near border towns. I found this film to be alluring, deep, tragic and impactful. I really enjoyed this movie and the work actors put in along with the other film developers.

The RIVER production team and cast are made up of some of the most courteous and professional people EVER assembled together to create a local web series based in the El Paso/Las Cruces area. Their belief in and conviction for the project has been so passionate that they have all volunteered their talents and time in putting together the first three episodes for no pay. The dark, gritty storyline is relevant to the seemingly everyday headlines coming from border publications; the films characters reflecting a mirror where no one remains unaffected. Three more episodes are in preproduction and the stage is set for RIVER to take their growing audience and fan base into deeper, darker waters.

First let me warn you, this movie is actually a little rough to watch in the first half. The shots, acting, and story all seem a little to do-it-yourself-indie-filmmaker. But around the halfway point in the film something happens. I'm not sure if the filmmakers shot this part first and ran out of money for the beginning, or if they hit the lottery and finished the second half with an actual budget, but this film becomes an entirely different movie. The same story, actors, but everything is just so much better. The look of the film skyrockets to professional quality. There were some nice shots in the beginning, but so much better in the second half. The story makes way more sense, where the beginning seems very scattered, the end works so much better. I did kind of liked the music in the first half, but the film ends with "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone! How do you not love that? Literally everything just plays so much better in the second half, and it leaves you wanting more. I was going to give it a an 8/9 review, but accidentally hit the 10. Either way they deserved it for taking a film from barely watchable to entertaining as hell.

I really enjoyed this film. I watched the trailer and thought, why not, lets check this out and I'm glad I did. The movie steadily picked up steam as it went along. I found the story relatable and socially timely. I enjoyed the music score too.