Tell me a story

**This review ended up turning more into a discussion than a review. I don’t give anything significant away, but it’s more than I would want to know about it if I hadn’t seen it. So, read at your own discretion.**

Bellflower opens with a man (Woodrow) hugging a blonde woman (Milly). She’s crying, his face is bruised, and his eyes are cold. Her cries are distorted because the scene is being played in reverse. Then we get series of quick scene snippets, all in reverse: a man’s hand runs across a woman’s stomach followed by a shot of the woman’s face (Courtney); a man (Aiden) raises a baseball bat; Woodrow walks down the middle of a street, his t-shirt covered in blood; a car skids; Courtney drives backwards; Milly and Courtney stare each other down, breathing heavily, Milly puts her knife down; fire ravages the lawn in front of a house, Milly watches, and a man (Mike) runs from her to the house; Woodrow walks down the street with a flame thrower; a box labeled “Milly’s Shit” sits on a sofa; Woodrow, bloody and bruised, sits against a wall in a house presumably staring at the box; an epigraph: “Lord Humungous  cannot be defied” –Lord Humungous.

Then an actual scene: Woodrow (played by Evan Goldberg) and Aiden (played by Tyler Dawson) are in a field next to a run down building covered in graffiti. They discuss the previous night while stringing up a tank of gas. Woodrow states that girls just don’t like him anymore. Aiden confides in Woodrow that earlier when he [Woodrow] was standing with “that big gun” he looked like Lord Humungous. They shoot the tank of gas. Boom.

Lord Humungous from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Lord Humungous is a character from the Australian-based Mad Max film series. I haven’t seen any of the movies, but I know they take place in the future after Earth’s energy sources have been nearly depleted, thus making fuel a valuable commodity worth stealing. Lord Humungous is the leader of a gang of thieves. He’s a hulking terror that wears a hockey mask over his face. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) Woodrow and Aiden have been obsessed with Mad Max since they were kids. They moved from Wisconsin to the Bellflower suburb of Los Angeles to work on a couple of pet projects inspired by the movies: a flame thrower and a muscle car that shoots fire from its exhaust. Together they fantasize about a post-apocalyptic world where these tools would give them ultimate power. It’s all harmless fun, but then Woodrow goes and falls in love.

The girl is Milly (played by Jessie Wiseman). They meet in a bar during cricket-eating contest. For their first date Milly asks him to take her to the “cheapest, nastiest, scariest place” that he knows. They drive to bar in Texas. On the way back she tells him that he shouldn’t want her to be his girlfriend because “things will go bad.  […] That’s what always happens.” I don’t think it spoils anything to say that things do indeed go bad. The opening flash forward reveals as much. “Lord Humungous cannot be defied.”

But is Woodrow really a Lord Humungous? The movie explores this question by presenting two possible endings: one which displays the sequence of events that could happen if Woodrow embraces his inner darkness, and the other shows the possible life he could have if he chooses not to give into his demons. The ironic part is that if he chooses anger and revenge he becomes the closest thing to a real life Humungous, but if he chooses peace and forgiveness he can have a happy life where he only pretends to be Humungous. The choice hinges on that box of Milly’s shit and what he decides to do with it. Viewers will have their own ideas about which direction he goes in, but the film is not interested in giving us a definite answer. It wants to show us that one choice can change the entire course of a person’s life. We can’t ever foresee the outcomes of our decisions, so we’d best decide wisely because some decisions will lead down dark dangerous paths.

It’s an interesting discussion on choices and repercussions, yet I don’t think the movie as a whole best serves the discussion. The pacing is slow at the start, and a lot of it feels like it’s  just setting the table. We spend a lot of time being introduced to the characters, and then there’s a sort of balance for a few seconds right before something major happens,causing a quick spiral to the climax, leaving the second act pretty much lacking. In particular we spend too much time on the initial courtship between Woodrow and Milly and not enough time with them as an actual couple before all of a sudden things “go bad.”  Sure, their burgeoning romance is fun to watch, but there’s not enough substance in that to make us care.  And if the consequence of things going bad is Woodrow’s own personal apocalypse, then we need to see more of what he had invested in that relationship. Now Woodrow’s relationship with Aiden is one I can invest in.

Evan Glodell and Tyler Dawson have great chemistry with each other, and their friendship seems genuine. They come off as jerks at times—affable Aiden likes to provoke people in the name of fun, and soft-spoken Woodrow  is quick to fight—but their camaraderie makes them palatable. It’s enough to make you root for them. I really don’t think I’d root for Woodrow if  Aiden wasn’t in his life. As it is, I want to see more of them and would follow them their adventures if I could.

I can’t believe I haven’t even touched upon the visual style of this movie, which possibly its most remarkable aspect. Evan Goldberg, who directed, wrote, starred in and co-produced the film also engineered new camera equipment to give the film its own distinct look. A lot of shots look overexposed and burned out. He uses tilt shift cinematography at times which keeps the foreground in focus and blurs the background for a surreal look that makes the whole image look like small toys. It’s entrancing. Evan also helped build the flamethrower and the fire-spouting muscle car, aka Medusa, used in the film. For a first time filmmaker working with a budget of only $17,000 the feat  is quite remarkable.

Two small notes I have to mention: One, we never saw how these guys made their livings, even though they had enough money to buy and modify cars. As such they didn’t feel as fully-developed as they could have been. Two, Courtney’s character (played by Rebekah Brandes) was almost unnecessary. She did little to add to the conflict of the movie, hence my not mentioning her until now.

Despite its flaws, Bellflower has a lot going for it. It didn’t fully develop on its potential, but it’s still an entertaining and worthwhile movie. Thumbs up for the soundtrack too. I’m looking forward to Evan’s next endeavor. Gotta love them auteurs.

My Rating

BELLFLOWER
Writer/Director: Evan Glodell