Nate and Margaret

I watched Nate & Margaret because Tyler Ross was in it. I knew about Tyler from watching two excellent movies by Stephen Cone, The Wise Kids and Henry Gamble's Birthday Party. Tyler has a small role in Henry Gamble, a leading role in The Wise Kids. After watching Nate & Margaret, my opinion that Tyler Ross is a wonderful actor has not changed. But as for the movie itself, well, director Nathan Adloff should have a long talk with Stephen Cone about how to make a movie worth watching. Both of Cone's films have interesting, well-developed characters, interwoven stories, and excellent timing. Unfortunately, the excellent acting by the three leads, Natalie West (Margaret), Tyler Ross (Nate), and Conor McCahill (James) could not make up for the poor script and directing.

Sweet, good hearted little indie about the unlikely close friendship between at 19 year old gay wanna-be film-maker and his neighbor, a 52 year old wanna be stand up comedian.

While there are rough spots – the low budget shows through, not all the acting is everything it might be, some plot twists are either obvious or a bit of a stretch – this film deserves lots of credit for dealing with something as delicate and complex as friendship.

There are obvious parallels to the great "Harold and Maude" (especially when a folky singer who sounds a bit like Cat Stevens starts singing under the opening scene), but really the two films are very different. "Harold and Maude" was both far more farcical and more tragic, and dealt with romance. This film is quieter and smaller, dealing with the subtle humor and sadness of day to day life. A simple, lovely effort.

Well, folks, I gotta say ... I was taught the theatrical definition of "comedy" a long time ago, and, basically, it's "all's well that ends well." The rest is tragedy.

So I believe that this is a comedy, both in the strictest sense of the word, and, I think, too, in the enjoyment of the film. I agree with so many others here, this is a movie that stays with you. I've seen a lot of good movies this year, not all made this year but popping up on Netflix for my viewing pleasure: Extract, Butter, Price Check -- all for some reason revolving around food, Satisfaction Not Guaranteed ... the list goes on and on. No, this one is not a thigh-slapper, but then neither is the comedy of the main female character ... perhaps the one stretch is to think that her shtick could make it. Yet I think it is so endearing, and Natalie West underplays her roles so well, that is not beyond reality at all. I can't say this is a great movie yet ... time will tell how it sits. But it certainly is sweet.

I'm not sure what the good folks at Netflix were thinking when categorizing this film, but it's certainly not a comedy. Nate & Margaret is a character study of the eponymous duo, and it is not funny.

Positive: The film shines in its realistic depictions of mundane social interactions. The dialogue seems unsatisfying at first, but it's actually spot-on in depicting casual exchanges (both short and overly drawn-out) as opposed to the tighter, snappier dialogue audiences are more accustomed to. Alos, Nate & Margaret's cinematography is not overly artistic, but rather impressively unintrusive. It displays restraint uncommon in a first-time director.

Negative: This movie is as funny as a $40,000 chemotherapy bill. You can tell the moments where you were supposed to laugh, but these moments feel empty and sad. It's like you're a fly on the wall of the theater during the first screening, and you can see the director's family members forcing a laugh. It leaves you wanting to pull the director aside and give him examples of real comedy (Mel Brooks, Harold Reimis, even Judd Apatow if that's how you choose to live your life).

The film is rife with musical interludes that don't serve any purpose other than maybe draw out the runtime. There are at least three continuous musical tracks at the opening, three different tracks that all sound like DVD menu screen music.

The plot or narrative arc is unclear. The audience misses out on the parts of the characters' development that would be most interesting, then it sort of ends. In between there are a lot of scenes that frankly we can't say belong or don't belong because we can't tell what the director was trying to say. Friends are good? Relationships are... a mixed bag? No clue.

Readers: save yourself an hour and eighteen minutes. Director: Keep working, man, you're going places some day. Try something more traditional before you break the rules.

Although this movie is the first from Adloff and Palmer, it's quite well done. But to tell the truth the actor Tyler Ross is the reason I watched this movie. As a matter of fact he looks a lot like the ex porn star now doing regular movies Sean Paul Lockhart (Brent Corrigan)specially in " Judas kiss" which is too a low budget, 1st movie. Fact is women's note for this movie is 8.5 whereas males give it a 4.5 . Likely reason : the real cute Tyler. His character is the perfect boyfriend, kind, clever, stable guy. Margaret is to my taste too shallow. Adding 20 minutes to the movies to give more details about the life of this women could have created more empathy. I give this movie a good 5 which is a good mark. Some informations are missing in the storyline towards the end. I really think 20 minutes more would have solved theses little problems.