Fifty Pills (2006)

Absolutely Brilliant!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

After partying, groggy New York University freshman Lou Taylor Pucci (as Darren Giles) wakes up. He has lost his scholarship and is unable to pay for the next semester. But Mr. Pucci wants to stay in school, finish his paper on Dante's "Inferno" and lock tongues with pretty blonde Kristen Bell (as Gracie). Via answering machine, his perfectly eyebrow-plucked roommate John Hensley (as Coleman Anderson) offers Pucci an opportunity. Pucci must sell 50 hits of the drug "Ecstasy" for Mr. Hensley, at $20 a pop… We flashback four months ago, to see what happened to prompt this deal; Hensley had a party and, although Pucci didn't attend, he was blamed due to having a bottle of vodka in his refrigerator. Next, we see how Pucci endeavors to sell the pills..."Fifty Pills" is the kind of movie which fails as a whole, but has parts which are interesting. Director Theo Avgerinos and his team show they are capable of telling a good cinematic story – though this isn't exactly it. This may also be why "Catcher in the Rye" is not represented well on film. The drug peddling plot doesn't make much sense; of course, it's meant to be comic, but it isn't funny. Neither are the tame representations of deviant sex or the dumb gay references. The first segment that amuses is the scene with "Different Strokes" fan Eddie Kaye Thomas (as Ralphie), due to the absurdity of the film's themes reaching momentary cohesion. The crew's work on the "Cross the River" interlude is nice; musicians David Manning and La Rocca contribute well.**** Fifty Pills (4/26/06) Theo Avgerinos ~ Lou Taylor Pucci, John Hensley, Kristen Bell, Eddie Kaye Thomas

Because I had some free time yesterday, I perused my cable provider's Video On Demand movie listings. While there wasn't anything spectacular, I decided upon a 1 hour and 20 minute film called "Fifty pills." The movie featured Lou Taylor Pucci, John Hensley (Nip/Tuck), and Kristen Bell (Heroes, Forgetting Sarah Marshall). I thought to myself as I was choosing the film, "Hmm, an indie film on Showtime, has great potential." Unfortunately it didn't… First, a quick rundown of the plot. A college student (Lou Taylor Pucci) loses his scholarship after his roommate (John Hensley) throws a party that gets busted. To make it up to him, the roommate offers the student an option to sell 50 ecstasy pills at 20 dollars a pop to stay in school. What follows is a somewhat odd series of supposedly "life changing" events. In his travels the student meets a dominatrix, an insane day trader, and a competing drug dealer (among others).Content/Performances: Poor Follow through/Forced While the concept has great potential, there was a complete lack of follow through in the story. It seems as though the screenwriter was trying too hard to make jokes rather than allowing them to flow organically from the situation. For example, the student visits a dominatrix. Instead of allowing the viewer to merely enjoy the awkwardness of an innocent college student entering the lair of a dominatrix, the writer went too far. Entering the home, the student was greeted by a grandmother. Thinking he had entered the wrong house, he turned around to leave, however the grandmother stopped him with the statement, "You're the one selling the ecstasy pills, right? My daughter is downstairs." The grandmother acted completely normal in the situation. It might seem funny, but it translated poorly. I didn't laugh, rather I just waited for the plot to continue. To make things worse, once the boy got down there he was greeted by the screaming dominatrix. Who through a combination of poorly written lines and mediocre acting completely took me out of the film. I was so uncomfortable at the poor composition of this scene and the forced attempt at humor that I almost had to fast-forward through the part. This was not the only scene that went poorly, the rest of the drug dealing situations were much the same way: crazy person, awkward interaction, boy leaves.The mediocrity was not restricted to these situations, however. The motivations of the female love interest (Kristen Bell) were not well developed. I'm not sure whether it was poor acting or writing (likely the former), but I couldn't find a justification for her to act the way she acted. In the film, she is supposed to be "worried" that the protagonist is turning into his roommate by selling drugs. However, the way it plays out is that she doesn't seem too concerned about it, because frankly she is not too invested in the character. They're merely good friends. One things she asks of him in the film is that he show up to her charity Christmas tree selling event. Due to a rival drug dealer the boy cannot make it because he gets kidnapped. When he finally escapes and finds her again, the resulting fallout made it seem like had cheated on her. He literally begged for forgiveness. Strangely enough, he hadn't mentioned that HE WAS KIDNAPPED. I couldn't help but laugh, partially because of how ridiculous he was acting and partially because I wasn't connected to either character in either way. Frankly, I just saw him as an absurd boy, which in this film is not a unique quality for a character.In this film you'll see that characters are one dimensional which tends to make them very uninteresting. "Coleman" the student's roommate (played by John Hensley) is the quintessential "player." He cheats on his girlfriend, throws parties, yet goes through NO journey in the film. Even though he faces ramifications for his actions, he doesn't learn. He just continues to act of his own accord. This makes it incredibly hard to believe that in some magical moment in the last 5 minutes he shows remorse and offers to pay his roommate's tuition. Once again, what an absurd boy.Film Design: Nothing Special One could easily argue that without good writing a film is doomed. I would tend to agree, however sometimes the overwhelming beauty of a film can remove some viewers from a poorly constructed plot. This was unfortunately not the case in this film. Unlike Harry Potter which had outstanding visuals to accompany a good plot, lighting was fairly high key. There was no shot complexity, no mood lighting, no inventive editing. Just a banal shot progression. It's what one would expect out of a film and it's what you get.Overall, this film was mediocre at best. The concept was good, but poor acting and forced comedy essentially killed it. The one thing I will mention that was outstanding was the music. The music was primarily performed by a group called La Rocca; I highly recommend them. Favorite songs: Cambodia- La Rocca, Now the Sun is out- Greg Johnson.twitter.com/elyswim hopefullymakingfilms.wordpress.com

Interesting that this movie has received some bad reviews. I think it's being treated too harshly as it's overall a nice tale, with decent acting, cinematography, and a well interwoven soundtrack.In general, the plot was amusing enough and any ills it may have contained were overcome by a great soundtrack. While, Lou Taylor Pucci can be almost a little too cute sometimes and his character's naivety is a little overplayed, the overall the story moves along, is captivating enough, and the characters both entertaining and compelling enough that you want to see the movie resolve in its predictable but happy ending. It's a nice movie and left me with happy feelings.

I saw the premier of Fifty Pills at the Tribeca Film Festival Yesterday. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the movie, but since I know the directer I figured I'd enjoy it. And I was right. The characters were great and the plot was entertaining.**Possible Spoilers** The whole plot revolves around Darren, who lost his scholarship and financial aid. This leads him to a desperate attempt of money making. His roommate, Coleman has given Darren the opportunity to play drug dealer for a day. Fifty Pills of Ectasy, to be sold in one day at 20 bucks a pop. Darren, led by a beeper, travels New York, dispensing 'happiness' to those in need. This action leads to his being hunted by the "Soul Man", another drug dealer who Darren has stepped on in a way. Darren also faces a dominatrix, an avid fan of Different Strokes, and even a cousin. In the end he manages to sell a lot of E, not get shot, killed, beat up, arrested, or subjected to any more watching of Different Strokes. He also gets to keep the girl, who disapproved of his drug dealing ways.**End of Possible Spoilers**All in all I thought that this was a great movie, and worth seeing if you like Lou Taylor Pucci, Kristen Bell, John Hensley or the work of the director, Theo Avgerinos.