Cool, But Random

Do you remember watching Mad Max and saying, “this looks awesome. Let’s build ourselves muscle cars and a flamethrower for the oncoming apocalypse”? Well, Woodrow and his buddy Aiden think so too in Oscillscope’s new indie flick “Bellflower,” directed, written, produced, and starring Evan Glodell.

Friends Woodrow and Aiden love “Mad Max” they went ahead and built a flamethrower from scratch and tricked out cars into muscle cars for the imminent apocalypse. They even planned on called their gang “Medusa.” That is until Woodrow meets Milly in a seedy bar during a cricket-eating contest. Instead of Milly becoming an honorary member of Medusa, she instead makes Woodrow’s life a living nightmare.

The best part of Bellflower is the acting. Glodell does an amazing job portraying your typical kid in an adult body who loves cult films.Tyler Wiseman as Aiden has excellent chemistry with Glodell. They make a great pair of two small town friends going to a big city in order to fulfill a dream that may not be possible. You can almost see you and your own best friend making a flamethrower from scratch and blowing up a propane tank just to see how big a boom it makes.

Jessie Wiseman is also stellar in her role as Milly. She pulls off the crazy girl your mom warned you about well. She doesn’t want to go to a nice restaurant on a first date; she wants to go someplace that’ll make her throw up afterwards. Her facial expression in the cricket eating scene was great.

The story’s other strong point is the interactions between characters. It’s always fun to see a group of friends drink a ton of alcohol (which this movie has tons of) and act like complete fools. Aiden is one of those fools who deserve a good beating and you can say “yes, I know a few people like that. Actually, he’s my best friend.” It’s the stuff you find yourself doing on a Saturday night with your best buds. It’s always fun watching your friend make a fool out of himself by eating crickets just to impress a girl and fail.

However, the solid acting nearly goes out the window. The movie’s biggest problem is that the director does not have a firm grasp of narrative structure. Scenes bounce back and forth randomly in a way that will confuse audiences. One good example is when Milly talks Woodrow into trading his car for a motorcycle. We see them ride away on the motorcycle and then there’s a brief scene of them in the car that they just sold and then they’re back on the motorcycle. Another scene is when Aiden shows off what he did with a new car to Woodrow- which clearly takes the day after a sex scene. After that, the movie shifts back to the previous night. Shouldn’t that take place before the car scene?

This technique may be creative and “artsy,” but it shell-shocks viewers and breaks the rules of narrative structure. You can still be creative while still following the basic rules of storytelling. A film the likes of “Ichi the Killer” is a brilliant example of being super creative, while still following basic storytelling rules. The scenes are in chronological order and they make sense. Bellflower’s scenes are not chronological and make little to no sense.

Ultimately, great acting and atmosphere is the only reason to see “Bellflower.” If you can get past the poor and confusing story structure it can be enjoyable. Just don’t expect anything memorable.