Manson Family Vacation (2015)

One of my all time favorites.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

What starts out as a tour of the murder sites becomes a much deeper story of identity and belonging, surprisingly a good watch.

"Manson Family Vacation" is not all I ever wanted.... Had to start my review of this independent film with a Go-Go getter. Anyways, this film did have two well-tuned acts, but the last act was pretty much an unbelievable horror to watch. J. Davis wrote and directed the flick and was produced by Indie stalwart producers the Duplass Brothers. Jay Duplass actually stars here as L.A. family man and lawyer Nick. Life is good for Nick, until his wild brother Conrad comes for an L.A. visit. Conrad is obsessed with Charles Manson, and persuades Nick to take him around town to all the Manson murder sites. I did enjoy the love/hate relationship between Nick and Conrad that were displayed in the first two acts of the film. But then Davis decides to give in too much into the family of over-the-top filmmaking with an unauthentic third act that almost bored me to death; yea I know, wrong choice of words. I must give kudos to actor Linas Philips for his fine turn as Conrad. Too bad Jay Duplass did not duplicate the admirable acting of Phillips with his performance as Nick. "Manson Family Vacation" is not total helter skelter but I would not recommend this vacation. *** Average

Nick and Conrad (Jay Duplass and Linas Phillips) grew up under the same roof; Conrad was the child their parents adopted because they couldn't conceive, but then along came Nick after a successful pregnancy. This tension has lived with them throughout their entire lives, as the attention that was absorbed by Conrad, who, no matter which way you want to slice it, was still somewhat of an outsider in his own home, became second to Nick once their parents conceived their very own child.In the present day, Nick has become a prominent family-man with his wife Amanda (Leonora Pitts) and son in their beautiful home, and the thought of his brother Conrad only sporadically crosses his mind. One day, however, Conrad surprises them by showing up at their doorstep with a Charles Manson shirt on and a desire to continually discover more about the famous murderer. Conrad's fascination with Manson stems from Manson's emphasis on family, despite being an outsider. Manson helped gather a group of people together that were rejected from society and made each of them feel loved and welcome, all while encouraging ideas of love and forgiveness, but also incorruptible unity and togetherness at all times.Being that Conrad has chosen to reject all conventional American sentiments and live life by way of cross-country hitchhiking, his unannounced arrival at Nick's house is an effort to initiate some brotherly bonding before Conrad goes off to work at a job in Death Valley. This kind of bonding involves both men sneaking around and breaking into the famous home where the Tate/LaBianca murders occurred decades ago, in addition to attending a party where all the guests are Charles Manson loyalists.J. Davis's Manson Family Vacation, another line in decidedly small-scales movies put out by Duplass Brothers Production, run by both Jay and Mark, takes the oldest trick in comedic filmmaking (two vastly different personalities) and uses it as the thesis for a film that deals with an outsider's obsession with a murderer. Conrad is so fascinated and gripped by Manson's politics and life story that he almost entirely forgets - and even makes an effort to conceal, in the manner of a conspiracy theorist - the fact that Manson, regardless of anything he said or believed, was a murderer. This fact greatly disturbs Nick, who is so far out of his element when it comes time to sneak into the Tate/LaBianca home that he might as well be thrust onto a different planet.This is a film that's almost unclassifiable in terms of its genre. It blends deadpan, mumblecore-style comedy with slowburn tension and horror in a way that has the two meshing together so nicely that when you're supposed to laugh or fear isn't readily dictated by the events of the film. Manson Family Vacation is also not brazenly funny enough to be a black comedy, nor consistently unsettling to be a horror film. Writer/director Davis, who has worked with the Duplass brothers before, exquisitely conducts this film like as an act of genre revisionism that's rarely seen, especially in such a smooth and seamless manner.Largely predicated on the relationship between the two men in the film and the two aforementioned moments of their brotherly bonding that take a turn for the worse, Manson Family Vacation is more-or-less a filmed idea than a conventional film, given how few events take place and how little the characters seem to develop. Nonetheless, there's a lovely quietness to this film and a true desire to profile the characters as they are, and the way Davis does that, while crafting a story that burns as slowly as an unpuffed cigarette, despite a very concise eighty-four minute runtime, is something that's difficult to ignore.Starring: Jay Duplass, Linas Phillips, and Leonora Pitts. Directed by: J. Davis.

I felt compelled to inform interested watchers that the 5.8 IMDb score for this movie is way wrong. This is my first review and after watching this heartfelt movie, I decided that writer and director J. Davis does not deserve this movie to be poorly rated.My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the story, characters and acting. The dialogue felt real and kept us interested throughout. Linas Phillips was a joy to watch and Jay Duplass adds his touch of realism to it as he did in Transparent.Do yourself the favor of watching this film. I am sure I am not alone in how I rate this movie.