marcintn

I've always had a soft spot for random indie films I stumbled across. I actually found this view the "friend of a friend" method where you watch a film on Amazon and it suggests similar films. I've found quite a few small films this way.

Basically this follows Steve Boyle, the youngest son in a family that owns a popular restaurant founded by their late father. As the youngest, he dreams of one day running the business, but he also has all the foibiles of being the least respected and responsible. He drinks, has a relationship with a waitress, and hangs out with the titular Carlos, a Mexican who speaks no English and helps him in the kitchen.

It's funny in that low key way. Steve is a guy you root for but also realize is his own worst enemy. He dreams of bigger things but is also aimless at the same time. In a lot of ways he's a relatable character who at times you know will make the worst decisions possible.

Enter Victor, the guy who is a little too good for you to like. He travels the world saving kittens and children from mudslides and the Boyles, and Steve's ex girlfriend, absolutely love him, much to Steve's chagrin.

This new rival serves to both focus, and cause Steve to really start making bad decisions.

I know I'm not really projecting how funny this movie actually is, but I find it to be very enjoyable even after several viewings.

This film is like a nice, warm, blanket. While you know it'll never win an Oscar, you can sit back, put it on, and know exactly what you're going to get. A movie that is entertaining, funny, and won't twist your brain like Momento or Primer. Sometimes it's comforting to have a simple story with interesting characters. It also doesn't hurt when Harry Dean Stanton pops up a few times.

So if you want some cinematic comfort food, give this film a try.

This is one of those movies that I was lucky enough to see on IFC at around 3 a.m. One night over twenty years ago. I knew nothing about it, but I saw Denis Leary and Hope Davis were in it and Campbell Scott was directing and that was enough to hook me.

I love films that tell excellent stories in limited spaces with minimal cast. If they can pull it off you have a movie that blows you away. More often than not they fail miserably, but Final succeeds. I mean almost 25 years later and I've just watched it for probably the 50th time and it keeps me coming back.

The writing and performances have you emotionally invested from the start. You want to solve the mystery of the film from the beginning. This is a very hard movie to review without spoilers.

Basically Denis Leary plays Bill, who wakes up in a hospital with a fractured memory and seems to slip ina and out of delusions, including the belief that he's in the future.

Hope Davis plays Anne, the doctor who is trying to ground him in reality and make him accept that two weeks, not 400 years as he he thinks, has passed.

Can we trust the flashes of his memory that we are shown? He is often seen falling into reality that only he he can experience. Is Bill a victim of an accident that has left him struggling to regain reality? Are they really trying to murder him? But is he really crazy? Can he trust Anne?

Can WE trust Anne?

You spend half the movie as a detective and the other half getting gut punched by emotions...and that's the way to experience this film... putting yourself fully into the headspace of everyone involved. This is on my short list of movies that I can watch over and over again, because I think it's masterfully done and the themes and emotions explored are relevant to us all. I imagine an health care worker seeing this will especially have their dials turned by relatable scenarios or even ethical dilemmas they could relate to in even an abstract way.

Watch this movie. Let yourself be drawn in completely.

I know in today's short attention span world it's hard to commit to character and dialogue driven set pieces. I had the luxury of seeing this before cell phones wrecked us. When we weren't clicking on the next thing every 5 seconds. Maybe that's why I love this movie so much. Bill THINKS he's from another time and when I watch this it takes me back to a world that no longer exists.