nylecavazosgarcia

I will get right down to it... I'm shocked that is movie cost $75,000 to make. When watching Retrograde, I was impressed by the filmmaker's choice to film each scene on one single long take - it was inspiring and reminiscent of Neil LaBute's early films, 'In the Company of Men' and 'Your Friends & Neighbors.' Cinematically, long stagnant shots create a sense of tension and realism to a scene, and can elevate the emotions and expectations of the viewer, which in turn creates drama to the movie that wouldn't otherwise exist. However, as this movie progressed I started to suspect that the choice for long takes was made more out of necessity than creative storytelling, because what was unfolding in most of the scenes was mundane and pointless to the story being told. By the end of the film, it seemed the excessive use of long takes was to lengthen the running time of what should have been a short film (60 min or less) into an unnecessary feature film (more than 60 min). When I learned the budget for Retrograde was $75,000, it became obvious that the style of the film was purposeful and way to sophisticated for writer/director Adrian Murray to pull off. Or, somebody pocketed $70,000. Neil Labute proved that the performances of his cast trumped anything that the camera could do, but his films had such strong stories, fascinating characters and complex relationships that made it hard to look away from. Retrograde is the opposite, it was hard to keep watching because most of the time, nothing was happening on screen. Cinema is a visual medium and a director should first learn and master the rules of filmmaking before deciding to break them. It's a shame because there was something actually compelling in this story and in the main character's obsession, but that was drowned out my poor cinematic choices, or lack thereof.

Poppy is a nineteen year old girl with Down Syndrome, but that's not what standing in the way of her living a normal life and falling in love and chasing her ambitions. Her disability is actually her overprotective, alcoholic brother, who is also her guardian and her boss. This movie has the makings of being an overbearing after-school special, but it never gives into its potential for melodrama. Instead, Poppy is an uplifting love story and character study of a young girl trying to find happiness. She might be "special" but her passion for life and her abilities to work hard and be a good person in order to succeed shows that "normal" is really a just a label we put on ourselves to hide our own issues and insecurities. The writing and directing are solid and the performances, even when stiff, manage to tug at the heartstrings - a much needed addition to this year's Slamdance Film Festival.