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Reviews
Nor'easter (2012)
Could have been much better
The atmospherics and acting in this movie were superb. But the plot and sequencing left a very incomplete film.
Father Erik's relationship with the Greens is a zig-zag of interactions and you really can't tell what each side wants or thinks of the other. While it is nice not to see the caricature of a gay priest, you do become curious about Father Erik. Is his participation with youth hockey with innocent intent? Is he disgusted with Mrs. Green's sexual advances because of his vows or his orientation or her age?
Other character's motivations are similarly bewildering. Why does Josh's sister want to take him with her late at night to what looks like a sexual rendezvous with her boyfriend? What does Josh want/expect from Father Erik when he breaks into his bedroom in the middle of the night? Josh's relationship with Paul is not explained in much detail but it's assumed to be sexual. If Josh left at age 11 was he coerced by Paul? He didn't seem to be. Was it a reaction to his parents or his own sexuality (hard to believe at age 11)? Flashbacks may have helped fill in the story to help us understand.
The tragic ending was hard to comprehend. Knowing that Josh's running away was voluntary why did Father Erik feel the need to intrude so clumsily? Why didn't he note the address and call the police later? How does Josh go from assisting Paul's assault to escaping with Erik? The town's reaction was unbelievably harsh. Did no one see attempting to rescue a 16 year-old from a pederast as a noble act?
This movie left me with more questions than answers, and not in a good way.
Sal (2011)
A boring, tedious attempt at film making
As a fan of Sal Mineo and James Franco I was looking forward to this film. With a short running time I began to worry as the 30 minute mark was approaching and I was not getting into it.
This movie has parts similar to "The Brown Bunny" that terrible movie consisting of filming a driver wandering aimlessly and then ending with a surprisingly graphic unrelated sex scene. Only "Sal" omitted the surprise since of course the movie tells you at the very beginning how he dies. If you like Terrence Malick movies (I don't) with a dose of "Investigative Reports" you may enjoy it. If you are a fan of Sal Mineo you won't. The kind-of epilogue regarding the arrest of the killer seemed like an afterthought.
Franco said his intent was to capture the mundane typical activities of someone on the last day of their life without them knowing it is their last day. That doesn't make for an interesting movie. I suppose if the character was fictional and the death at the end was a shocking out-of-nowhere surprise it could be entertaining, like a "Twilight Zone" episode. But Sal Mineo was a real person and we know already that he was murdered in a pointless random act.
The tediousness of the opening workout scene (as appealing as a shirtless Val Lauren is), the smoking scenes, and the severely close-up conversation scenes, just dragged on and on. Even the play rehearsal scene was tedious and didn't tell us anything. I wanted to know who were the important people in Sal's life? Who were his friends? Did he have a relationship?
Maybe he really was a has-been actor desperately trying to convince friends to fill the seats of his off-off-off-Broadway play. But I was hoping for more. The copy-paste of real Sal's "Rebel" Oscar-nominated performance upped the contrast of what this movie could have been.