minniewmiles

Came across this on Prime and thought I would give it a go. What a really great film this was!

Reminds me of the older 80's movies that are classics now. The pacing felt a little slow at first and I couldn't understand why, then I got it. They shot it like an older film. There are long takes and lot's of long shots. There also is no cell phones in the film, which I thought was interesting. Like an homage to older films.

The story also was shot against traditional. There is no main bad guy, no main goal that I could see. Just a couple of guys trying to figure it out. And it was refreshing to see something different.

Great film!

Like a bad dream is a merge of two dramatically diverse stories that fate will unite them. The conflict in former Yugoslavia summons solder Sheitan to the front. Seven long years will pass before Bezania sees her lover, once again, their lives reunited in those very same places that had once been. But time and war changes everything and nothing is the same... Shaitan, as cited by the poet, is one of the Devil's many names." Main while, somewhere in a western European city, a young Macedonian student discovers the corrupted soul of Europa, learning the lessons that will eventually lead him to adulthood. Like a bad dream is a cross-way of lost souls and restless anguish. Many people said that "Like a Bad Dream" is a hard film, but with great direction, photography and poetry in the image, as well as fantastically incorporated music of the band "Anastasija". Robert Englund and IskraVeterova are fantastic in their roles, with passion, pain and drama which bear the risk.

Cheers to the soundtrack for Black Ruby it makes the movie. From researching Ave Fenix Pictures they used Europeans for their last three films, cheers again. The La Raza movement, and I'm still not sure what that is or what it means, nonetheless is doing something very right - Music combined with the images, they're on my top list of independent film companies that do what they want.

The story follows two friends, Jules Mandel a fat and now comfortable womanizer who is inheriting a furniture corporation through his fiancée's father and Louis Katz played by the talented Zachary Laoutides, always transforming on screen even when he doesn't need to be. Both men fall for a Black Latina prostitute and their friendship goes south. The untalented Jules tries to use his father's last name to be a Jazz superstar, but uses the valid talent of Louis to write his songs and further his career, even though Louis is troubled by his past and on medications. Critically in genuineness Laoutides is doing this in the film with his co-stars. Louis Katz is the only character with depth.

In an noteworthy twist Jules uses Louis to fight in backyard street fights, comically the film is narrated by a black hoodlum Quazy who knows the men too well, all being hustlers. Like I said before Laoutides saves the day with his performance and is really the only character I care about in the film, watching an actors-actor is all gratifying with good music in the background.