Small Town Saturday Night (2010)

The Worst Film Ever

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This film tells the story of the residents in a small town, and what they are up to on a certain Saturday afternoon. The day is eventful, and people are all geared up for a big Saturday night.The story revolves mainly about the sheriff, a criminal, an insecure young man and a aspiring country singer. Their life story is told engagingly, and I feel very much for the poor young man who has an overbearing mother. I applaud his courage to do what he does at the end of the film. It is quite surprising to me that a small independent film can have both Chris Pine and Octavia Spencer in it, I don't quite know how the producers get such great talent to star in an independent film like this. Overall, the film is a little plain to me, but I say plain not in a bad way, as the film seems a reasonable portrayal about life in a sleepy small town.

Rhett Ryan (Chris Pine) is a car mechanic with Nashville dreams. He is about to move there with his girlfriend (Bre Blair). Only she has second thoughts. She is still tie to police officer Carson (Shawn Christian), the father to her daughter. Meanwhile there are all kinds of characters in this small town of Prospect.This is a slow moving indie for the first half. There are a few too many characters in their mundane lives. It's a boring slog through a lot of nothing scenes. The direction isn't the most exciting. It does improve with the bank robbery.Director/writer Ryan Craig needs to move the plot along quicker. And for a movie about a country singing mechanic, he waited until the end to let Chris Pine sing. He's actually not that bad (unless he was dubbed). I don't understand why he doesn't sing early in the movie. Anything would improve the first half.

Let me say up front that I think it's incredibly difficult and rare for a first time film director to have the discipline to effectively direct his own script. Granted Ryan Craig's written and directed a couple of TV movies, but things change a lot when you're doing a real grownup film. The chance to see your every word and decision on the big screen makes it agonizing to cut a single scene... hey! You wrote that! That said, there are some excellent performances from a cast loaded with accomplished actors, not least Shawn Christian who's best known for his soap opera career and Chris Pine who gets to indulge his hunky looks while playing some seriously downer scenes. I don't think John Hawke (Winter's Bone and The Sessions) is capable of a bad performance and this one gives him plenty of room.I gave it a 5 because of the writer-director's failure to make the fullest use of this wealth of talent, but since the film is playing on HBO and it's not a halfbad way to spend an evening.

Very enjoyable film. The self-sense of foregone conclusion as to how the character's lives will unfold hangs on them like the sweaty body odor you can almost smell. These people are trapped in their littleness and can't seem to find their way out. They cling to each other like shipwreck victims clawing each other to stay afloat. ON THE OTHER HAND, the sense of community, forgiveness and acceptance of each other warms my heart living as I do in plastic image land, aka, southern California. The movie is not a downer and has a lot of upbeats, even a laugh or two. All the acting was well done; the characters all had balance, which is probably also a solid credit to the directing and editing. You won't say "wow" but you will say "that was time well spent" after watching it OR at least say "my life sucks way less than theirs".