Michael Wilmington
By Michael Wilmington
Bellflower/2011/Coatwolf Productions/106 min.
“Bellflower” – a Sundance sensation reportedly shot for only $17,000 by first-time writer/director/co-star/co-editor Evan Glodell – introduces us to a couple of Valley dudes, Woodrow (Glodell) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson) who are obsessed with “Mad Max,” the coming apocalypse, muscle cars, WMDs and two women, Milly and Courtney (Jessie Wiseman and Rebekah Brandes). They all meet up at a barroom cricket-eating contest, where Milly wins. They dally awhile. Then “Bellflower” pulls us down into ink-black, psycho-macho, neo-noir pathology.
At first it looks as if it’s going to be a drama about twentysomethings on the fringe, with a lot of bar scenes, four-letter talk and onscreen sex. Then it descends into the same road warrior-ish violent fantasies as those self-absorbed, fantasizing dudes.
I didn’t like it all that much, or as much as a lot of other critics. I thought it was entertaining but a little light on real depth or truth or imagination. But I’ve got to admit, “Bellflower” is an incredible achievement for a Z-budget indie.
Glodell and his cinematographer, Joel Hodge, get a really strong visual style; they shoot their Valley scenes with a custom-built digital camera that makes everything look smeary and hot and dirty. The actors simultaneously play their scenes sort of Cassavetes-real and B-Movie-overblown, and there’s a scary, edgy feel to it all, that makes you genuinely uneasy and uncomfortable.
In the first part of “Bellflower” (the name of a street where the guys live), the main story is a love triangle/quadrangle and a hookup. Woodrow loves Milly, who cheats on him with Mike (co-editor Vincent Grashaw), and so the distraught Woodrow takes up with Courtney, who’s the crush of Aiden.
Aiden, meanwhile, seems to love Woodrow as much as his exotic weaponry (including a flamethrower) and his muscle car. He devotes himself to building and fine-tuning the car (with “Medusa” painted on the side) for his best bud.
The unease we feel is not always pleasurable movie anxiety. The last act of “Bellflower” is so violent, bloody and misogynistic that a number of the film’s partisans (the majority of the reviewers) and especially the ones hailing the film as a work of genius have felt compelled to explain or excuse the gory, nutty-seeming climax by saying that it’s all a fantasy and not really happening. Maybe.
Still, I’m always glad when somebody makes an American indie breakthrough – or a foreign indie breakthrough for that matter. More power to Glodell and his collaborators. I’d be astonished if this movie doesn’t get him bigger chances and higher budgets. He deserves them.
“Bellflower” opens in limited release this weekend.
From FNB readers