Hard Luck Love Song

The details of the characters were very thoughtful, it was spot on! Soundtrack was great, and of course the song that the movie is based on is an excellent tale. The color palette and cinematography was perfect. Overall I can't complain.

Pool hustler Jesse (Michael Dorman) moves into a low-rent motel in a rough neighborhood. It's a dangerous living. He spots an escort ad in the papers and recognizes something. It's Carla (Sophia Bush) from his past.

It's a grim life. Dorman could be more downtrodden. He smiles a little too much. I do like the first act with its atmospheric danger. The movie takes a slight tonal turn with the introduction of Carla. It may work better if she joins the film sooner and she could go with him on his pool games. Then there is the cop. I can understand the attempt at a different kind of cop character. He's just in the wrong movie. He's slapstick comedy when the movie is a grim dive into the underworld. On the positive side, he's only in two small sections and one can ignore him. All in all, this is a nice vision of a grim life.

As a movie, this is very average, but I thought the music was great, which gave it another star. The story and acting are so-so. A lot of very highly scored reviews from members of the production team, it's rating will plummet.

Whenever I hear any country songs: Country road, take me home...

A new indie romance based on some country song that I never heard of. Basically it's about this singer dude living in this town and uniting with his old lover.

In the first two acts, there were barely anything dramatic. We just see our main character drifting through life playing some billiards and interacting with other people. It should have been boring, bust somehow I enjoyed the chill vibe and the country music. It's crazy that I liked those country songs. Because of this, the movie somehow had better pacing that its plot made it out to be.

The third act was both predictable and surprising. Some characters that our main guy had beef with returned, which was entirely expected. However, then, there's a twist that bent the meaning of the scenes at the beginning of the movie. It caught me off guard, but really the twist didn't have much significance.

Another problem was the main guy. In order to make the twist work, the story could not reveal much about his past, which was vaguely told by another character.

Overall, a romance that I enjoyed more than I expected. 6.5/10.

A gritty, slow-burn tale about the dark underbelly of everytown USA, this film tells the stories of characters who chose not to throw their fishing lines into the mainstream. Compelling characters are fueled by a finely crafted musical landscape- a dark place where the audience is rarely comfortable, and always anticipating an unwelcome knock at the door.

Buy the ticket, take the ride. Chances are you'll want to do it again.