boundlaw

Perhaps a widowed father raising his four daughters, and asking his eldest, teenage daughter for a date wasn't the best idea for a TV pilot. The daughters are cute, adorable and bland, the father clueless. He interprets his college freshman daughter's calm reaction to not being asked to the school dance as her being as ambivalent about the opposite sex as we are supposed to accept that he is.

Frankly, this was probably too syrupy-sweet even for its day, but it certainly did not stand the test of time. Formulaic writing doesn't help, and only the youngest, blonde daughter appears to have been given a personality as a junior financial wizard in pigtails.

About halfway through the film, the question "Why?" started popping into my head.

This is a teen comedy without comedy, a teen sex comedy without nudity, then suddenly, it takes a swing at being a teen horror slasher featuring a creepy stalker who is the least scary villain in moviemaking history.

It's a guidos versus college kids film sanitized down to earn a PG rating. Perhaps if you weren't old enough to get into R movies in 1982, this might have been a good half hour of entertainment squeezed into an hour and 14 minute film.

Without question, the highlight of this film is they let Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" play in its entirety for the nightclub scene.

This independent, neo-noir whodunnit set in a small Michigan town is was a pleasant surprise!

A cast of mostly unfamiliar actors did a great job, portraying their quirky parts with deft comedy and drama with a smirk, along with the occasional menacing touch. Their fine acting gives dimension to characters often reduced to cardboard-cutout stereotypes. Well written and directed, as well. It has the feel of a film done on a shoestring budget, yet the quality surpasses many big budget or streaming mystery movies.

It is fun with a real murder mystery that grabs your attention and holds it right to the snarky end. It is hard to recommend this little film highly enough.