Alright Now

I was expecting very little from this movie. From the Blu-ray cover, I thought I'd make it through 10 minutes before turning it off. The first few "documentary" style minutes were not very good. But, once it got down to the narrative, this was a thoroughly entertaining love story.

To appreciate this, you need to be able to watch very low budget, almost home made quality movies. The acting and characters made up for the unpleasing visual aesthetic. This is from the UK, so it's character driven, not standard 3-Act-Structure.

For what it is, it's damn entertaining. I know I'll watch again, actually quite a few more times.

It's a keeper.

JoAnne Skye (Cobie Smulders) is a 90's rock star. The "Filthy Dukes" is her band. Her stardom is now faded and she's struggling to keep going. When her band finally quits, she reconnects with an old friend Sara Ramsey (Jessica Hynes) living in a caravan and decides to be an university student. She has a fling with administrator Pete (Richard Elis).

Firstly, I adore Cobie Smulders, and Jessica Hynes for Spaced. The 4 rating concerned me but also intrigued me. I can see the problems but it's not quite that bad. This was apparently much improvised, and shot in five days. It looks and feels it. It needs a few more written scenes and to extend it to a full week. It tries to cover with some montage sequences. Smulders could do a little singing but the opening music video is too inferior. I would suggest lip sync. There are a few good songs in the movie. It's fine to pick one of them and have her lip sync it. As for the characters, I like the destructiveness of Smulders, the buried jealousy of Hynes, and Elis' innate niceness. There is a lot to like here but it is still not good enough.

So hard to relate and therefore unable to say I actually enjoyed the movie. 2 minutes in I thought what the heck go and have a beer and a steak and enjoy the evening, but no I last the 95 minutes. Damn

What happens when you mix a mediocre script with a bad director? Actors will suffer for life. Coby will have to cover this shameful tattoo of a film all her career. I don't know much about the editor who will be another innocent casualty of sorry filmmaking. Above and beyond the script lacks enough dialogue to fill up a commercial or a 4 minutes trailer. Jesus, Paul and all the prophets tricks couldn't have saved the day. Oh and the music section : what up with that. I am now very curious to watch more by the same director to see how he has managed to get this monstrosity financed. I should have known better when I saw the 4.1 rating which is uber generous.

Story was trite and cringey, going for obvious characters, no depth, no chemistry, not even a good soundtrack....