Slash (2016)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I saw this movie, with friends, at the 2016 Cucalourus Film Festival. The movie's name was interesting enough to make me want to see it, as well as the premise of fan fiction (PS I didn't know what Slash fiction was before seeing this movie). So, I entered the screening not even knowing what to expect (which sometimes works, and sometimes not so much) and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the film was funny and sweet. I also thought the two leads had chemistry. I recommend this movie

Someone else posted something about "fake reviews" so I felt the need to write one.I just saw this movie last night, and it is fantastic.It's not fast paced, there's no hero or villain, it's a nerdy romance, teen angst, wallflower story all wrapped up into one little package.There's no happy ending, there's no great triumph, there's only life and the things that happen in it. There's confusion, mistakes, and great adventures in between.I feel like these pieces of cinema rarely get a fair chance, because they're either too real for a mainstream audience or people can't relate.Freaks and Geeks / Undeclared were both victims of this, as they portray real life emotions in a light that isn't too easy to take lightly.Slash is very akin to these "reject triumph" stories, minus the quirky sitcom jokes.Don't watch this expecting some great story arch, some great soundtrack, or anything of that nature.It's real, and it speaks to the outcasts. It speaks to those who realize that the world is not a happy place, and there are mistakes that you cannot take back. Having said that; there's also truth and the self manifestation of happiness.This is a story about acceptance, where we get a small glimpse into these people's lives and that's it. A glimpse. Life keeps going for the characters, just as it does for all of us, just the same as it always does.5-10 years from now; I'd love to see a sequel depicting where our broken heroes ended up in this word

"I don't want to wake up in a year and stab my parents to death with a kitchen knife." "Well that makes one of us." (dialog, Michael Johnston talking to Hannah Marks at the 1:01 timestamp.) Despite the relatively low IMDb score, Slash 2016 is a joy.If you read the third-party reviews, you will note a tug of war between critics who think it is some form of uber-social commentary, and those who look at it as a sweet and engaging love story or rom-com.The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, but this reviewer was more engaged by the teen rom-com.For two reasons.One, because the "classic" age of the teen rom-com seems to have passed -- remember Freddie Prinze? -- and this genre is neither as popular as it once was, nor as well done. Two, because that aspect of the film does not merely work, it actually spreads its wings and soars.Credit writer/director Clay Liford for getting this recipe right. As I have noted in other reviews, a lot of what used to considered movie fare is now being done on TV, and a lot of the more personal creative work we used to see on some TV shows is migrating to film.The dialog at the top of this review is typical of the film -- sharp, funny, and oddly reminiscent of the old Woody Allen rom-coms (with Johnston doing the neurotic Woody character, and Marks doing a wonderful collage of Diane Keaton liberally mixed with early Angelina Jolie.) Marks is the revelation in the film. For these rom-coms to work (and this one does) she has to go beyond merely playing a character, she has to be (for the male viewer) every idiosyncratic girl in high-school that you wanted to get to know better -- but didn't.Marks engages, holds the attention, and carries the film. An actress to watch down the road.Recommended.

I saw Slash at BAM Cinemafest 2016 last night. It was certainly a crowd-pleaser. The story starts as "innocent, studious, repressed 15-year-old boy meets wild, unruly, sassy girl" and goes from there. It could take many directions, but it chooses a realistic, rather unsure and zigzaggy route, which reflects perfectly the confusion and indecision of the coming-of-age state. I expected the highlights to be the bad fan fic being read out loud awkwardly and the imagined sexual encounters of the burly sci-fi hero, Vanguard, but though these were all extremely hilarious and entertaining, I was surprised to find the emotional scenes about belonging, friendship, love, betrayal also vibrant and smart. The leads are great. Jessie Ennis rocks!