Review of Bellflower (2011) by Hoss R — 19 Jan 2012

Well this is a strange movie, though perhaps not strange enough for some. It's all about a romance gone wrong, despite how much it claims to be about flamethrowers. It's sort of interesting/endearing that these two men have apparently no jobs or any real responsibility but still manage to outfit old muscle cars with pyrotechnics and go out for drinks with women, all while chasing a fantasy of being marauders in a post-apocalyptic Mad-Max-style future.

The acting is serviceable for amateurs and the human interaction at the start of the film has a ring of unrehearsed realism. As things get going, though, it becomes increasingly unclear what is happening and sometimes when.

There's no rhythm or pattern to the film's jumping back and forth in time, and the clues that everything is not as it seems don't show up until late in the game. It's hard to hate it for being different from anything else this year, but it certainly doesn't resonate with the average person the way its filmmakers seem to think it will.

Yes, I've been through a tough breakup before; no, it didn't involve the kind of violence in this movie's third act. Not even in my imagination.