Review of Daydream Nation (2011) by Andrew P — 25 Jul 2011

Writer/director Michael Goldbach's first feature is much like a beavy of ideas in search of a cohesive thread. It's not that it's a bad movie; in fact, it boast two very honest performances from Kat Dennings and Reece Thompson (and another by Katie Boland in a much smaller role).

It just doesn't show us anything new. We get the main charcter voice over, the title cards that begin out of sequence scenes, kids in a small town doing all sorts of drugs. In other words, it hits all the quirky indie coming of age cliches like a freight train.

I got the feeling that Goldbach had watched Garden State a lot and though, I could do this movie-making thing. Maybe next time he could focus more on telling a story with insight rather than distracting us with camera angles and a mopey soundtrack.