Don's Plum

Yesterday I saw this piece in a small cinema in the basements of berlin. Great Expectations! LeoTitanico in a film he seems to be ashamed of now. But it´s only about a few guy and girls, hanging out, joking and crying, flirting and hurting. I felt touched and amused like watching nick Cassavetes Jr. doing a remake of one of his grandpa´s "everybody gets drunk except the d.p."-kind of "Pre-Dogma"-movies. You can see in Leo´s acting, that he´s not very concerned about "real" acting... He plays an arrogant but hurt young guy, blaming everyone for the mood he´s in and seems to be interested in nothing but f**king. I felt so old, nearly everyone in the plum is about 20! And I´m 26. So afterwards in the subway-station I read the press-notes and I couldn´t believe my eyes: "If you are over 25 you might not like this film" they say. I hate and love you guys for that!

This movie isn't the most incredible thing in the world, but it's really entertaining to witness just how insane Leonardo DiCaprio and Toby Maguire are. I am a HUGE Jenny Lewis fan, so I was super excited to watch her, and she has a fairly large role (one that includes making out with Leo).

If you want to watch it just for Amber Benson, I'm sorry to say she only appears for about 3 minutes, so don't bother.

Check it out if you have a thing for black and white movies about people dealing with their "issues", or if you care to see Leonardo act like an idiot in fake hillbilly teeth.

I've never seen the movie, but I did get to know David Stutman (the Producer) and I can personally see why he sued Leo DiCaprio and all of his agents for basically stopping the movie from distribution and thereby stopping a lot of people from getting paid.

Stutman and some of the others in the producer/writer/actor group were very close friends - there was a lot of smoking pot, drinking, and sexual conduct (not limited to heterosexuality, and involving two big name actors, if you catch my drift). The movie, while seen as a very endearing art-house-style flick by the actors, suddenly became dangerous when Dicaprio was in pre-production for Titanic and Toby was being slated for Cider House rules. With Titanic being released that year and Cider House a year or so later, Don's Plum basically amounted to an early heavily contrasted look at the two actors that the public should never take. Leo's agent's filed an injunction that Stutman had illegally created a movie that Hollywood lawyers had not been present to administer signing of.

Long story short, Stutman made a movie that was distributed 5 years later to the back of the VHS/DVD bin, when it might have been a hit if it was sold or even screened simultaneously with Titanic. I believe that the studio settled with him and forced him to put it off 5 years. I still remember Stutman well, with his tiny house in the middle of Venice Beach, with two big dalmations and a slew of precious Disney cels.

This film was shot in the mid 90's, and after Titanic became a hit, the makers of the film wanted to release it, but it was suppressed by Leonardo DiCaprio and (to a lesser degree) Tobey Maguire. One would think it's an embarrassing, awful film considering Leo sued the makers and tried to stop it being released. Well, guess what? It's not a great film by any means, but it's not really that embarrassing and it's your typical 90's Gen X talk fest. Basically, a bunch of Gen Xers sit around at a diner, have cigarettes, coffee, food, and talk about "edgy" topics like sex. This was the kind of stuff that was being made in that decade. Basically indie talk fests. This is typical of those films for better or worse. Those type of films often started out well but got more tiresome as they progressed and they were never as "smart" as they thought they were. This one is like that, too, but does that mean it shouldn't be seen? Of course not. It's a decently made indie movie, shot on low contrast 16mm black and white, like Kevin Smith's Clerks, which came out a year before this film was made. Why DiCaprio hated it is beyond me. It's not THAT bad, Leo.

If you're feeling nostalgic about the 90's, check it out and this will take you back to that time.

If you like naturalistic films, then this film is for you. If you are mesmerised by smoke rising from your cigarette, then this film is for you. Hell, if you appreciate independent film, then there is no point in excluding this one.

Headed by a talented young cast including some of the most famous male actors of Generation X, do not expect the typical mindless American mash that fills up the majority of the shelving space in our video stores. Notably, Leonardo Di Caprio and Tobey Maguire accomplish creating characters that are polar to the characters the audience has come so use to seeing them play. These are in no way the finest performances of the cast so far, but the characters are sharp, interesting and well executed.

Don's Plum contains a hypnotic plot that is completely absent of seen-before action sequences and predictable twists. It is a simple story of a group of friends, the issues that they have had, are having and will have in time to come. The themes brought up throughout the film are relevant to every posse - homosexuality, comradeship, loyalty, ethics, morals, tolerance etc. Most importantly, the viewer is encouraged to arrive at a point of self reflection, as the characters so frequently do in the toilet mirror throughout the film.

Shot in black and white, the emotion of the actors is intensified almost dissolving the other physical elements of the film into insignificance. The acting is unconstrained, even impulsive at times, blurring the line between the character and the actor playing them. The use of sound and music is cleverly executed, with silence and the effect it can have when arriving upon a group of people, playing a major role. The other elements in the film are nowhere near a breakthrough, but are overall appropriate.

If you want to feel motivated to stay in touch with friends or if a favourite of yours is in the cast, get off the couch and watch it. Even if these don't apply to you, there is no harm in checking it out to roast some appreciation of the cast and crew's efforts in a unblemished independent film.

Don't press stop as soon as the credits appear...