User reviews

For the first half hour, I really thought this film was going to knock me out. It's combination of disturbing experimental elements; strange, loud Glenn Branca like rock music that banged in and out, long shots that were just studies of faces or rooftops, etc. It seemed like it would be a portrait of working class life that was more poetic and surreal than literal.

But gradually the film gets more 'normal', and a regular story comes into play; the familial relationships and romances of three working class buddies. There are some striking moments of honesty and surprise, but some serious problems, first among them being that these unknown actors aren't quite up to the delicate complex task of taking these people and making us believe them as real. Under-acting alone isn't enough to ground a character film. That under-acting still has to be filled with interior life. But here, too often, the performances just feel a little amateurish and monotone. There's also a running fantasy element that's a bit sophomoric.

That said, there's enough strength and originality in the visual style, and a number of unexpected story points that overall I still found this worthwhile, and will be very interested to see what Mr. Bradshaw does in future. It's just too bad this is just a good, somewhat awkward film, rather than the transcendent film the opening minutes promise.

This is a low-budget, dialogue-driven movie. That being said, it's a 100-times better than the movie 'Noah'. This film is about the trying and reflective times of a blue-collar carpenter and his family and friends in urban Oakland. The focus is on the boring tedium of the lead character's manual labor job, his wife, and her loss of income and relative importance, and their two children and how they/he has not achieved the things he wanted out of life. There are some quite unusual experiences that happen along the way. Drugs, lots of alcohol consumption and even a gay 'experience'. All-in-all, this movie represents what seems like a 1st-time film makers foray into making a movie. Non-recognizable performers with no frills type acting. I wish more movies were like this, and I wish there were fewer films were like the big-noise-big-special-effects Hollywood blowout. This movie is easy to watch and overall, an enjoyable film. I got a lot more out of this movie than the basic 'epic' genre film.